KNOWLEDGE-BASED APPROACHES TO MODELING AND SIMULATION SUPPORT

Numerous concepts have been developed to support modelling and simulation using methods of informatics. Even though the capacity of conventional methods is not yet exploited to the full extent in this application domain there are many problems which seem to be well suited only for the employment of knowledge-based methods. The new opportunities arising from the inclusion of knowledge-based methods in the support of modelling and simulation fall into two different categories. On one hand these methods make it possible to provide additional knowledge needed by the modeller. On the other hand the available knowledge of the modeller may be processed more adequately. Whereas the first approach can be realized by combining simulation systems and expert systems the latter makes it necessary to develop new forms of representation for the simulation models taking into account the aspects of knowledge representation from the field of Artificial Intelligence. Both approaches and their combination are suitable for improving the support of modelling and simulation as they address some serious problems in this field.