Hierarchical Control System: Fundamentals and Applications

By Fouad Sabry

What Is Hierarchical Control System

A hierarchical control system, often known as an HCS, is a type of control system that organizes the devices under its command and the software that governs them in the shape of a tree structure. When a computer network is used to implement the tree's links, the hierarchical control system in question is also a sort of networked control system.

How You Will Benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Hierarchical Control System

Chapter 2: Subsumption Architecture

Chapter 3: James S. Albus

Chapter 4: Cognitive Architecture

Chapter 5: Intelligent Agent

Chapter 6: Hybrid Intelligent System

Chapter 7: Procedural Reasoning System

Chapter 8: Real-time Control System Software

Chapter 9: 4D-RCS Reference Model Architecture

Chapter 10: Situated Approach (Artificial Intelligence)

(II) Answering the public top questions about hierarchical control system.

(III) Real world examples for the usage of hierarchical control system in many fields.

(IV) 17 appendices to explain, briefly, 266 emerging technologies in each industry to have 360-degree full understanding of hierarchical control system' technologies.

Who This Book Is For

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of hierarchical control system.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 24, 2023

Book preview

Chapter 1: Hierarchical control system

One kind of control system is the hierarchical control system (HCS), which organizes its components and controlling software in a tree structure. A hierarchical control system is a kind of networked control system where a computer network is used to implement the tree's linkages.

Human-made complex systems often follow a hierarchical structure. The organizational structure of superiors, subordinates, and channels of communication are all prominent aspects of a command hierarchy. The duty for making decisions in a hierarchical control system is divided in a similar fashion.

A node in the tree represents one of the hierarchical levels. While sensations and command outcomes go upwards from subordinate to superior nodes, commands, tasks, and objectives to be accomplished travel below. It is also possible for nodes to communicate with each other. The structure and organization of a hierarchical control system are defined by their respective levels.

The time it takes to plan and carry out operations increases with each successive tier in the tree.

The lower levels are responsible for localized tasks, objectives, and feelings; upper layers plan and coordinate their actions but do not often overturn their choices. The most basic reactive layers make up a sub-symbolic hybrid intelligent system. Since there are less temporal restrictions at the higher levels, they are able to reason using an abstract world model and engage in planning. Planning in a hierarchical control system benefits from a hierarchical task network.

It is claimed that animal control systems, like artificial ones, are hierarchically structured. According to perceptual control theory, which proposes that an organism's actions are used to influence how it is perceived, the organism's control systems are assumed to be structured hierarchically throughout the perception-building process.

The following figure illustrates a generic hierarchy showing how an industrial control system may be used to automate various stages of production.

With this diagram in mind; The flow and temperature sensors, as well as the control valves and other final aspects of control, are all found on level 0.

On Level 1, you'll find the commercial Input/Output (I/O) modules together with the dispersed electronic processors that control them.

The system's operator interface and data collection from the system's processing nodes are handled by the supervisory computers located on Level 2.

Level 3 production control is focused with monitoring production and monitoring objectives rather than actively controlling the operation.

The fourth stage of production scheduling.

The hierarchical paradigm emphasizes planning, particularly motion planning, and is one of the robotic paradigms. Since the 1980s, computer-aided production engineering has been a primary area of study at NIST. A five-tiered production control model was created with the help of the AMRF. Research on distributed (i.e. networked) intelligent control systems, with potential uses in areas like military command and control systems, was funded by DARPA in the early 1990s. To run a manufacturing cell, a robot crane, and an autonomous vehicle, NIST developed the Real-Time Control System (RCS) and Real-time Control System Software, both of which are general hierarchical control systems based on previous research.

DARPA hosted the Urban Challenge in November of 2007. Tartan Racing, the winning entry, Subsumption architecture is a popular approach to AI development in the realm of behavior-based robots. Through the use of layered organization and a series of basic behavior modules, this architecture is able to break down complex intelligent behavior. More complex concepts are implemented at higher levels, with each layer serving a different purpose for the software agent (or system). When deciding to proceed ahead, the eat-food layer considers the choice of the lowest obstacle-avoidance layer, and so on up the hierarchy. Instead