20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/1 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COMMISSION 
Draft Council Decision adopting the 1984 work programme for the European strategic 
programme for research and development in information technologies (Esprit) 
COM(84) 56 final 
(Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 17 February 1984) 
(84/C 47/01) 
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, 
Having regard to Council Decision (EEC) No .../.. of... adopting a programme of 
Community research and development projects in the field of information techno­
logies (Esprit), and in particular Article 3 (2) thereof, 
Having regard to the draft work programme submitted by the Commission, 
Whereas, at talks organized by the Commission, industry and the academic world 
have given their opinions on the content of the projects to be launched and their 
priority, 
Whereas the projects identified fall within the areas described in the Technical Annex 
to the Decision adopting the Esprit programme, 
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: 
Article 1 
The Esprit work programme set out in the Annex is hereby adopted for 1984. 
Article 2 
This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its publication in the Official 
Journal of the European Communities. 
No C 47/2 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
ANNEX 
ESPRIT 1984 WORKPLAN 
Introduction and overall resources breakdown 4 
1. ADVANCED MICROELECTRONICS 7 
1.1. Submicron MOS 8 
1.2. Submicron bipolar 9 
1.3. CAD 10 
1.3.1. CAD management 11 
1.3.2. High level design and layout 11 
1.3.3. Research: advanced/innovative CAD 11 
1.3.4. Establishment of CAD centres 11 
1.4. Compound semiconductor materials and integrated circuits 11 
1.5. Optoelectronics 12 
2. SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY 14 
2.1. Process — understanding and implementing 15 
2.1.1. Methods, techniques and tools 17 
2.1.2. Integration of management and technical aspects 17 
2.1.3. Software methodology 18 
2.2. Management — understanding and implementing 18 
2.2.1. Software production and maintenance management support 19 
2.2.2. Quality and reliability assurance 19 
2.3. Environment — understanding and implementing 20 
2.3.1. Common tool environment 20 
2.4. Process, management and environment — evolving 21 
2.4.1. Advanced interactive software development 22 
2.5. Demonstration projects 22 
3. ADVANCED INFORMATION PROCESSING (AIP) 23 
3.1. Knowledge engineering 23 
3.1.1. Knowledge-based systems and their metrication 24 
3.1.2. Dialogue and natural language 25 
3.1.3. Knowledge representation and inference techniques 26 
3.1.4. Preparatory work towards advanced KBS 27 
3.2. External interfaces . . 29 
3.2.1. Basic signal analysis and recognition 30 
3.2.2. Recognition of specific signals 32 
3.3. Information and knowledge storage 35 
3.3.1. Interface between storage and environment 35 
3.3.2. Data and knowledge bases 36 
3.3.3. Storage structures and architectures 37 
3.3.4. New generation knowledge machine 37 
3.3.5. Medium-term research on storage media 37 
3.3.6. Long-term research on optical discs 37 
3.3.7. Long-term research on biological storage 37 
3.4. Computer architectures 38 
3.4.1. Ultracomputer, multiprocessor machines 38 
3.4.2. Non-von Neumann architectures 39 
3.5. Design and system aspects 40 
3.6. Focusing projects 41 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/3 
4. OFFICE SYSTEMS 42 
4.1. Office systems science and human factors 45 
4.1.1. Office systems analysis 46 
4.1.2. Office systems design 46 
4.1.3. Human factors 46 
4.2. Advanced workstations 47 
4.2.1. System aspects of workstation design 48 
4.2.2. Vision interface 48 
4.2.3. Paper interface 49 
4.2.4. Speech interface 50 
4.2.5. Office languages 51 
4.3. Communication systems 51 
4.3.1. Communication system architecture 51 
4.3.2. Optical wideband LAN 51 
4.3.3. Multi-mode messaging 51 
4.3.4. ISDN-based advanced Videotex 51 
4.4. Advanced filing and retrieval systems 53 
4.4.1. Office information server design and evaluation 54 
4.4.2. System issues 54 
4.4.3. Usage and needs 54 
4.4.4. Components 54 
4.5. Integrated office system design and evaluation 55 
4.5.1. Advanced integrated office system prototypes 56 
4.5.2. Office system test and evaluation environments 56 
5. COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURE 56 
5.1. Integrated system architecture 56 
5.1.1. System architectures 57 
5.1.2. Graphics subsystems 58 
5.2. CAD/CAE 58 
5.2.1. CAD/CAE facilities for product and process design 59 
5.2.2. Use of AI techniques in CAD/CAE 60 
5.3. Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) 60 
5.4. Machine control systems 61 
5.4.1. Flexible machining systems 61 
5.4.2. Automated assembly and robotics 62 
5.4.3. Plant availability and quality optimization 63 
5.5. Subsystems and components 64 
5.5.1. Image processing 64 
5.5.2. Microelectronic subsystems 65 
5.5.3. Sensor programming and standards 65 
5.6. CIM systems applications 66 
5.6.1. CIM application and development centres 66 
5.6.2. Miscellaneous support for CIM 66 
No C 47/4 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
INTRODUCTION AND OVERALL RESOURCES BREAKDOWN 
This section is an integral part of the Esprit 1984 workplan. It is necessary for a 
proper reading and interpretation of the plan 
1. Background 
In such a fast-moving sector as IT, where the 
average life of a product is three years, it would 
be illusory and misleading to try and define ab 
initio detailed activities, objectives and time 
schedules for the next five years to come and 
particularly so in the case of R & D activities, 
although of industrial and essentially applied 
character. 
This is why it was decided that a more detailed 
programme of work, necessary for the day-to­
day implementation of the programme be estab­
lished, and updated as required, by the Com­
mission in consultation with the Esprit Manage­
ment Committee, and submitted every year to 
the Council for approval. This is the first of 
such a 'workplan'. of effort in a large R & D programme of the 
nature of Esprit is a fact of life; industrial 
R & D is acknowledged to rest essentially on 
two broad classes of projects: 
(a) Projects that require large infrastructure and 
resources, both human and financial, as 
well as clear and constant strategic perspec­
tive to ensure continuity of actions and the 
breadth necessary to reap the long-term 
benefits. Such medium- to long-term 'sys­
tem driven' R&D activities, that will be 
referred to in this document as 'type A pro­
jects', will represent the backbone of Esprit 
and are expected to account for some 75 % 
of the overall resources. 
2. Purpose and characteristics 
The main purpose of the workplan is to provide 
the essential guiding elements for: 
(a) drafting the call for proposals and selecting 
the projects to be launched; (b) Projects that rely mainly on flexible infra­
structure and on individual thinking rather 
than on a system approach, and require rela­
tively much smaller resources. Such activi­
ties, that will be referred to as 'type B pro­
jects', could range from very long term, very 
speculative R & D to specifically oriented R 
& D which may well be of shorter duration, 
and are expected to account for some 25 % 
of the overall effort under Esprit. 
(b) reviewing the individual projects under way 
and appraising their progress individually 
and in relationship with each other; 
(c) coordinating activities under Esprit and 
under national programmes in the domain 
of IT; Essentially type A projects are big, complex, 
system-oriented whereas type B are small, idea-
oriented. 
(d) appraising the results of the programme as a 
whole and for evaluating the suitability of 
its technical objectives and options to meet 
the strategic objectives: this to be done in 
the light of the results obtained and of the 
technological programmes within as well as 
outside the Community; 
3. Type A and type B projects 
The existence and need of different kinds of 
projects for the character of work and the size The pursuit of strategic objectives of common 
interest requires that a number of well-identifia­
ble major activities are undertaken and carried 
out according to agreed, and in some cases 
mutually interrelated, time schedules: type A 
projects are designed to represent these activi­
ties. In order to optimize resources allocation 
and provide the best conditions for synergism, 
proposals for such projects will therefore have 
to be invited giving detailed descriptions pre­
cisely identifying the objectives and the 
expected tirning of their achievement, whereas 
the particular approach or the choice of the 
technological options would, as a rule, be left 
free. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/5 
Since B type projects are designed to fill possi­
ble gaps between the A types; tackling alterna­
tive, or complementary, or more speculative 
activities, the level of their definition would 
have to be more general in order to maximize 
flexibility and leave maximum room to innova­
tion. Their timing, as a rule, could also be less 
critical. As a consequence and by contrast with 
the type A projects they are identified as a rule 
by theme only. 
The definition of the type A projects and the 
identification of R & D domains within which 
type B projects may be invited is done in the 
light of the objectives to be pursued. In princi­
ple, topics that are part of a specific type A pro­
ject could also be the subject of a type B project 
if, e.g., this latter proposes an alternative or com­
petitive approach. Whenever type B projects 
will be proposed in such conditions, however, 
care must be taken to verify that such 'subset of 
type A project' remains meaningful in itself. 
The workplan clearly indicates the distinction 
between type A and type B, so that the pro­
posers will be able and will have to decide 
beforehand to go either for one or the other. No 
ambiguity should therefore be possible as for 
the character or 'type' of any particular proposal 
during the selection phase. 
Both types of projects will be part of the same 
strategic effort, planned and executed as one 
single programme. 
4. Pilot projects 
The continuation of the work started under the 
pilot phase is possible within the Esprit pro­
gramme and is, implicitly or explicitly, in­
cluded in the programmes that are presented 
in the workplan. Such continuation will not, as 
a rule, be subject to a call in the strict sense but 
the information and the proposals gathered in 
response to the general call for proposal may 
generate modifications, widening or restriction 
(down to zero in extreme cases) of the activities 
originally foreseen in order to make the projects 
best suited to meet the revised objectives as they 
emerge from the workplan. 5. Validity of the workplan 
In order to fulfil its purpose the workplan has to 
span over a reasonably long time, sufficient to 
cover the whole duration of the longer projects: 
five years was deemed to offer a good com­
promise between an accurate aiming (that 
would suggest short-term indications) and 
development perspective that require a wider 
time framework. Such five-year workplan shall 
be reviewed every year. 
In the light of the above, the intermediate objec­
tives that are set in the workplan are specified 
with less accuracy and reliability as one looks 
further ahead at the years to come and it must 
be stressed that since we are aiming at a moving 
target even the closest objectives may have to be 
changed in the course of the yearly revision, in 
the light of the progress within as well as out­
side Esprit, in Europe and elsewhere in the 
world. 
Such intermediate objectives are, however, neces­
sary to provide the general framework and as 
reference for evaluation and further refine­
ments. They have therefore been introduced in 
the workplan as the best estimate of how, at this 
moment in time, the overall end-objectives of 
the project may be achieved. In this sense they 
are indicators and first-instance check points 
against which concrete proposals will be exam­
ined. They shall, however, not be regarded as 
legally mandatory in the sense that proposals 
having perfectly acceptable end objectives 
should not have to be rejected only because 
they may have been designed to rest on 
different intermediate objectives than the ones 
proposed here. 
6. Estimated resources required and existing capa­
bilities 
The workplan formulates a number of objec­
tives and proposes a number of R & D themes. 
Each of the main objectives would require for 
their achievement projects of a minimum 'criti­
cal size' that would at the same time justify the 
joint transnational approach and give it reason­
able chances of success. 
The preparation of the draft workplan in the 
present form is based on the work of some 300 
specialists selected amongst almost 1 000 who 
had declared their readiness to contribute in 
industry, university and research centres. 
No C 47/6 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
It was the common feeling of these contributors 
who had the opportunity of meeting and debat­
ing their views, that the work that is being pro­
posed is both essential for the achievement of 
the Esprit objectives and realistic in terms of the 
availability in Europe of the financial and 
human resources as well of the scientific capa­
bilities to carry it out successfully. 
7. Resources breakdown per area 
The overall workplan breakdown of resources 
per area, as results from this first iteration is, 
like all other elements of the workplan, subject 
to modification in the light of the response as 
well as of the technological evolution on the 
world scene that might influence industries. 
Subprogramme 
1. MICROELECTRONICS 
2. SOFTWARE 
3. AIP 
4. OFFICE SYSTEMS 
5. CIM In particular, in the light of the response of 
industry to the first call for proposals, transfer of 
resources between the various areas will have to 
be possible. 
With respect to this it is to be stressed that the 
partitioning of Esprit into five areas is inciden­
tal and dictated by management need and not 
intrinsic to the nature of work, that on the con­
trary is very heavily interrelated. 
This will become more apparent in the next 
issues of the workplan when sufficient data con­
cerning work actually under way will be avail­
able. 
The following breakdown of resources is now 
envisaged: 
(Man-years) 
1 
186 
177 
140 
210 
121 Project year 
2 
258 
317 
281 
310 
216 3 
360 
343 
392 
440 
215 4 
410 
318 
441 
.390 
220 5 
456 
285 
441 
100 
172 Totals 
1670 
1 440 
1 695 
1 450 
944 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/7 
SUBPROGRAMME 1 
ADVANCED MICROELECTRONICS 
The major thrust of this subprogramme is aimed at major improvement of the most 
important strategic technological areas. Hence: 
1. Most of the resources are concentrated into a limited number of projects in the 
areas of silicon MOS and bipolar for VLSI and very high performance circuits. 
