This book is an outcome of a 2-days Workshop on Automation Engineering held in Salzhausen (near Hamburg), F.R. Germany. The Workshop is annually organ ized by the Institute of Automation Technology and the Institute of Applied and Physical Chemistry of the University of Bremen. It is regularly joined by 30 to 40 participants representing the teaching and reserarch staff of both Institutes, as weIl as some invited colleagues from other universities and the regional industry. Usually 15/20 selected contributions, grouped in technical sessions (system modelling and identification, control systems design, computer hardware and soft ware, knowledge-based systems, robotics etc.), are presented at the Workshop, whereby the invited guests preferably present survey papers on current problems of modern systems engineering. For this book, 22 papers, contributed to the last two Workshops, are selected and grouped into 6 Chapters. The Chapters reflect the technical sessions listed above and give an average view on current research activities at both Institutes of the University. It is expected that the book will prove as a useful reference to the scientists and practicing engineers in the area of devel opment and application of methods of modern systems engineering in processing industry and the robotics.
