A DATA KNOWLEDGE PARADIGM FOR THE MODELING AND DESIGN OF OPERATIONS SUPPORT SYSTEMS/

This paper develops the Smart Object paradigm and its instantiation, w hich provide a new conceptualization for the modeling, design, and dev elopment of an important but little researched class of information sy stems, Operations Support Systems (OSS). OSS' is our term for systems which provide interactive support for the management of large, complex operations environments, such as manufacturing plants, military opera tions, and large power generation facilities. The most salient feature of OSS' is their dynamic nature. The number and kind of elements comp osing the system as well as the mode of control of those elements chan ge frequently in response to the environment. The abstraction of contr ol and the ease with which complex dynamic control behavior can be mod eled and simulated is one of the important aspects of the paradigm. Th e framework for the Smart Object paradigm is the fusion of object-orie nted design models with declarative knowledge representation and activ e inferencing from Al models. Additional defining concepts from data/k nowledge models, semantic data models, active databases, and frame bas ed systems, are added to the synthesis as justified by their contribut ion to the ability to naturally model OSS at a high level of abstracti on. The model assists in declaratively representing domain data/knowle dge and its structure, and task or process knowledge, in addition to m odeling multilevel control and interobject coordination.