When associated with CAD, CAM and manufacturing methods, these will pro­
duce by 1988 a soundly based 1 u.m industrial capability in a number of European 
sites, with substantial progress towards submicron capability. Also in place will be 
the necessary CAD to design the VLSI circuits which use these technologies. 
2. Communication with the other subprogrammes must be enhanced to ensure rapid 
definition of the required VLSI demonstrator circuits, their design and fabrication, 
funded from those subprogrammes. 
3. The supply of scientific and engineering personnel trained in the specific skills of 
microelectronic process technology and design must be increased. 
4. Support for longer range, lower priority, work on two important areas which com­
plement silicon VLSI, namely compound semiconductor integrated circuits and 
optoelectronics are provided for at a reasonable level. 
In addition to the main thrust of the programme as outlined in 1, 3 and 4 above and 
expanded in section A below, provision is also made for a number of smaller projects. 
Suitable topics for these are identified in section B. 
In section A the MOS and bipolar process programmes have been structured as large 
integral projects rather than separate 1 |im and submicron projects. This has been 
done in the interests of efficiency, as each level of technology builds on the knowledge 
gained from preceding levels. Many aspects of a given process require continuous 
improvement, e.g. oxide quality in MOS, to meet the demands of each successive 
development of greater circuit complexity and higher performance. This continuity of 
effort would be lost by having separate projects at 1 urn and submicron levels. 
The other part of the process strategy is to include work on techniques common to 
MOS and bipolar in the MOS project, as MOS tends to lead in scale of integration 
and feature size, and hence does the pioneering work in areas like lithography. 
The importance of CAD for VLSI to the overall success of Esprit cannot be over­
emphasized. Given good technology and outstanding CAD, the highly innovative 
European industry will be able to compete successfully in world markets. 
A total of some 13 CAD projects, involving about 650 man-years between 1983 and 
1987, supported under the microelectronics Regulation (EEC) No 3744/81 and the 
Esprit pilot phase are already underway. The integration of the results of this work 
and extension to cover the design of several million component circuits for a wide 
range of applications is a major task. A careful analysis should be carried out during 
No C 47/8 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
the first semester of 1984 to analyze progress and objectives of such work, in order to 
help in identifying new projects to be launched as from 1985. 
There are far more organizations with a direct interest and competence in this field 
than is the case with VLSI technology. The project proposed here must be planned 
with sufficient flexibility to deal with the complex technical and organizational issues 
involved. The Esprit information exchange system will be a valuable aid in the area. 
Computer control of manufacturing VLSI is seen as an essential part of the pro­
gramme, not just a means of increasing manufacturing efficiency. The reduction in 
feature size and layer thickness places increasing demands on process control in a 
situation where the final device parameters are dependent on a larger number of varia­
bles. The minimization of human handling and an attack on the sources of yield limit­
ing contamination are critical. For a given level of contamination, yield falls rapidly 
as feature size is reduced. The submicron MOS and bipolar projects will address com­
puter-aided manufacturing aspects where appropriate. 
SECTION A Programme 
TYPE A PROJECTS 
R& D area 1.1: 
Submicron MOS 
Description 
The requirement is to develop all the individual pro­
cess steps such as lithography, etching, doping, etc., 
to achieve submicron feature size in MOS. The tar­
get is a process capable of making several million 
components per chip of logic and memory. It is 
envisaged that below about 0,7 u,m other than opti­
cal lithography tools will be used. Process and 
device modelling will be included. 
Prerequisites 
— experience with state-of-the-art processing; Year 1: 
— choice of process (CMOS or mixed C- and 
NMOS) and of design methodology; 
— choice of optical lithography equipment; 
— establishment of activity on process steps and 
modelling. 
Year 2: 
— optimization of individual process steps; 
— establishment of preliminary design rules; 
— characterization of process steps. 
Year 3: 
— demonstration of feasibility with a 1 \im feature 
size, 0,5 million components chip. The target is 
a figure of merit of 50 femto-joules and 1 ns 
delay time. 
— activities on advanced process steps; 
— availability of functioning CAD/CAT tools; 
— critical mass at least 200 man-years over five 
years. Year 4: 
— evaluation of novel process steps for submicron 
technology (gate material, isolation, multilayer 
three-dimensional active structures, etc.); 
— choice of submicron lithography equipment; 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/9 
flow chart of a 0,7 urn process including design 
rules. submicron process steps, leading to a complete pro­
cessing sequence for very high performance ICs. 
Year 5: 
— evaluation of the 0,7 urn process; 
— demonstration of the process feasibility; 
— design of a chip with more than 1 000 000 com­
ponents, a figure of merit of 50 femto-joules 
and 1 ns gate delay. To realize this objective the following developments 
are necessary: 
— overall circuit concepts which must evolve 
together with the technology; 
— a vertical device structure appropriate to sub-
micron lithography; 
Intermediate objectives 
18th month 
design and evaluation of test chip of more than 
1 000 transistors based on 1 u,m design rules 
with a pitch (metal plus spacing) of 3 um; 
36th month 
— first samples of circuits with 0,5 million transis­
tors, 1 |im design rules, with data on figure of 
merit and delay time; 
48th month 
— statistical data on homogeneity on a slice and 
yield for 1 urn design rules; and test circuits 
with more than 1 000 transistors with 0,7 (im 
design rules and pitch of 2 |im; — a convenient multilayer interconnection tech­
nology, 
— good optimization between device parameters 
and specific logic form uses; 
— appropriate high dissipation, high pin count, 
electrically matched leads, packages; 
— process and device modelling. 
Prerequisites 
— experience with VLSI and advanced silicon pro­
cessing; availability of CAD/CAT tools; 
— critical mass of at least 200 man-years over five 
years. 
60th month 
— first samples of circuits with more than 
1 000 000 transistors, 0,7 u.m design rules, with 
data on figure of merit and delay time. Activities dependent on 1.2 
Fast VLSI microelectronics for information techno­
logy. 
Activities dependent on 1.1 
VLSI microelectronics for information technology. 
R& D area 1.2: 
Submicron bipolar (single project) Programme 
Year 1: 
— 1 ujn technology: establish activity on process 
steps, circuit structures, modelling. Evaluate 
and choose critical equipment; 
— first choice of process and circuit structures. 
Description 
The overall objective is to develop specific bipolar Year 2: 
— preliminary optimization of process steps; 
— establish design rules 1 u.m; 
No C 47/10 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
— start design of demonstrator chips; 
— start research on novel processes and structures 
for submicron technology; 
Year 3: 
— demonstration of 1 urn process feasibility for 
10/20 Kgates, 100 ps gate delay chips; 
— start work on multilayer 2 urn pitch in addition 
to pilot project continuation; 
— continue research on submicron technology; 
— preliminary design rules for 0,7 um structures. 
Year 4: 
— start design of demonstrator chip at 0,7 \im; 
— optimization of submicron process steps; 
— choice of critical equipment; 
— yield improvement of 1 fim demonstrator. 
Year 5: 
— demonstration of 0,7 |im process feasibility for 
20/50 Kgates, 50 ps gate delay chips. 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— evaluate and choose critical equipment; 
24th month 
— establish design rules at 1 ^m; 
36th month 42nd month 
— establish preliminary design rules for 0,7 \im 
structures; 
48th month 
— design demonstrator chip at 0,7 um. 
R&D area 1.3: 
CAD (projects to be defined) 
Description: 
GLOBAL OBJECTIVES 
(a) to encourage research into novel and ad­
vanced CAD techniques to manage the ever 
increasing circuit complexities involved; 
(b) to provide a capability for complex VLSI 
design that is widely accessible. 
CAD/CAT OBJECTIVES 
The overall aim is an integrated design system 
capable of handling submicron VLSI circuits 
containing several million components. 
The system should: 
— provide a user friendly facility that is readily 
adaptable to changes in technology; 
— allow systems designers to achieve a rapid 
turnround of valid and testable designs and 
associated test information; 
— provide facilities for the optimization of cir­
cuits for high-volume applications; 
— include libraries of primitive and complex 
cells; 
— demonstrate 1 u,m process feasibility for 10/20 
Kgates, 100 ps gate delay chips; — incorporate relevant results of CAD projects 
under Regulation (EEC) No 3744/81. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/11 
POLICY 
(a) device and process modelling is not consid­
ered as part of the CAD projects and is 
included in the projects concerned with the 
development of new VLSI processes (see 
1.1 and 1.2); 
(b) as far as possible, complex demonstrator 
chips will be used as a focus for each stage 
of the project; 
(c) after the first five years considered here, 
there will be another five years further 
development of this project to support spe­
cific technology advances and incorporate 
worldwide CAD improvements; 
(d) care will be taken to interface with, support 
and employ the results of other Esprit activ­
ities. 
BALANCE AND PRIORITIES 
(a) the assigned projects will have to ensure 
optimum balance between work to develop 
novel and advanced CAD techniques and 
work to consolidate European capability; 
(b) one emphasis will be to provide a general 
framework and data interchange basis to 
make existing and new techniques generally 
available to a wide range of industry. A key 
factor is to promote cooperative develop­
ment between university and industrial 
groups; 
(c) a second emphasis will be to concentrate on 
those CAD facilities that are specifically 
required by the demands of a 1 (xm and sub-
micron process capability in order to enable 
the designs of very large and complex chips 
containing up to 10 million transistors. 
Main topics 
1.3.1. CAD management 
Provide coordination and intelligence. 
1.3.2. High level design and layout 
— high level (behavioural) design aids, — cell library and techniques for large, parameter­
ized cells, 
— layout design and testing techniques, 
— analogue and switch level verification, 
— design management. 
With a target to achieve full custom design at the 
0,5 million transistor level in year 4. 
1.3.3. Research: advanced/innovative CAD 
— use of AIP and expert systems, 
— use of special hardware, 
— novel algorithms. 
Complete development of second generation system 
in year 5. 
1.3.4. Establishment of CA D centres 
— implement first generation system in year 4. 
R&D area 1.4: 
Compound semiconductor materials and integrated 
circuits (single project) 
Description 
Integrated circuits in III-V compound semiconduc­
tor materials offer potential speed advantages over 
silicon circuits because of higher electron mobility. 
Technology complexity is many years behind silicon 
and considerable materials and process research are 
necessary. Because of the increasing market for 
high-speed, low-power circuits the problems need to 
be tackled. 
The technology encompasses GaAs homojunction 
structures based on the FET as well as GaAs/ 
GaAlAs heterojunction structures using the high 
electron mobility transistor (HEMT) or the hetero­
junction bipolar. Basic research is required in 
No C 47/12 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
materials preparation, ion implantation, and IC 
process technologies. 
Prerequisites 
— source of pure materials; 
— CAD facilities; 
— suitable laboratory and experienced team. 
Programme 
Year 1: 
— initiate materials research in GaAs including 
ion implantation to produce GaAs FET-based 
ICs; 
— initiate work on molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) 
and metallo-organic chemical vapour deposi­
tion (MOCVD) for the growth of suitable 
heterojunction structures in GaAlAs. 
Year 2: 
— continue materials research; 
— develop GaAs IC fabrication process on 2-inch 
wafers at I urn feature size using multilayer 
metallization, etc.; 
— fabricate experimental discrete HEMTs and 
bipolars in GaAs/GaAlAs. 
Year 3: 
— continue materials research in GaAs and 
GaAlAs; 
— initiate research on new materials, e.g. Gain As; 
— extend GaAs technology to 3-inch wafers and 
submicron features; 
— continue research into optimization of HEMT 
and bipolar discretes; 
— demonstrate 1 000 gate array in GaAs FET-
based logic. 
Year 4: 
— continue materials research including new 
materials; 
— carry out yield improvement exercise on basic 
GaAs IC process; — establish basic process steps for a GaAs/ 
GaAlAs IC process based on the HEMT or 
bipolar. 
Year 5: 
— integrate process steps for heterojunction bipo­
lar (or HEMT) IC technology; 
— fabricate experimental ICs based in this tech­
nology; 
— continue new materials research (e.g. Gain As); 
— fabricate experimental discrete devices in 
GalnAs. 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— single-gate demonstration circuit based on 
0,5 um design rules; 
24th month 
— 30-gate demonstration circuit based on 
0,5 [im design rules; 
36th month 
— initiation of 0,3 um design rules; 
— 1000-gate demonstration circuit based on 
0,5 |im design rules; 
48th month 
— demonstration of 100-gate circuit based on 
0,3 |i.m design rules; 
60th month 
— demonstration of 1 000-gate circuit based on 
0,3 u,m design rules. 
R&Dareal.5: 
Optoelectronics (single project) 
Description 
Optoelectronic devices will be increasingly required 
for telecoms transmission, intra- and extra-computer 
connections, ultra wide band image processing and 
switching. Future generations of mono-mode com­
munications systems may use coherent detection 
and multi-channel wavelength multiplexing and 
20.2.84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/13 
may be phase modulated. This will provide 
improved performance and be compatible with inte­
grated optical logic. This will allow processing, com­
bining and routing at very high speeds. In semicon­
ductor form they will also be compatible with III-V 
integrated circuits providing a fast electrical inter­
face. Year 4: 
— combine waveguide integration with monolithic 
integration technology to produce experimental 
optical systems on a single chip; 
— continue technology development in LiNb03, 
photochromies for optical interconnections, and 
new materials. 
