An innovative tutorial on large complex systems (Q1604683)

The authors proposes a general approach to large complex systems understood as systems in which humans on their technical realizations are included as irreplaceable components. The proposed conceptualism for such systems consists of identification of intrinsic attributes, a human/machine epistemology, a taxonomy and control synthesis. The author identifies three attributes for large complex systems: a perception decision link, multiple gradation in every dimension and nesting which involves bottom-up aggregation of data and top-down decomposition of subtask commands. The developed taxonomy provides classification of large complex systems into different categories. From the control point of view classical design of continuous-time control systems is treated as a degenerate variant of the general methodology for large complex systems. The author discusses problems of macrostructural and description based modelling. A unified framework based analysis is also presented using three examples of large complex systems: an autonomous robotic system, an autonomous urban traffic system and an autonomous manufacturing system. Although the publication is claimed to be an innovative tutorial, in my opinion it is rather a philosophical essay with limited possible technical applications.