On the generation of a variable structure airport surface traffic control system

A quantitative methodology for modeling variable-structure decision-making organizations and for characterizing the set of solutions to a particular organizational design problem is presented. The structures considered, deterministically process a set of simultaneous observations. This methodology models variable structures with colored Petri nets, which are used as the basic mathematical framework to generate the set of structures that satisfy design requirements. The designer of a system can describe his/her degree of knowledge about the requirements in a matrix form that is translated into the language of colored Petri nets. Then the set of variable structures that satisfy the designer´s requirements as well as some generic constraints are characterized. The approach is illustrated through the modeling and design of a hypothetical airport surface traffic control system