Prerequisites 
— Source of pure materials; 
— Suitable laboratory and experienced team. Year 5: 
develop high-speed optical switching system 
and study application of optical techniques to 
computers. 
Programme 
Year 1 
initiate materials research on optical structures 
and improved methods of materials preparation 
such as metallo-organic chemical vapour depo­
sition and molecular beam epitaxy; 
extend materials research to organics including 
fast response photochromic materials; 
fabricate basic discrete devices, e.g. lasers, 
LEDs, detectors, switches, etc. 
Year 2: 
— continue materials research; 
— fabricate narrow line lasers and investigate 
detection techniques for coherent systems; 
— develop bistable optical devices, high-speed 
modulators and optical couplers; 
— research into monolithic optoelectronics. 
Year 3: 
— investigate integration in optical materials using 
thin film waveguides for interconnection; 
— continue materials research; 
— fabricate multi-component structures, e.g. laser 
arrays for wavelength multiplexing, switch 
matrices as basic switching elements. Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— GaAlAs metal organic chemical vapour deposi­
tion (MOCVD) established for discrete device 
fabrication; 
— optimum Ti-lithium niobate technology estab­
lished and 10 GHz modulation demonstrated. 
24th month 
— GalnAs MOCVD established for discrete 
devices; 
— basic electro-optic switch technology optimized; 
— proton exchange and organic overlay waveguide 
technology established for switches and modu­
lators. 
36th month 
— GaAlInAs MOCVD established for discrete 
devices; 
— 100 elements GaAlAs MOCVD optoelectronic 
integrated circuit demonstrated; 
— 100 element electro-optic switch demonstrated; 
— hybrid integrated electro-optic technology 
established; 
48th month 
— lithium niobate/oxide epitaxial growth estab­
lished; 
No C 47/14 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
— 100 GHz electro-optic modulation demon­
strated ; 
— molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) demonstrated 
for discrete and integrated components; 
60th month 
— 'optical system on a chip' demonstrated, using 
MBE and MOCVD material; 
— ultrafast hybrid electro-optic processor demon­
strated. 
SECTION B — Ion implantation, 
— Semiconductor materials, 
— Resist technology, 
— Rapid anneal techniques, 
— Layer processing techniques, 
— Conductors (metals, silicides, contacts), 
— Insulators (thin, thick, organic), 
— Device reliability, 
— CADforGaAs, 
— Computer-aided manufacturing methods. 
SUGGESTED THEMES FOR TYPE B 
PROJECTS 
In addition to the topic areas already identified in 
section A (where type B projects may usefully com­
plement the work programmes by providing the 
requisite technology and tools and/or anticipate 
next generation requirements), the following are 
specific examples of topics which would be eligible: 
(a) VLSI-related 
— Lithography (E-beam, X-ray, UV), (b) Others 
— Interconnection (off-chip), 
— Advanced physical analysis techniques, 
— Flat screen display technology, 
— Sensors and transducers, 
— New technologies for advanced information 
storage, 
— New inorganic and organic materials. 
SUBPROGRAMME 2 
SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY 
The objective of this subprogramme is to reach a stage where the production of infor­
mation systems (i.e. products including hardware and software solutions) would have 
the characteristics of an industrial process, and, to a large extent, would be computer 
assisted. This implies bringing to the consciousness of every industrial organization 
the fact that software production is a true engineering discipline, subject to technical, 
organizational and economic factors. 
The progress to be made in software technology has been divided into three general 
categories. As with any classification, such a division is arbitrary, and the categories 
are not independent. The first category of work to be performed is to contribute to the 
understanding of the process of software production and maintenance, taking as a 
departure point the best of current practices. The second category concerns itself with 
implementing the support (including tools) that will make the results of the under­
standing usable in practice. The third category is concerned with medium- and long-
term R&D aimed at evolving new software production methods. 
For further structuring of the work, a simple software life-cycle model is introduced. It 
is not intended that this model should limit the scope of projects; indeed there will be 
20.2.84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/15 
projects specifically concerned with the development of such models. In this simple 
model, software production and maintenance consists of a sequence of intermediate 
levels of representation with transformations between them, proceeding from initial 
concept to operational system. In practice, such development must be iterative, and 
almost never follows a simple linear course. Such iterative operations are indicated in 
Figure 2-1 which shows them embedded in a broad project context. Thus, the work to 
be done can be subdivided into three major areas (see Figure 2-1): the (technical) pro­
cess itself; management and control; and the support environment. 
Combining the general categories with each of the life-cycle areas, a 3 x 3 matrix 
results, giving a total of nine subdivisions. On the basis of the strategic projects that 
have been identified, these subdivisions more or less naturally group into four R&D 
areas. 
A fifth area is formed by demonstration projects, which would not be artificial projects 
but rather real projects used as evaluation and demonstration vehicles. 
The five R&D areas are described on the following sheets. 
R& Darea2.1: 
Process — understanding and implementing 
Description 
The activities in this area address the transition to 
an engineering approach to systems and software 
engineering within the framework of the current 
life-cycle view. A scenario is envisaged in which 
well-founded scientifically-based methods are grad­
ually adopted to replace ad hoc techniques currently 
in use. Such methods should contribute significantly 
to the reduction of life-cycle costs, particularly in 
the areas of testing and maintenance, through earlier 
error detection and removal, and the development 
of more reliable and higher quality systems. The 
research and development programme in this area 
should continue for about five years, so more specu­
lative and radical approaches to system develop­
ment, for which considerable fundamental research 
is required, are not considered here (see 2.4). 
The emphasis is on the development of improved 
methods for system construction. These methods 
must then be supported by integrated support tools. 
It is assumed here that the overall development 
approach, which the tools support, will employ mul­
tiple levels of representation with incremental verifi­
cation and validation. Where possible, tools may be 
provided by re-work or enhancement of existing 
programs rather than by completely new develop­
ment. There is also a strong interdependence with the 
management activities described in area 2.2. Man­
agement methods must take account of improved 
systems and software development methods and, 
similarly, system development methods must take 
account of management requirements. 
Industrial and academic collaboration is particu­
larly relevant to this area, since academic research­
ers in Europe have produced a significant theoreti­
cal base which should provide the foundations of 
improved systems and software engineering 
methods. 
R&D TOPICS 
The work in this area will address: 
— reference models of systematic approaches to 
system development; 
— practical and disciplined system development 
methods; 
— effective methods of software production and 
maintenance; 
— study of application area needs; 
— representation and transformation tools; 
— verification and validation tools; 
-f PROCESS 
APPLICATION DOMAIN 
REPRESEN­
TATION 
/ VERIFICATION \ 
AND VALIDATION/ MANAGEMENT 
TRANS. 
HOST SYSTEM s 
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S 
T 
E 
M 2: 
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ENVIRONMENT 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/17 
— support tools: 
— component library support tools, 
— documentation tools, 
— performance prediction and measurement 
tools, 
— reliability specification and measurement 
tools, 
— process support tools. 
The programme includes continuation of work 
started by the pilot projects in Year 0. 
TYPE A PROJECTS 
2.1.1. Methods, techniques and tools 
This topic should be covered by up to two projects 
to be started in Year 1, both answering to the des­
cription given below. The differentiation between 
these projects will be on the basis of the main 
approach adopted by them, or on the application 
area they address. 
The objectives are: 
— to identify an adequate range of effective 
methods of software production and main­
tenance, 
— to provide tool support for these methods, 
assuming multiple levels of representation with 
incremental verification and validation. 
The methods must achieve complete coverage of the 
entire spectrum from requirements definition 
through to the maintenance phase, including neces­
sary iterations; methods must aim to minimize total 
life-cycle cost, and compatibility between various 
methods and notations used in successive life-cycle 
phases is a prime requirement. 
To establish the overall context in which software 
development takes place, reference models of syste­
matic approaches to system development must be 
addressed, and special attention be paid to the 
crucial requirements analysis task. 
One especially important task is to investigate the 
issues relating to the use and re-use of software 
components. Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— prototype version of tools; 
18th month 
— reference model of system development; 
24th month 
— initial tool set; 
36th month 
— system and software development methods; 
60th month 
— final tool set. 
2.1.2. Integration of management and technical 
aspects 
This project addresses those management issues 
which are strongly affected by the technical proper­
ties of the solution expected from project 2.1.1. 
The objectives are: 
— to develop together, in one project, both man­
agement and technical approaches to software 
production and maintenance, 
— to explore problems related to management and 
control of the software product, especially con­
figuration management and version/variant 
control, 
— to develop or abstract those standards that will 
be effective also from a management point of 
view. 
Special attention will have to be paid to the use of 
families of 'prefabricated' components in integra­
tion and production management. 
Intermediate objectives 
24th month 
— Methods and techniques for product manage­
ment and control; 
No C 47/18 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
48th to 60th month 
— Support tools for configuration management, 
integration and production management. 
2.1.3. Software methodology 
This project will investigate the suitability of 
methods and techniques for various application 
areas, and develop the criteria for selecting, from 
among existing or envisaged methods and tech­
niques, those that are most appropriate for the pro­
ject in hand on the basis of: 
— the particular application area, 
— the overall development situation (team size, 
other personnel and management constraints, 
capabilities of the technical environment, etc.), 
— the envisaged product life (frequency of 
changes, number of variants, etc.). 
Where possible the Criteria should be quantitative, 
and to this end global numerical data will be col­
lected and analyzed from a number of development 
projects over a long period of time. The utility of the 
criteria will require verification in application to real 
projects and adjusted in the light of practical experi­
ence. 
Intermediate objectives 
18th month 
— study of application area needs; 
36th month 
— (qualitative) criteria; 
48th month 
— quantitative analysis of data collected from 
development projects; 
60th month 
— Full set of criteria. 
TYPE B PROJECTS 
The following themes at least will have to be 
addressed in this R&D area: 
— system development models; — system/software development methods, includ­
ing: 
— use of existing components in new develop­
ments, 
— formal semantics of interfaces, 
— fault tolerance, 
— validation and verification, 
— capturing of requirements, 
— development of notations (including graph­
ical ones) which have well-founded seman­
tics, 
— reliability of specifications, 
— specification of both sequential and concur­
rent systems, 
— decomposition, integration and retaining of 
compatibility between evolving hardware 
and software subsystems both during 
development and during operational life, 
— hardware/software migration, 
— system optimization; 
— representation and transformation tools, includ­
ing the use of semi-formal as well as graphical 
languages; 
— verification and validation tools; 
— component library support tools; 
— performance prediction and measurement tools; 
— reliability specification and measurement tools. 
R&Darea2.2: 
Management — understanding and implementing 
Description 
Projects in this area are intended to consolidate 
understanding of, and effective means of support 
for, the management of software projects. The man­
agement approach which is developed must be con­
sistent with the technical approach developed in the 
'Process — understanding and implementing' area 
(2.1). This can best be achieved if the management 
20.2.84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/19 
and technical approaches are developed together 
(see 2.1.2). It is also important that the projects in 
this area address both technical management issues, 
such as configuration control, and project manage­
ment issues, such as effort estimation. Another 
important topic is the establishment of techniques 
for the collection of data which allow managers to 
evaluate and select methods and tools. 
R&D TOPICS 
Work in this area will address: 
— management models of software production 
and maintenance; 
— project planning and control tools and tech­
niques; 
— configuration management tools and tech­
niques; 
— production management, integration and con­
trol tools and techniques; 
— maintenance management methods and tools; 
— quality and reliability assurance tools and tech­
niques ; 
— management database support; 
— data collection and analysis. 
The programme includes continuation of work 
started under the pilot projects in year 0. 
TYPE A PROJECTS 
2.2.1. Software production and maintenance man­
agement support 
The objectives are: 
— to develop quantitative management models of 
software production and maintenance; 
— to provide support for the major functions of 
software production and maintenance manage­
ment: 
— planning and control of software projects, 
— planning and control of software products, 
— maintenance management; — to develop database support for management 
tools (e.g. by exploiting the database facilities of 
the common environment). 
It is important that a wide variety of management 
practices be accommodated with a limited set of 
common facilities (e.g. through exploitation of 
generic properties). 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— cost estimating models; 
18th month 
— full quantitative models; 
36th month 
— initial tool set; 
42nd month 
— management database; 
54th month 
— complete tool set. 
2.2.2. Quality and reliability assurance 
The objectives are: 
— to investigate in detail the effectiveness of two 
contrasting approaches to quality and reliability 
assurance, namely that of close control over the 
development process, and that of measurement 
and corrective action, 
— to provide techniques and tools that will assist 
the assurance controls both pre- and post-
production. 
The properties by which a product's quality may be 
characterized and quantified should be identified 
and means by which a product's quality and relia­
bility may be estimated and predicted should be 
determined. 
Particular attention should be given to the verifica­
tion and validation activity at each of the transfor­
mations in the life-cycle. 
Data collection and analysis should be addressed 
mainly from the short-term aspect (progress moni­
toring, analysis of error reports, etc., for individual 
No C 47/20 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
projects). The long-term aspect (assessment and 
evaluation of methods themselves on the basis or 
larger statistics) is addressed in project 2.1.3. 
