Database technology for control and simulation

Abstract: Abstract: This thesis shows how modern database technology can improve data management in engineering applications. It is divided into four parts. The first part reviews modern database technology with respect to engineering applications. The second part addresses data management incontrol applications. It describes how active database systems can monitor and control manufacturing processes. A database-centred architecture is presented along with a compiler technique that transforms manufacturing operations into queries and deterministic terminating rule-sets. The database-centred approach was evaluated through a case study involving a medium-sized production cell. The third part focuses on data management in industrial simulators. More precisely, it shows how main-memory database systems can support modelling, collection, and analysis of simulation data. To handle update streams from high-performance simulators, the database system was extended with a real-time storage structure for simulation data. Fast retrieval is achieved using a computational indexing method based on a super-linear equation-solving algorithm. The fourth and final part compares the two database-centred approaches.