Concepts System Activities

System Models

Sapan H.Mankad

July 22, 2010

Concepts System Activities

System Concepts

A system is defined as an aggregation or assemblage of objects

joined in some regular interaction or interdependence.
• Flight Simulators to train pilots
• Aircraft Systems
• Nuclear Power Plant
• Emulators
• Factory
Concepts System Activities

Simulation Modeling

• Paradigm that creates simplified representations of

complex systems
• Generates system histories and observes system behavior
and statistics over time
• Goals are understanding system performance and
improving system design
Computer simulations vary from computer programs that run a
few minutes, to network-based groups of computers running for
hours, to ongoing simulations that run for days.
Concepts System Activities

System Example I

Figure: An Aircraft under AutoPilot Control

Concepts System Activities

System Example II

Figure: A Factory System

Concepts System Activities

System and its simplification-model

Figure: Transforming a system to a model

Concepts System Activities

System Parameters

Entities also refered to as objects.

Properties also referred to as attributes.
Activity any process that causes changes in the system.
State denotes a description of all entities, attributes and
activities as they exist at one point of time.
The progress of the system is studied by following the changes
in the states of the system.
Concepts System Activities

Identifying System Parameters

Concepts System Activities

Identifying System Parameters

Can you find a few systems in your surroundings and identify

its parameters?
Concepts System Activities

System Environment

• A system is often affected by changes occuring outside the

system, called System Environment.
• It is very essential to decide upon the boundary between
the system and its environment.
Concepts System Activities

System Activities

Endogenous describes the activities occuring within the system.

Exogenous describes the activities in the environment that
affect the system.
Concepts System Activities

Deterministic Activities

• Where the outcome of an activity can be described

completely in terms of its input, the activity is said to be
Deterministic.
• A deterministic system is a system in which no randomness
is involved in the development of future states of the
system.
• A deterministic model will thus always produce the same
output from a given starting condition or initial state.
• Physical laws that are described by differential equations
represent deterministic systems.
Concepts System Activities

Stochastic Activities

• Where the effects of the activity vary randomly over various

possible outcomes, the activity is said to be Stochastic.
• The random output can often be measured and described
in the form of a Probability Distribution.
• If an activity is truly stochastic, there is no known
explanation for its randomness.
• Elevator System
• Seatbelt Controller
Concepts System Activities

Classification of Systems

• Systems such as aircrafts, in which the changes are

predominantly smooth, are called Continuous systems.
• Systems such as Factory Systems, in which changes are
predominantly discontinuous, are called Discrete Systems.
• Some systems are intrinsically continuous but information
about them is only available at discrete points in time.
They are called Sample Data Systems.
Very few systems are wholly continuous or discrete.
Concepts System Activities

System Modeling

The objective of many system studies is to predict how a

system will perform before it is built.
• One way is to experiment with the system itself.
• Another alternative is to construct a number of prototypes
and test them.
• An expensive & time consuming way
System studies are generally conducted with a model of the
system.
A model is not only a substitute for a system,but also its
simplification.