Intermediate objectives 
24th month 
— criteria for quality and reliability assurance; 
36th month 
— data collection and analysis techniques; 
60th month 
— tool set available. 
TYPE B PROJECTS 
The following themes at least will have to be 
addressed in this R&D area: 
— monitoring techniques and progress parameters; 
— maintenance management, e.g.: 
— fault and error reporting, 
— change control, 
— release control, 
— handling of enhancement requests; 
— failure mode effects and criticality analysis. 
R&Darea2.3: 
Environment — understanding and implementing 
Description 
The projects in this area will develop a common 
environment to be used: 
— as a primitive software development environ­
ment, 
— as the basis for the development of a complete 
integrated software engineering environment. Since multi-national development of software will 
be a central feature of Esprit as a whole, this envi­
ronment is an important building block for all 
Esprit programmes. Hence it is imperative that there 
is general publication of all interfaces, thus provid­
ing for general exploitation and interception of the 
environment. 
The common environment will consist of an infra­
structure, which provides the basic framework, and 
a set of tools and components which will be of 
relevance in all instances of the environment. In 
particular, the tools and components are intended to 
assist the development of new tools, thus promoting 
extension to the complete integrated environment. 
The environment developed must allow a range of 
implementations, on hardware of different capabili­
ties, and with different aims (e.g. ease of installation 
v. efficiency). Therefore it is important that a spec­
trum of interfaces is defined through which tools 
operate on 'objects' such as programs, files, devices 
and other tools in order to accommodate these 
needs. 
R&D TOPICS 
Work in this area will address: 
— environment infrastructure; 
— common environment tools and components; 
— common environment general services. 
The programme includes continuation of work 
started under pilot projects in Year 0. 
TYPE A PROJECT 
2.3.1. Common tool environment 
The objectives are: 
— to develop a common environment to be used 
as primitive software development environment, 
and as the basis of a complete integrated soft­
ware engineering environment, 
— to develop an object-based approach to the 
provision of a tool-rich environment, where 
'object' includes programs, files, devices and 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/21 
other tools; the emphasis will be on meta-tools, 
which can be used to assist in the construction 
of specific environment tools and facilities; 
common tools and components will promote a 
homogeneous interface across all instances of 
the environment and reduce the cost of new tool 
development, 
— to provide an appropriate infrastructure (basic 
framework) with standards and conventions for 
environment work-stations, with support from 
common user interfacing mechanisms, with 
basic mechanisms for program execution, com­
munication and object management (environ­
ment database) and with local area network pro­
tocols and interface standards appropriate for 
environment functions, 
to provide a range of general services of interest 
to all users (e.g. mail, bulletin board, document 
preparation, etc.). 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— first prototype environment; 
24th month 
— initial common tool set; 
36th month 
— initial environment, and full common tool set 
and general services. 
R& Darea2.4: 
Process, management and environment — evolving 
Description 
Projects in this area should address the total activity 
of software development from the emergence or 
statement of a computer application concept or of a 
problem to be solved, through the installation and 
operation of the appropriate software or software 
based system, and throughout its subsequent life­
time in which continuing adaptation to changing environments and changing user perceptions is 
inevitable. 
The programme provides both for a totally coherent 
process approach and for exploring fundamentally 
new approaches. The emphasis is therefore on longer-
term research. 
It is anticipated that overall structural changes in 
software management will result from improved 
understanding of the whole software process. In 
addition detailed evolution will follow improve­
ments in such areas as measurements, quality assur­
ance and software tools support. Part of the work in 
this area is therefore directed at significant improve­
ment in software management techniques. 
Another part intends to provide the basis for the 
more advanced environments of the future. This will 
involve the application of AIP techniques (see sub-
programme 3) to the problems of software environ­
ments. Such environments might be expected to be 
extensible and play an active rather than a passive 
role. On the other hand, requirements coming from 
the AIP domain must be taken into account to pro­
vide environments suited to their needs. Moreover, 
it is desirable that appropriate interfaces between 
these and the initial common environment (see 2.3) 
be provided. 
R&D TOPICS 
The topics described here are of long-term and 
speculative nature. Details of the grouping of all topics 
into packages cannot be given at this stage and only 
one type A project has been defined. However, it is 
expected that proposals will provide other such 
groupings, and up to three type A projects could be 
accommodated. They will initially have a predomi­
nantly research orientation, but industrial take-up 
must be ensured from the beginning, both by the 
combination of research topics and by the structure 
of the participation. 
Work in this area will address: 
— improved models for software production and 
maintenance (with special reference to the co­
herence of the processes modelled); both the 
technical and the management aspects need to 
be addressed; 
— construction and transformation of representa­
tions (including automatic and interactive pro­
gram synthesis, with special attention for 
generic and re-usable software and for valida­
tion and verification); 
No C 47/22 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
— general methods and tools for application 
domain analysis with special reference to cap­
turing of requirements; 
— hardware/software synergy and new architec­
tures ; 
— non-imperative languages; 
— convergence of technologies in program specifi­
cation, program implementation and database 
design; 
— measurement and modelling; 
— quality and reliability; 
— expert system approaches to software produc­
tion and maintenance, involving active data­
bases, management expert systems; 
— advanced support environments and human 
interfacing for the development of highly 
demanding applications such as advanced 
information processing applications. 
TYPE A PROJECT 
2.4.1. Advanced interactive software development 
The objectives are: 
— to investigate the possibility of developing an 
approach which begins to integrate the rigour of 
the 'software engineering' approach and the 
flexibility of the experimental and 'throwaway' 
style of software development exemplified by 
knowledge processing work; 
— to provide an environment supporting this for­
mal interactive style of program development. 
This environment should provide integrated 
support for existing languages and methods of 
several classes (functional, logic, object-
oriented ...); 
— to provide appropriate interfaces to ensure 
effective interworking between this environment 
and the initial common tool environment (see 
2.3.1 above); 
— to provide facilities for rapid incorporation of 
future developments in different classes of lan­
guages. Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— common approach characteristics description; 
24th month 
— experimental interactive environment; 
48th month 
— advanced interactive environment; 
60th month 
— interfacing with common tool environment. 
TYPE B PROJECTS 
These can address any of the topics mentioned 
above. 
R&Darea2.5: 
Demonstration projects 
There is a significant barrier to the introduction of 
new methods and tools into industry — no project 
manager wants to be the first to attempt practical 
usage of a new approach. This barrier can be 
addressed by providing financial support for 
demonstration projects. The intention is not to 
create an artificial project solely to demonstrate 
some new approach, but rather to use a real project 
as an evaluation and demonstration vehicle. The 
financial support should then cover the additional 
costs that are incurred in performing this evaluation 
and demonstration role. In particular, the funding 
must cover training and familiarization overheads at 
the start of the project, and the preparation of 
reports and critiques of methods and tools for the 
benefit of the community as a whole. The funding 
of demonstration projects should be conditional 
upon the production of such reports and critiques. 
It is important that the results of such demonstra­
tion projects should be seen to be valid and conclu­
sive; this requires, among other things, that the 
design and planning of such demonstrations should 
be evaluated from the perspective of the statistical 
theory of 'design of experiments'. 
Projects of this type are expected to start in Years 2 
and 3 (i.e. 1985/86 and 1986/87), and cannot be 
planned in any detail at this stage. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/23 
SUBPROGRAMME 3 
ADVANCED INFORMATION PROCESSING (AIP) 
The main theme is machine intelligence. This embraces the process of extracting 
knowledge, storing that knowledge for easy access and use and to enhance the know­
ledge base through usage. A major aim is to bridge the gap between the computer and 
the non-technical user by using computer-based intelligence to assist the user and 
present an easy, friendly interface. 
Initial theoretical work will be on the process of reasoning from which to base the 
design of advanced expert or knowledge-based systems. While the main emphasis in 
the early years will be knowledge engineering and knowledge storage and usage, the 
emphasis later will be on the exploration of new architectures and the implementation 
of systems. In parallel, research will be undertaken on external interfaces, the interac­
tion of man and the machine. An important feature of this work will be signal analysis 
and processing, particularly for handling visual data. Work will also be carried out on 
the specification and design facets of AIP systems. 
Early in the programme a number of demonstrator AIP systems will be built using 
conventional equipment. These will be built as quickly as possible to accelerate the 
core of knowledge and experience in AIP systems and through accessible demonstra­
tors obtain contributions from the wider research community. In addition, provision is 
made for a number of integrated, interdisciplinary 'focus' projects, that span not only 
the five main aspects of AIP but also the other areas of the Esprit programme. 
R&Darea3.1: 
Knowledge engineering 
Description 
This R&D area is concerned with the tools and 
technologies which will be needed for the practice 
of knowledge engineering in order to realize com­
mercially and socially acceptable knowledge-based 
systems applications, of which expert systems, deci­
sion support and computer aided instruction are 
examples. 
Knowledge engineering involves the practice of: 
— business analysis to determine the viable 
domains for knowledge-based systems (KBS) 
application, 
— knowledge acquisition in the chosen domain 
about the objects of reasoning, their taxonomy, 
lines of reasoning, heuristics, facts, rules and 
dialogue, — classification of the domain characteristics and 
selection of the most appropriate corresponding 
knowledge representations and inference 
models, later to be extended to include know­
ledge transformation facilities, 
— realization of the KBS applications on the most 
appropriate delivery vehicle in terms of MMI, 
engine capability, data/knowledge base 
capabilities, and storage capabilities as well as 
communication facilities, 
— customization of the system for users by provid­
ing an adaptive interface which minimizes 
cognitive load in terms of the dialogue with the 
system, 
— manipulation of knowledge for maintenance of 
installed systems, and for transformation of 
knowledge for the construction of new KBS 
application. 
R&D TOPICS 
Work will research, specify, classify and provision 
the tools and techniques of knowledge engineering, 
and will cover: 
No C 47/24 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
3.1.1. (*) Knowledge-based systems and their 
metrication 
3.1.2. (*) Dialogue and natural language 
3.1.3. (*) Knowledge representation and inference 
techniques 
3.1.4. Preparatory work towards advanced KBS 
3.1.4.1. Implementation languages and Envi­
ronments (*) 
3.1.4.2. Compilers and interpreters TYPE A PROJECTS 
3.1.1. Knowledge-based systems and their metrica­
tion 
The objective is an on-going programme, over at 
least five years, of construction of demonstrator 
KBS applications, using state-of-art facilities (hard­
ware, software and large databases) available at the 
time, so as to maintain an up-to-date pool of exper­
tise on knowledge engineering skills and on classifi­
cation of domain characteristics against available 
tools and methods. It will be a vehicle for learning 
about the strengths and weaknesses of the tools and 
methods used for process analysis, knowledge repre­
sentation and manipulation, inference and process­
ing, problem solving paradigms and human fac-
tors/MMI. 
3.1.4.3. Knowledge acquisition and manipula­
tion 
3.1.4.4. Advanced generation KBS applications 
3.1.4.5. Learning techniques (*) This particular project covers the first phase of the 
on-going demonstrator programme, with a switch 
over at resources from the fifth year into project 
3.1.4 for the second phase of the demonstrator pro­
gramme. 
Work in the first five years will concentrate on gain­
ing experience building KBS, particularly expert 
systems, using conventional equipment, so as to 
understand and extend capabilities. This would be 
followed subsequently with building an advanced 
generation of KBS, incorporating the results of all 
associated AIP research and results from the soft­
ware technology programme. 
Topics 3.1.1 and 3.1.4.4 jointly represent a rolling 
programme of, demonstrators for early and ad­
vanced KBS. Also research topics 3.1.3 and 3.1.4.1 
are expected to be very closely related, with a prime 
output into the advanced phase of demonstrators. 
However, it is expected demonstrators during the 
first five years will continuously feed problems and 
weaknesses into the above group of research topics, 
and conversely, each new rolling demonstrator can 
use early research results current at the time of 
inception, which it will then keep frozen for its two 
to three year duration. Since the tools and methods vary for domain classes 
showing major differences in character, demonstra­
tors should include widely varied examples in fields 
of creative design, production control diagnosis, 
systems modelling, signal processing, decision mak­
ing and software engineering. As such, this pro­
gramme will be a crucial source of education, and of 
direction for on-going/future research programmes, 
and of experience for making marketable KBS 
applications. 
(*) Note: Work planned to start in Year 1 (1984/85). Almost nothing is known about the practice of 
knowledge engineering as a human skill, or about 
KBS performance, evaluation, measurement and 
acceptability in terms of client productivity. It is 
necessary to identify those metrics which are of sig­
nificance and to establish methods and tools for 
their measurement — quality of knowledge is cru­
cial but difficult to metricate. This work must also 
create a 'tools and methods' kit for knowledge engi­
neers to size KBS applications in terms of construc­
tion and client usage resources, and in terms of the 
most appropriate system components. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/25 
Knowledge engineering will be a bigger bottleneck 
than software production if the issues of human 
productivity, as well as system performance, are not 
understood. As such, this work is of key importance 
in the top down design of KBS applications. Since 
new tools and techniques are added continually to 
the knowledge engineering repertoire during the 
Esprit programme, this metrication work should be 
organized as a continously rolling programme. 
Programme and intermediate objectives 
Year 1: 
— select application domain; 
— choose appropriate tools and methods; 
— establish implementation environment; 
— identify metrication aspects for evaluation; 
develop concepts and methods for solutions. 
Year 2: 
— choose metrication tools and methods to be 
developed; 
— define what measures are to be made and ana­
lyzed ; 
— define the applications to be instrumented and 
measured. 
Years 1 to 3: 
— assemble KBS demonstrator; 
— record construction methods and results; 
— record new domain characteristics. 
Year 3: 
— measurement and analysis of productivity and 
performance for the target applications. 
Years 2 to 4: 
— carry out experiments on demonstrators to 
determine acceptability and impact on 'client' 
productivity; 
— report on construction productivity and recom­
mend new tools and methods. Year 4: 
— publish productivity and performance recom­
mendations, and guidelines for knowledge 
engineers; 
— propose new metrication methods, especially 
those which are more automated. 
3.1.2. Dialogue and natural language 
Description 
A major work programme is required on the tools 
and methods for dialogue and communication lan­
guages which are natural to the domains in which 
KBS applications are to be competent. Included in 
this is the application of knowledge and context to 
the conduct and understanding of two-way dia­
logue, and of 'intelligence' to the interchange of dia­
logue initiative between systems and client users. 
The dialogue itself should enhance the quality of 
system behaviour by offering cooperation, under­
standing of personal behaviour and preference and 
paraphrase (all of which are knowledge based); it 
should also allow clients to interact with the system 
at various meta-levels whilst keeping track of all the 
context which may have to be returned to by system 
or client, following error or confusion. Explanation 
of KBS behaviour is absolutely critical to accept­
ance of such systems; this can be enhanced by inter-
working of the knowledge about the user with that 
of the application. 
Dialogue is more general than character string com­
munication; it extends to use of high bandwidth 
graphics, explanatory pictures and films, and to the 
use of audio support. 
Programme and intermediate objectives 
Year 1: 
— study of required language styles and capabili­
ties; 
— specify framework for exploitation of high 
bandwidth MMI. 
No C 47/26 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
Years 1 and 2: 
— understand dialogue requirements classified by 
domain of application. 
Years 2 to 4: 
— create generators and parsers for a variety of 
dialogue languages. 
Years 3 and 4: 
— specify knowledge-based language processing 
tools. 
Years 4 to 7: 
— implement knowledge-based language process­
ing/dialogue tools for integration into KBS 
applications. 
3.1.3. Knowledge representation and inference tech­
niques 
Description 
Knowledge representation is a key factor analogous 
to data modelling in conventional processing. 
Because of its complexity, it requires engineering, 
modelling and transformation tools of high sophisti­
cation. It is not expected that any one language will 
merge — rather that there will be a wide range of 
standards and techniques, which vary according to 
domain classification, paradigms employed, and to 
inference/processing models used. A comprehen­
sive effort is needed to differentiate, classify, and 
extend knowledge representations for these require­
ments. It is expected that more sophisticated appli­
cations will need to work with multiple differing, 
but cooperating, knowledge domains, and thus 
research on interworking KRS and inference models 
will be essential. 
Existing KBS applications use tools and methods 
which largely incorporate simple rules of inference 
— especially, little (meta) knowledge is applied to 
the use of knowledge and to control of inference. 
This leaves a lot to be desired in exploiting high 
quality knowledge and heuristics, which are often 
the key to KBS effectiveness rather than brute force 
hardware speed. Basic research should include: — natural deduction technique not requiring 
special implicative form; 
— non-classical logic such as temporal and fuzzy 
logic, which are closer to real-world time related 
and qualitative behaviour, but which lack prac­
tical proof algorithms; 
— knowledge-based control of the inference pro­
cess itself; 
— constraint propagation and truth maintenance; 
— exploitation of contextual knowledge; 
— cost/quality directed paradigms; 
— classification of inference tools and methods 
against domains, KRS and paradigms; 
— recognition of the need for real time transition 
of system state (and thus implicated knowledge) 
as a result of real-world change. 
Programme and intermediate objectives: 
Knowledge representations: 
Years 1 and 2: 
— compile all existing KRS proposals; 
— cross-check and fertilize so as to differentiate 
and classify KRS; 
— determine what is specifically and generally 
needed; 
— impact of psychology on KRS. 
Years 2 and 3: 
— extend and consolidate — referring to models 
such as data dictionaries, databases and pro­
gramming languages. 
Years 3 to 5: 
— propose new KRS tool kits and methods, and 
introduce these into project 3.1.1 for 'rolling' 
exploitation. 
Years 4 to 6: 
— publish European guidelines for components of 
KRS tool kits; 
— reference 'production' implementation of new 
KRS. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/27 
Inference techniques: 
Years 1 and 2: 
— determine state-of-art in tools and methods, and 
classify against domains, KRS and paradigms; 
— set up subprojects for research. 
Years 3 and 4: 
— undertake basic research on natural deduction, 
temporal logic, fuzzy logic, inference primitives, 
and knowledge based meta-level control of 
inference. 
Years 5 and 6: 
— construct inference models for output to the 
demonstrator and metrics programmes; 
— continue research on approximate reasoning 
and meta-level control. 
3.1.4. Preparatory work towards advanced KBS 
Although this is categorized as an A-project, work in 
the first few years will be at a comparatively low 
level and then build up as advanced generation 
KBS become feasible. The preparatory work will 
include: 
3.1.4.1. Implementation languages and environ­
ments; 
3.1.4.2. Compilers and interpreters; 
3.1.4.3. Knowledge acquisition and manipulation; 
3.1.4.4. Advanced generation KBS applications; 
3.1.4.5. learning techniques, 
though it is possible that other topics in this area 
will become identified as work proceeds. 
All five of the above topic areas are briefly des­
cribed below, but only the two which are planned to 
start in Year 1 (namely 3.1.4.1 and 3.1.4.5) have pro­
gramme outlines included. 3.1.4.1. Implementation languages and environ­
ments 
Description 
Evaluation of, recommendations on, and extension 
of, candidate implementation languages for tools of 
the research programme and as tools for knowledge 
engineers engaged in the construction of KBS appli­
cations. This should include languages for knowl­
edge modelling and for specification/design proto­
typing of KBS components. Later work should con­
centrate on establishing standards, which manufac­
turers will then treat as a safe base for significant 
hardware investment. An important aspect of lan­
guage evaluation is the richness and utility of their 
embedded development environments. It is 
expected that the software engineering common 
tools programme will address portability. 
Programme and intermediate objectives 
Years 1 to 3: 
— identify and evaluate candidate languages (for 
example, Smalltalk, LISP, Prolog, Poplog) envi­
ronments and architectures. 
Years 4 and 5: 
— publish critiques and recommend changes e.g. 
language extensions to exploit parallelism; 
— procure extensions/changes. 
Years 5 and 6: 
— issue guidelines to esprit; 
— make reference language systems available. 
3.1.4.2. Compilers and interpreters 
The objective is the software implementation of 
interpreters/compilers for the various knowledge 
representations and manipulation methods devel­
oped from 3.1.3 and 3.1.4.1. 
No C 47/28 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
3.1.4.3. Knowledge acquisition and manipulation 
Following early work on knowledge representation 
(3.1.3), experience from early applications and 
studies of knowledge engineering measures (3.1.1), 
and studies of dialogue (3.1.2), the needs for 
methods and tools associated with the practice of 
the knowledge engineering skill will become clear. 
The environment for knowledge acquisition and 
manipulation will of course be completely interac­
tive, and be aided with graphics. Work in this area 
will include: 
— knowledge editing, updating and retrieval, 
— KRS proof checkers, 
— knowledge dictionary systems, 
— knowledge transformation (different views of 
common knowledge), 
— knowledge abstraction from external sources, 
— knowledge acquisition/process analysis, 
— guide and tutor for knowledge engineering 
itself, 
— KBS distribution and automated knowledge 
maintenance, 
— MM I tool kits. 
This developing set of capabilities should be inte­
grated into recommended 'European' tool kits for 
handling knowledge. 
3.1.4.4. Advanced generation KBS applications 
This project will cover the development of advanced 
expert and knowledge-based systems incorporating 
learning, approximate and meta-reasoning with 
common-sense capabilities. KBS applications will 
have to be exploited by non-specialists who will 
expect from these systems not only formal and 
approximate reasoning processes, but also 
common-sense reasoning processes similar in effect 
to those of humans. 
Many applications where reasoning is needed 
involve some kind of approximate reasoning. For 
instance, applications of modelling where qualita­
tive heuristics characterize most learned human 
experience. Many times a problem has no simple solution at a 
given reasoning level; abstracting from that level 
allows one to argue about the reasoning process 
itself and gives rise to so-called meta-reasoning. 
Meta-reasoning deals with two types of problems: 
extending inference techniques for finding concep­
tual solutions to problems, and reasoning about 
inference techniques or rules for more efficient 
exploitation of these inference rules. 
The advanced generation of KBS applications will 
be expected to exploit the lessons of first generation 
attempts (3.1.1), the fruits of KRS and inference 
research (3.1.3), the tools of knowledge and acquisi­
tion manipulation (3.1.4.3), the latest languages and 
engines (3.1.4.1 and 3.1.4.2), the fruits of natural 
language processing research (3.1.2), and the fruits 
of the external interfaces programme (3.2) for hand­
ling sound and images. 
3.1.4.5. Learning techniques 
Description 
The knowledge acquisition process is complex and 
therefore it is mandatory to develop concepts, algo­
rithms and techniques to support the development 
of programs and machines which learn. This task 
covers the identification of appropriate models of 
learning and the investigation of learning tech­
niques appropriate for AIP systems. 
Learning techniques might be based on the capa­
bility of the artificial system to measure its per­
formance and to develop an evolutionary process 
which might improve such performance. 
Programme and intermediate objectives 
Years 1 and 2: 
— identification of models; 
— design of internal data structures and operations 
for a program which learns. 
Years 3 and 4: 
— investigation of learning techniques such as 
writing code of programs which learn; 
— preliminary testing. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/29 
Years 5 and 6: 
— full-scale commercially valuable learning experi­
ments with the program. — automatic adaptation and enhancement, 
— inference under conditions of conflicting and 
uncertain knowledge, 
— the impact of knowledge representation on 
inference techniques. 
TYPE B RESEARCH THEMES 
Related to 3.1.1: 
— application of existing and developing tech­
niques in cognitive psychology to KBS, 
— representation and use of general and specific 
real-world knowledge, 
— complexity metrics for KBS, 
— measures of completeness, consistency, 
— applicability of general measurement theory, 
— whole life-cycle of KBS; human acceptability 
and productivity aspects for both developers 
and clients as well as technical performance 
issues. 
Related to 3.1.2: 
— dialogue specification and analysis tools, 
— natural language systems architecture, 
— application of existing and developing tech­
niques in cognitive psychology and psycho-
linguistics to dialogue and natural language 
processing, 
— semantics and the role of context. Related to 3.1.4.1: 
— higher level implementation languages for 
knowledge representation and inference, 
— adaptation of formalisms for real-world know­
ledge to practical implementation languages for 
KBS, 
— languages and environments for concurrent pro­
cessing and for the integration of formal, struc­
tured 'software engineering' with KBS require­
ments. 
Related to 3.1.4.5: 
— concepts, algorithms and techniques to support 
the development of programs and machines 
which learn, 
— identification of appropriate models of learning, 
— investigation of learning techniques appropriate 
for AIP systems, 
— capabilities of an artificial system to measure its 
own performance and to improve such perform­
ance. 
Related to 3.1.3: 
— differentiation, classification and extension of 
knowledge representations for various domain 
classifications, paradigms employed and infer­
ence/processing models used, 
— experimental approaches to knowledge repre­
sentation, their specific ranges of application 
and their integration, 
— the relationships between knowledge represen­
tation and inference techniques, problems of 
self-reference and system 'self-awareness', 
— real-time inference techniques, 
— the role of meta-knowledge in inference 
processes, 
— techniques for planning and program synthesis, 
— structuring of reference techniques, R&Darea3.2: 
External interfaces 
Description 
In the past, facts about the real world have largely 
been represented to a computer system at second­
hand by people. The data fed in had to possess a 
formal structure that needed to be carefully speci­
fied to the system. This situation will change. 
Two types of external interface will occur. Those 
that extract their information by direct communica­
tion with humans, and those that acquire knowledge 
by means of their sensors. In either case the system 
will need to process the signals and interpret their 
significance. Other important aspects concern the 
No C 47/30 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
presentation of the results by the system to a human, 
and the user-friendliness of the system from a 
human users point of view. 
R&D TOPICS 
Work in this area falls under two main headings: 
3.2.1.: Basic signal analysis and recognition 
— advanced algorithms and architectures for sig­
nal processing, 
— study of pattern analysis techniques, 
— optical signal processing, 
— multi-sensor signal processing. 
3.2.2.: Recognition of specific signals 
— signal understanding, 
— handwriting, 
— speech, 
— text-to-speech systems with natural quality, 
— object and movement analysis, 
— human perception, 
— picture synthesis. 
TYPE A PROJECTS 
3.2.1. Basic signal analysis and recognition 
The first layers of a signal understanding system will 
consist of preprocessing and feature extraction (e.g. 
filtering, identification, etc.). In many cases this will 
have to be carried out in real-time. In order to 
achieve this, new algorithmic structures and hard­
ware will need to be developed. Such applications 
as image processing will require large bandwidths 
and highly parallel architectures, and hence VLSI 
plays an important part in the programme. 
Pattern analysis is the basis of signal recognition 
following feature extraction and therefore is a vital 
part of a signal understanding system. There is a need to improve and extend the techniques for pat­
tern analysis. Work is proposed in three topics: 
— clustering and template formation, 
— dynamic programming, 
— relaxation — an interactive procedure to assist 
in the provision of optimal decisions when one 
has a set of cooperative phenomena. 
Optical processing offers a potentially enormous 
bandwidth with processing at the speed of light. It is 
particularly suitable for global operations involved 
in pattern recognition e.g. filtering, correlation, con­
volution. Work is required to develop a high per­
formance electro-optic interface and to develop 
real-time 2-D processing techniques. A nonlinear 
process known as degenerate four wave mixing 
(DFWM) also has considerable potential. Also 
research into optical processing architectures and 
system design is needed. 
The final aspect of the project is concerned with the 
processing and correlation of multiple streams of 
signal information, a problem of increasing import­
ance in many areas where multiple sensors are used 
to acquire information at different points or about 
different aspects. Examples occur in the areas of 
process control, CIM, earth resources and biomedi­
cal signals. 
Programme and intermediate objectives 
(a) Advanced algorithms 
YearO: 
— choose target application, e.g. earth resource 
analysis, medical imaging, speech recognition; 
— develop algorithms and through analysis and 
simulation provide a system package for archi­
tectural analysis. 
Year 1: 
— select among different parallel architectures 
using simulation and extensive modelling. 
— Initiate design of VLSI package implementation 
of chosen algorithms. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/31 
Year 2: 
— continue analysis and simulation; 
— continue design of VLSI package of chips. Year 4: 
— evaluate performance of demonstrators; 
— demonstrate relaxation techniques. 
Year 3: 
— develop a programming environment adapted 
to the proposed architectures; 
— complete VLSI design and fabricate chips; 
— construct partial breadboard of proposed archi­
tecture with limited number of processors. (c) Optical signal processing 
Year 1: 
— identify applications. Initiate, design studies; 
— specify performance requirements for spatial 
light modulator (SLM) and DFWM. 
Year 4: 
— complete programming environment; 
— construct demonstrator model and evaluate. Year 2: 
— evaluate and implement into system: 
— SLM, 
— DFWM materials and architectures. 
Year 3: 
(b) Pattern analysis techniques 
Year 1: 
— survey state-of-the-art; 
— plan programme of research and select target 
applications; 
— initiate research on clustering and template for­
mation; 
— initiate research on dynamic programming. extend systems e.g. include Mellin-Fourier 
transforms. Implement improved SLM and 
DFWM materials/architectures. 
Year 4: 
— construct compact practical processors for iden­
tified applications. Highlight areas for future 
research and development. 
Year 2: 
— consider method of implementation such as sys­
tolic arrays; 
— initiate work on relaxation in relation to edge 
detection. 
Year 3: 
— continue research; 
— demonstrate clustering and template tech­
niques; 
— construct systolic array model for dynamic pro­
gramming demonstrators. (d) Multi-sensor signal processing 
Year 2: 
— study requirements and plan programme. 
Year 3: 
— simulate system and construction of model. 
Year 4: 
— construct demonstrator. 
Year 5: 
— complete and evaluate demonstrator. 
No C 47/32 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
TYPE B RESEARCH THEMES 
Related to (b) above: 
— sector quantization and marker modelling, 
— techniques for description of time varying pat­
terns, 
— learning techniques in pattern analysis. 
Related to (d) above: 
— sensor tasking; modification of sensor operation 
after processing. 
3.2.2. Recognition of specific signals 
Description 
To understand the meaning and content of real-
world signals such as speech and images is a stage 
beyond mere recognition of individual items such as 
words. The project will investigate methods of hand­
ling the information content of the signals, and 
hence use of knowledge and inference techniques is 
essential. Use of non-number-crunching processor 
structures will be necessary. In addition, attention 
must be directed towards description languages for 
external domains (e.g. 2-D and 3-D scenes). 
Direct input of manually written information would 
enhance man-machine communication. To achieve 
this, appropriate scanning techniques must be 
selected and developed, the output from which is 
subjected to suitable feature extraction and prepro­
cessing techniques. Different methods of classifica­
tion must be investigated. The project will look ini­
tially at hand-written characters, and subsequently 
at cursive script. 
Flexible input of data into systems by speech is 
needed as this is man's most natural signal. Because 
speech is normally produced in connected form it is 
not enough to recognize only isolated spoken com­
mands. Speaker independence and insensitivity to 
noise are other important requirements. The first 
phase will consider connected speech from limited 
but large vocabularies. Algorithms are required for 
feature extraction and preprocessing. Account must 
be taken of the conditions of speech input such as the noise environment, number of users and voca­
bulary. The classification technique should be econ­
omical in hardware. Phase 2 (after Year 5) will 
extend the work to continuous speech recognition 
from general vocabularies. This will necessitate 
research into recognition techniques based upon 
speech and linguistic knowledge. 
The most convenient medium for the output of 
information from computers for humans is by 
speech symbols. The quality of such a speech signal 
must be as natural and intelligible as the normal 
speech signal. The different research topics must 
cover the linguistic and phonetic aspect as well as 
the production of naturally sounding speech signals 
by electronic means. The resulting system will 
depend on the language chosen, hence more than 
one project is needed to cover the different lan­
guages. 
The object and movement analysis part of the pro­
ject will start by looking at stereo and optic flow 
techniques for developing depth maps from 2-D 
images. Subsequent studies will concern the inter­
pretation and symbolic description of 3-D objects 
and their deformation and movements. The project 
bridges the gap between image analysis/feature 
extraction and scene understanding. As such it con­
tributes to the goal of providing a' computer or 
machine with eyes. 
Work on perception to obtain a better understand­
ing of natural systems such as the eye/brain and 
ear/brain will be of great assistance in the design of 
signal processing systems. Speech analysis, based on 
a model of the human speech production process, is 
an example where lessons from natural systems 
have been successfully applied. The objective of 
phase 1 is to study low-level image and speech pro­
cessing. Edge extraction is known to be a funda­
mental part of the early visual processing in 
humans, and cells have been identified in the visual 
cortex that are sensitive to edge segments of specific 
duration. The study should lead to new algorithms 
for image and speech analysis. The objective of 
phase 2 is to study higher level processes involved in 
human signal understanding; this phase begins after 
Year 5. 
Picture synthesis is especially important in a scena­
rio where computers simulate parts of the real world 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/33 
e.g. in CAE or training applications. Very fast 
graphics processing techniques are as important as 
flexible storage techniques for images. Also impor­
tant in this project is the development of systems 
with a resolution of more than 1 000 x 1 000 pixels. 
Programme and intermediate objectives 
(a) Signal understanding 
Year 1: 
— choose a simple application with very restricted 
signal variations. 
Year 2: 
— define grammar of the example, build the basic 
experimental system. 
Year 3: 
— evaluate the chosen example. 
Year 4: 
— include a second and more complex signal 
domain to test the adoption of signal under­
standing to new problems. 
Year 5: 
— evaluate the total system. 
(b) Handwriting 
Year 1: 
— survey scanning techniques to initiate develop­
ment; 
— select algorithms for feature extraction for char­
acters. 
Year 2: 
— specify a demonstrator for character recogni­
tion; 
— choose method of classification. 
Year 3: 
— complete design of demonstrator and com­
mence construction; 
— initiate contextual analysis survey; — initiate study of techniques for cursive script 
recognition. 
Year 4: 
— complete character recognition demonstrator; 
— define research programme for cursive script 
recognition. 
Year 5: 
— evaluate character recognition demonstrator; 
— start design of cursive script recognizer. 
(c) Speech 
Years 2 and 3: 
— review algorithms for feature extraction and pre­
processing. Relate to noise dynamics. Identify 
the information content of the feature to optim­
ize choice. Study classification techniques. 
Year 4: 
— simulate recognition process on fast array pro­
cessor. 
Year 5: 
— design and build demonstrator. 
(d) Text-to-speech 
Year 1: 
— basic analysis of spoken speech, design of flexi­
bly controllable speech synthesizer, identify the 
parameters necessary for natural sound. 
Year 2: 
— evaluate linguistic rules for speech production 
including prosodic parameters, phonetics of 
speech production. 
Year 3: 
— further evaluation of phonetic and linguistic 
rules, simulations of synthetic speech including 
articulatory rules. 
No C 47/34 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
Year 4: 
— realization of flexible speech synthesizer; 
— further evaluation of prosodic parameters; 
— design of a letter cruncher machine for the lin­
guistic and phonetic processes. 
Year 5: 
— realizing the total text-to-speech system. 
(e) Movement analysis 
Years 1 and 2: 
— research into binocular stereo; 
— research into optic flow. 
Year 3: 
— generation of 2V2-D sketch; 
— generation of depth maps from optic flow; 
— symbolic descriptions of objects. 
Year 4: 
— study descriptions of movement, analysis tech­
niques; 
— study of transformation of 3-D objects. 
Year 5: 
— investigate amorphic changes of objects. 
(f) Human perception 
Year 2: 
— study of speech perception in the ear, including 
simulation of different models; 
— evaluation of human edge detection model. 
Year 3: 
— extend work to more general feature extraction. 
Year 4: 
— extend model to depth perception. Year 5: 
— study role of relaxation in human visual pro­
cessing; 
— study perception of texture. 
(g) Picture synthesis 
Year 1: 
— design new possibilities for sequential memo­
ries, picture transactions in the memory. 
Year 2: 
— design of a high-speed processor for fast access 
to memory. 
Year 3: 
— interpretation of memory and processor. 
Year 4: 
— revised version of processor, especially concen­
trating on the cooperation with fast memory 
structures. 
Year 5: 
— interpretation of the picture systems into the 
display system. 
TYPE B RESEARCH THEMES 
Related to (a) above: 
— computational linguistics, 
— high-level visual perception, 
— scene description languages, 
— application of relevant techniques from cog­
nitive psychology to signal understanding. 
Related to (b) above: 
— automatic dictionary generation, 
— machine learning processes. 
Related to (c) above: 
— phonetics, 
— syntax and grammar, 
— psycho-acoustics. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/35 
Related to (d) above: 
— linguistics, 
— phonetics, 
— linguistic rule compilers, 
— text comprehension, 
— study of more realistic speech models. 
Related to (e) above: 
— geometric reasoning, 
— generation of sparse reliable image represen­
tations suitable for correlation in stereopsis 
and optic flow. 
Related to (0 above: 
— relevant results and techniques from cognitive 
psychology, 
— physiology of eyes and ears, 
— models of human information processing. 
Related to (g) above: 
— picture description languages. — the identification of functional partitions, struc­
tures and mechanisms including distributed and 
very large knowledge bases, 
— the development of new storage structures, 
— the introduction of new physical principles to 
support new storage devices (e.g. optical, bio­
logical), 
— the realization of adequate dialogue techniques 
especially for the non-expert user, 
— automatic or semi-automatic construction of 
very large knowledge systems. 
Work in this area will strongly depend on advances 
in knowledge engineering and memory technology. 
R&Darea3.3: 
Information and knowledge storage R&D TOPICS 
The topics to be covered by this area are as follows: 
3.3.1. (*) Interface between storage and environ­
ment 
3.3.2. (*) Data and knowledge bases: 
— knowledge base studies for AIP, 
— distributed data bases and know­
ledge bases, 
— advanced KBMS. 
Description 
Knowledge-based systems are designed to derive 
information from their knowledge base and to indi­
cate their line of reasoning in arriving at a con­
clusion. The effectiveness of any knowledge-based 
system is determined by the quality of its knowledge 
base (its completeness, validity and accessibility) 
and of its deduction mechanism. 
This R&D area investigates the new forms of 
organization which will be necessary to hold and 
process representation of data, knowledge, and 
meta-knowledge. 3.3.3. Storage structures and architectures: 
— database oriented architectures, 
— performance models for storage 
structures, 
— storage architecture 
3.3.4. New generation knowledge machine 
3.3.5. Medium-term research on storage media 
The main objectives of this area are: 
— the definition of information and knowledge 
storage organizations including machine 
aspects. 3.3.6. Long-term research on optical discs 
(*) Note: Work planned to start in Year 1 (1984/85). 
No C 47/36 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
3.3.7. Long-term research on biological stor­
age. 
The work in the first five years will concentrate on 
gaining experience in knowledge storage and corres­
ponding access/dialogue techniques. 
Topic 3.3.1 incorporates continuation of work on 
interactive query systems started under the pilot pro­
jects in Year 0 (1983/84). 
TYPE A PROJECT 
3.3.2. Data and knowledge bases 
Description 
Studies are proposed to establish the interfaces, for­
malisms, languages, hardware and software compo­
nents which are required for the construction, distri­
bution, functional partitioning and hierarchic struc­
turing of DB and KB, including formulation of 
inference and data query access at levels ranging 
from human ^visible to those internal to the new 
generation ot systems. The focus of this work is to 
investigate commonalities and specifics in the archi­
tectural models of database and knowledge manage­
ment systems. 
There will be a parallel study aimed at establishing 
additional 'access' formulation languages, formal­
isms, interfaces and technology which are required 
for distributed knowledge-based information sys­
tems. The study includes investigations on very 
large knowledge bases and its impact on (e.g. paral­
lel) storage architectures. Distributed structures will 
be modelled and standards developed. 
The last part of the project emphasizes some 
advanced topics of knowledge base management sys­
tems which are not realized in present system and 
which are useful in knowledge-based systems and 
AIP in general. These include the representation 
and manipulation of complex objects, exploitation 
of inference mechanisms, realization of view 
mechanisms, semantic control and validation of 
queries. Programme and intermediate objectives 
(a) Studies 
Years 1 and 2: 
— Study fundamental requirements for including 
real-time constraints for knowledge-based infor­
mation systems. Investigate the relevance of 
database technology to knowledge-based infor­
mation systems. 
Year 3: 
— Develop specifications and model on a com­
puter. 
Year 4: 
— Define system standards and structure and sup­
porting specialized hardware. 
Years 5 and 6: 
— Study high-level interfaces, conceptual models, 
etc. 
(b) Distributed DM and KB 
Years 2 and 3: 
— Study KB mechanisms with particular reference 
to inference and distribution; 
— Develop methodology and model chosen struc­
tures. 
Year 4: 
— Lay down hierarchical structures for distributed 
DB and KB and selected inference mechanisms. 
Year 5: 
— Study very large knowledge-based systems. 
(c) Advanced KBMS 
Year 1: 
— Assess state-of-the-art for selected topics and 
relevance to AIP; 
— Select KBMS as a vehicle of study. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/37 
Year 2: 
— Develop model for selected KBMS features. 
Years 3 and 4: 
— Develop performance model and implement 
into an enhanced KBMS. 
Later projects 
Although not planned to start in Year 1, projects 
3.3.3 to 3.3.7 are described briefly here to give an 
overall picture of the R&D area. 
3.3.3. Storage structures and architectures 
In the last decade, different database-oriented archi­
tectures (intelligent controllers, software backends, 
database machines) have been investigated. The 
motivation behind the approaches is essentially to 
free the powerful and expensive main computer 
from the burden of handling large amounts of data 
involving quite simple operations. This element of 
the project will develop the potential for an ad­
vanced generation database towards the end of the 
programme. 
The aim of the 'performance models for storage 
structures' element of the project is to specify and 
target a system of metrics for, and quantification 
measurement of, the effectiveness of storage system 
structures. 
The third element of the project will fully define the 
storage architecture for the evolving semantic 
models of computation, inference, knowledge base 
and operational environment arising from project 
3.3.2. 
3.3.4. New generation knowledge machine 
The aim is to design and build a prototype of the 
knowledge management machine, test and demon­
strate it together with intelligent interface and infer­
ence machines. 
3.3.5. Medium-term research on storage media 
Current candidates are identified below, the selec­
tion criterion being those devices underpinning the 
requirements of KBS best: — Discs with thin film head technologies. Concen­
tration on physical access techniques to achieve 
random access inclusive of latency in the range 
2 to 3 ms and latency in the range of 1 to 2 ms. 
Capacity should be from 1 to 10 Gbytes and 
storage must be non-volatile. 
— Embedded search logic in thin film heads. To 
achieve compact high-performance disc sys­
tems, development is needed of embedded par­
allel CMOS search logic in multiple thin film 
heads capable of parallel fuzzy search on multi­
ple criteria in file store and of byte write opera­
tion. 
— Non-absolute content addressable memory. 
Develop a very large capacity fuzzy/non-deter­
ministic/probabilistic matching content 
addressed memory of capacity greater than 
200 Mb. 
— Mixed logic high density RAM. To design physi­
cal structures for word-wide memories, mixed 
logic and high density RAM on the same chip 
for ultra high-speed storage/processing net­
works suitable for reduction on data flow net­
works. 
3.3.6. and 3.3.7. Long-term research on optical discs 
and biological storage 
There is considerable potential for large storage cap­
acity using optical or biological techniques. Optical 
discs are already demonstrating potential as read­
only memories. Research is required to provide 
write and read facilities using such techniques as 
photochromism. Biological methods of fabrication 
should allow very fine interconnection paths and 
thus highly compact construction. Current feature 
sizes used in RAM are of the order of 10 000 
angstrom and are limited to 2-D construction. It is 
claimed that logic and storage elements of organic 
materials can be made with feature sizes of 
20 angstrom and in 3-D structures using biological 
and genetic engineering construction techniques. 
TYPE B RESEARCH THEMES 
Related to 3.3.1. 
— Security and associated issues in group usage of 
common knowledge bases. 
— Behavioural and cognitive studies. 
No C 47/38 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
Related to 3.3.2. 
— Comparative studies of knowledge representa­
tions with respect to the construction and use of 
very large and quasi-permanent knowledge 
bases. 
— Investigate relevance of formalisms utilized in 
knowledge representation, including issues of 
co-existence and conversion of different repre­
sentations. 
— investigate fundamental architectural issues, i.e. 
logical inter-realtionships between the compo­
nent 'machines' of a KBS such as: 
— KBM machine, 
— advanced interface machine, 
— inference machine, 
including impact on systems architecture of above 
issues. 
— Efficient utilization of bulk data through hybrid 
interfacing of DB and KB systems. 
R&Darea3.4: 
Computer architectures 
Description 
This R&D area investigates the potential for new 
forms of computer architecture. The traditional 
von Neumann architecture has a number of serious 
disadvantages as it precludes genuine parallel pro­
cessing because of the bottleneck created by the pro­
cessor/main-storage relationship. VLSI technology 
provides the means of creating alternative architec­
tures using a large number of parallel processors 
running concurrent tasks. There are a variety of such 
architectures and many different types of applica­
tions which would benefit from these multiple pro­
cessor approaches. 
These alternatives cannot be considered as water­
tight compartments never influencing each other. In 
order to evaluate the alternative approaches, and the 
attributes, utility and performance of the demonstra­
tors which will be built, metrics for computer archi­
tectures will be studied. 
The results of this programme will provide a basis 
for the introduction of new computer architectures 
into appropriate application areas. In all these stu­dies software aspects will play a central role. The 
impact of new architectures on actual programming 
environment should be carefully studied. Basic soft­
ware must be developed with the corresponding 
hardware. 
R&D TOPICS 
The topics to be researched in this area are: 
3.4.1. Ultracomputer, multiprocessor machines 
3.4.2. Non-von Neumann architectures 
— highly parallel computer architecture, 
— dataflow machines, 
— reduction machines, 
— inference machines. 
Both of these substantial projects are planned to 
start in Year 1 (1984/85). 
TYPE A PROJECTS 
3.4.1. Ultracomputer, multiprocessor machines 
Description 
The availability of VLSI has provided a means of 
constructing machines with large numbers of inter­
connected computing elements capable of concur­
rent operation. Each element is as powerful as 
machines currently in use. It is required to study 
architectures for such arrangements and identify 
their attributes, utility and performance in different 
applications, for numerical processing. A demon­
strator will be built capable of supporting one or 
more applications. The impact on software environ­
ment is a fundamental problem to be solved. The 
application will include large-scale modelling and 
simulation (weather forecasting, hydrodynamics and 
economic modelling), but this approach only attacks 
a small part of the overall programme. 
Programme and intermediate objectives 
Years 1 and 2: 
— feasibility study of design strategies. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/39 
Years 2 and 3: 
— study and selection of interconnection strate­
gies. 
Years 3 to 5: 
— design and implementation of prototype. 
3.4.2. Non-von Neumann architectures 
Description 
The availability of VLSI has provided a means of 
constructing machines with very large numbers (e.g. 
1 000) of interconnected computing elements capa­
ble of concurrent operations. It is required to study 
interconnection architectures and special compo­
nents for realistic and cheap solutions. The applica­
tion targets are signal recognition and understand­
ing and logic programming. This study looks at the 
exploitation of interconnect strategies which will 
define an architecture and special associated com­
ponents. A demonstrator will be built including the 
software in order to support the chosen languages. 
Data-flow machines use the principle of single 
assignment, i.e. they restrict the number of values of 
each manipulated object to one. The architecture is 
characterized by a parallel data-driven control struc­
ture and a 'by value' data mechanism. Data flow 
offers the possibility of increased performance in 
AIR This part of the project will consider the attri­
butes in a range of applications and provide a basis 
for design choice in the application of data-flow 
machines. A demonstrator will be built. Impact on 
software will be examined. 
Reduction machines (well suited to the execution of 
applicative languages, such as pure LISP, Backus 
FP, KRC) can be demand-driven, i.e. a function 
application is Tired' when its result is required by a 
surrounding function application. The data mechan­
ism can be 'by value' (string reduction) or 'by refer­
ence' (graph reduction). 
Inference machines are special purpose machines 
dedicated to deductive operations. They are impor­
tant because logic programming is one of the foun­
dations of knowledge engineering and also because 
of the power of inference and pattern matching 
techniques in deductive systems used in expert sys­tems. Currently, inference mechanisms in languages 
like Prolog are realized through software on conven­
tional computers. Parallel execution of these lan­
guages is required. Appropriate hardware mechan­
isms will be proposed after study of related algo­
rithms. This part of the project will be in three 
phases; phase 1 and the start of phase 2 fall inside 
the five-year planning horizon. 
Programme and intermediate objectives 
(a) Highly-parallel architecture 
Year 1: 
— feasibility study and selection of interconnec­
tion strategies. 
Year 2: 
— simulations and definitions of basic VLSI com­
ponents. 
Years 3 and 4: 
— VLSI component development and simulation. 
Year?: 
— produce mock-ups. 
(b) Data-flow machines 
Year 1: 
— search literature, generate set of alternative 
architectures. Identify applications suitable for 
data-flow machines. Select applications and 
alternative architectures for detailed study. 
Year 2: 
— study applications and alternative architectures; 
— select application(s) and architecture for 
demonstrator. 
Years 2 and 3: 
— specify and design data-flow computer demon­
strator. Commence implementation. Continue 
application studies. 
No C 47/40 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
Year 4: 
— complete implementation of demonstrator, con­
tinue application studies. 
Years 5 and 6: 
— test demonstrator, make initial assessment of 
attributes, utility and performance. Relate 
results to application studies, publish results. 
(c) Reduction machines 
Year 1: 
— search literature, generate set of alternative 
architectures; 
— identify applications. 
Year 2: 
— select application(s) and architecture. 
Year 3: 
— design reduction mechanism; 
— continue application studies. 
Years 4 and 5: 
— implementation, continue application studies. 
Years 5 and 6: 
— demonstrator, relate results to application 
studies, publish results. 
(d) Inference machines 
Phase 1 
Year 1: 
— search literature, study basic mechanisms, assess 
potential applications. Specify parallel infer­
ence machine as research tool. 
Years 2 to 4: 
— implement parallel research tool. Select appli­
cations for detailed study. Select approach to 
design of experimental parallel inference 
machine. Phase 2 
Year 5: 
— specify and design experimental parallel infer­
ence machine using results of 3.4.1 and 3.4.2. 
Start implementation. Continue studies of 
mechanisms using research tool. 
TYPE B RESEARCH THEMES 
Related to 3.4.1: 
— interconnection strategies for interworking of 
different architectures; 
— development of symbolic processing machines; 
— development of a machine architecture to sup­
port ACTOR-based languages. 
Related to 3.4.2: 
— connection machine designs. 
R&Darea3.5: 
Design and system aspects 
Description 
This R & D area covers the urgently needed stan­
dards, special specification and verification tech­
niques, design methods, general system methods, 
and catalogues of information and technical moni­
toring which are relevant to the other activities 
within the AIP subprogramme. 
There are two key objectives here: 
— to produce order out of the current diversity of 
approaches to AIP, 
— to develop techniques for producing reliable 
and trustworthy AIP systems and for maintain­
ing them as they adapt to changing circum­
stances. 
Corresponding motivations exist in the software 
technology area and this activity will be coordinated 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/41 
with 2.1; however, certain features of AIP justify the 
emphasis here. These are: 
— the lack of any existing work which is attuned to 
AIP, 
— the need for such work, in view of the complex­
ity, indeterminacy, adaptability and self-moni­
toring potential for AIP systems. 
An important aspect of the approach which is 
adopted here is the introduction of a level of system 
specification intermediate between that of the exter­
nal requirements and the internal software and 
hardware specifications. This intermediate level 
should reflect the nature of AIP systems, adopting 
appropriate primitive notions and relationships for 
specifying inference techniques, knowledge repre­
sentations and other aspects, so that relevant AIP 
concepts can be described clearly in a way which 
may guide the design of software and hardware. 
However, it should be noted that the software-hard­
ware level and the AIP conceptual level are often 
tightly interconnected, so that the formalisms for 
either cannot be laid down without continued refer­
ence to the limitations imposed by the other. 
R&D TOPICS 
The R&D topics to be addressed in this area are: 
— Standards for AIP projects; 
— Requirements specifications for AIP systems; 
— Design specification methods for AIP systems; 
— Design methodologies for AIP systems; 
— Security/Confidentiality of knowledge and data 
in AIP systems; 
— Reliability, credibility and integrity of AIP sys­
tems and their outputs; 
— Testing and validation of AIP systems; 
— State-of-the-art intelligence unit in critical basic 
areas; 
— Monitoring and coordination of developments 
within the AIP programme; 
— Updates of earlier tasks; 
— Reverse engineering on classical information 
processing systems. Due to their supportive nature, these topics can be 
characterized as type B. For some of them, an 
explicit partnership with one or several of the most 
appropriate type A projects (e.g. other AIP projects, 
software technology) will be desirable in order to 
optimize overall synergy within Esprit. 
R&Darea3.6: 
Focusing projects 
Concepts 
The other five R&D areas cover individual aspects 
of the advanced information processing (AIP) field. 
In addition to detailed programmes of work relating 
to the basic techniques, it is felt essential to include 
a number of integrated inter-disciplinary projects 
that span not only the five identified aspects of AIP 
but also the other areas of the Esprit programme. 
Thus, where appropriate, these should be merged 
with other subprogrammes to achieve the size 
required consistent with the interdisciplinary nature 
of the focusing project. This section is concerned 
with these 'focusing' projects. 
It is intended that these projects should provide a 
set of goals that will act as foci for the interdiscipli­
nary aspects of the work. Although the goals should 
be clearly visible at all times, their non-achievement 
within the timescale should not be construed as fail­
ure since many of the rewards will come in the form 
of a large number of small developments in the dif­
ferent fields. As a concept, they have been endorsed 
by all sections of the Esprit community. 
Examples of focusing projects are given in outline 
below. It should be stressed that these are merely 
examples chosen to illustrate the concept of focus­
ing project and are in no way intended to restrict the 
final choice — what is important is that the Esprit 
programme include resources and effort to cover 
such projects. These projects should form part of the 
overall Esprit programme rather than the AIP sub-
programme. Equally the final choice of projects will 
need to be flexibly determined in the context of the 
overall programme. 
Criteria 
In formulating the criteria for choosing focusing 
projects it is possible to include wider aspects than 
No C 47/42 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
those mentioned above. Some of the essential cri­
teria for such work are discussed below. However, 
an overall consideration of flexibility should allow 
this programme to proceed to best effect. 
(a) The project should indeed 'focus'. This could 
mean any combination of aspects such as: 
— it utilizes and brings together results and 
findings from multiple other areas of Esprit, 
both from within AIP and outside it (e.g. 
software technology, office automation, 
etc.), 
— it combines and integrates results and find­
ings of other Esprit areas, 
— it emphasizes the interdependencies and 
anticipates and resolves potential conflicts 
between Esprit areas, 
— it provides for a two-way interaction 
between its own area and other Esprit areas. 
(b) The project should be substantially realizable 
(feasible, realistic, achievable) within the pro­
posed time frairie, and have a clearly identi­
fiable end point within that time frame. 
(c) The project should at least exploit the state-of-
the-art, or rather be at the leading edge or, at 
worst, promise to bring forward the state-of-
the-art substantially in Esprit. 
(d) The project should have relevance for the public 
at large, such as promising to be socially bene­
ficial, or being socially attractive. 
(e) The project should identifiably feed back infor­
mation to other areas of Esprit, of two kinds: 
— technological/scientific information, 
— 'realism' information. 
(f) The project should have an applied nature, 
rather than be concerned with pure science. 
(g) The project should result in at least a demon-
stratable prototype. Examples 
A number of topics have been identified, with a 
cluster of specific examples of focusing projects 
within each topic. The titles are given below in a 
structured form as illustrations only. 
(i) Decision support: 
— an agro-chemical adviser, 
— planning systems for office automation. 
(ii) Natural languages: 
— interactive spelling correction and man­
agement. 
(iii) Complex control systems: 
— integrated vehicle, processor and physical 
environment. 
(iv) Office systems: 
— HELP-system for OS users. 
(v) Programming assistance: 
— automatic programming system. 
(vi) Tools for information systems users: 
— development of an atlas for IT. 
(vii) General: 
— computer aided system maintenance, 
— water quality monitoring by satellite 
images. 
Whatever is selected as focus projects, these will be 
of the type A. 
SUBPROGRAMME 4 
OFFICE SYSTEMS 
Importance of the subprogramme office systems 
The success of Esprit is eventually measured by the increased competitiveness of the 
European information technology industry, which can only be obtained by better 
products and not by results in the research field alone. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/43 
Research work in the field of office systems can be characterized as follows: on the 
basis of fundamental and methodological developments in VLSI, software technology 
and advanced information processing and some other fields, integrated and applied 
system solutions are developed which take into consideration user requirements and 
foreseeable modifications in the technical, social and economical field (see Figure 
4-1). 
Office systems are the key elements in the development from classical data processing 
to integrated information processing in administrations and industrial and service 
enterprises, by which the future work environment will be characterized. For that pur­
pose systems and communication networks with standardized interfaces are necessary. 
In developing these systems which are very important for our industrial companies, 
aspects of human factors have to be considered in the early stage of planning. Only in 
this way can we ensure that the systems will be accepted later on by the users and that 
economic expectation will also be met. European industry is particularly well suited 
for this development because of its historical and cultural tradition. 
Research areas of the subprogramme office systems 
Taking into account the abovementioned integrated approach, the subprogramme has 
been divided into five research areas (see Figure 4-1): 
— Office systems science and human factors 
A joint study is imperative in order to address equally both the human factors and 
the rationalization aspects. The best systems from a purely technical point of view 
are of no use when they are not accepted by the users. 
— Advanced workstations 
The kernel of the future office will consist of workstations with new man-mach­
ine interfaces (data, text, images, speech). Thus, high priority should be given to 
this development. 
— Communication systems 
Networks and integrated information systems require a new system design using 
very wide band networks that use alternative basic technologies in order to pro­
cess and to transmit vast quantities of multi-mode data all over the world. 
— Advanced filing and retrieval systems 
In order to progress towards a paperless office, it is necessary to overcome the 
present obstacles to processing of vast quantities of information and to fast 
retrieval of the stored information by new solutions. 
— Integrated office system design and evaluation 
The research for optimal and advanced designs for elements of the integrated off­
ice systems should lead to the development of prototypes for such systems; ade­
quate methods and facilities have to be found that can serve as test environments. 
No C 47/44 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
Figure 4-1 
Relations of office systems to other Esprit subprogrammes and office environments 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/45 
Research aims of the office systems subprogramme 
(a) To analyze current and predicted office activities and to determine how new 
information technology might be applied to improve the effectiveness of 
office work and organization. Besides automation of various functions, this 
means better technical support particularly for clerks, professional and 
managerial staff in executing their non-deterministic tasks. 
(b) To improve understanding of human factors in the office and to ensure high 
performance of users when interacting with the systems, whilst at the same 
time offering optimal working conditions and ensuring adequate organiza­
tional and individual acceptance. 
To establish major new man-machine interface technologies, peripheral technolo­
gies and document representation technologies relevant to the subsequent 
development of high-level office work-stations for use in advanced office systems. 
To create the basic technologies required for advanced office communication sys­
tems including technical fundamentals in communication systems architecture, 
optical technologies as a particularly significant technology and system aspects of 
value added services. 
4. To acquire the systems and applications expertise related to filing and retrieval of 
all forms of office information in electronic storage systems in a user organization 
in an adequate way. 
5. To create the possibility to check the validity of the total information concepts 
that are advocated, in environments that are realistic and allow quantitative 
evaluation. 
R&D area 4.1: 
Office systems science and human factors 
Description 
This research programme has been devised to give a 
better understanding of the office environment. Off­
ices are the 'nervous system' of any enterprise, that 
have to be organized, staffed and equipped for 
effective and efficient operation, and that have to 
interface with other branches of the enterprise, such 
as research laboratories and manufacturing. 
At present the understanding of this field is patchy. 
There is no formal science of office automation as 
there is for production automation. This pro­
gramme, however, makes a coherent attack on the 
problems, ranging from empirical studies to consist­ent operational classifications and computer-based 
analysis and design tools. 
Consistent with this approach, the main areas iden­
tified are (a) office systems analysis, (b) office sys­
tems design and (c) human factors. The analysis 
part of the programme delivers useful input for the 
design oriented phases. 
It is evident that the incorporation of human fac­
tors, especially into a technology-oriented pro­
gramme is an essential prerequisite for effective use 
and a broad acceptance of the envisaged systems 
and thus for their final economic success. The 
research programme therefore includes specific 
research projects on human factors related to the 
office environment and this leads to programmes for 
cognitive aspects together with work structuring, 
qualification and training. Independent human fac­
tors laboratories are also seen as important, offering 
the possibility of an unbiased judgment on com­
mercial products. 
No C 47/46 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
R&D TOPICS 
The topics to be studied in this area include: 
4.1.1. Office systems analysis: 
— functional analysis of office requirements (*); 
— implementation of functions; 
— performance measurements (*); 
4.1.2. Office systems design: 
— office system design methodology (*); 
— a language for the specification of offices (*); 
— office simulator; 
— transaction monitor; 
4.1.3. Human factors: 
— independent human factors laboratories (*); 
— human/machine cognitive compatibility (*); 
— qualification and work (*); 
— user service interface in a multi-service environ­
ment. 
Work is already under way in the functional ana­
lysis and performance measurements topics of 4.1.1, 
started by the pilot projects in Year 0 (1983/84). 
TYPE A PROJECT 
One type A project is identified in the human fac­
tors area. The project may embrace R&D topics 
listed as type B projects. 
4.1.3.1. Independent human factors laboratories 
This project is concerned with the establishment of 
close cooperation of European human factors labor­
atories, where research can be fruitfully and econ­
omically conducted, guidelines be developed, R&D 
(*) Note: Work on these topics is planned to start in 
Year 1 (1984/85). personnel trained and advice given to develop­
ment laboratories. 
The project aims at the creation of managerial, 
organizational and legal structures to formalize the 
cooperation, and the elaboration of a well-selected 
set of research topics by the laboratories coop­
erating. 
Programme 
Year 1: 
— elaboration of managerial, organizational and 
legal structures that consolidate the coopera­
tion; 
— start of cooperation work in selected research 
areas. 
Years 2 to 5: 
— elaboration of training programmes, setting up 
and (re)allocation of specific research facilities 
among the partners, the elaboration of proce­
dures for internal and external consultation, the 
execution of selected research. 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— establishment of managerial, organizational and 
legal structures; 
24th month 
— establishment of the first training programme in 
human factors; 
48th month 
— results of specific human factors research avail­
able. 
TYPE B PROJECTS 
All the above topics are suitable for type B projects. 
Those described below are planned to be started in 
1984/85. 
Office systems analysis 
4.1.1.1. Functional analysis of office requirements 
The standard functions in an office are identified to 
reduce the requirements for customization. Investi-
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/47 
gation of the benefits of computer-based office sys­
tems to organization and office worker. A glossary 
of agreed terminology will be included. 
4.1.1.3. Performance measurement 
Traditional profitability studies have limited boun­
daries and neglect important influences such as flex­
ibility, value of information, etc. This project 
includes these non-quantifiable factors besides the 
quantifiable factors. 
Office systems design 
4.1.2.1. Office system design methodology 
Overall design methodologies of computer-based 
office systems will be studied, implemented and the 
results validated in trial systems. The effect of 
human factors will be taken into account. 
4.1.2.2. A language for the specification of offices 
A language for the specification of offices will be 
developed from functional models. 
Human factors 
4.1.3.1. Independent human factors laboratories 
To catalyze the further development, the use and the 
cooperation of human factors laboratories to act as 
European centres for guideline generation, perform­
ance measurement, human factors product evalua­
tion, and in general to increase the awareness of the 
human factors in design. 
The laboratories may provide post-graduate training 
facilities. Projects in this area will have concrete 
functional objectives, that can only be achieved 
through the collaboration of a number of industry-
oriented laboratories. 
4.1.3.2. Human-machine cognitive compatibility 
To develop and formalize description methods for 
cognitive task representation and problem-solving 
processes for knowledge workers. 4.1.3.3. Qualification and work 
Study of the evolution of office work due to the 
introduction of office information technology and 
other factors. Development and evaluation of sys­
tem-based training facilities that help the user to 
adapt. 
R&Darea4.2: 
Advanced workstations 
Description 
The workstation is the user's gateway to the office 
system. User acceptance and user performance 
depend on the design of the corresponding man-
machine interface. 
The most important channel for information input 
to the user is the visual channel. This channel, as 
well as the other sensory channels, have evolved to 
provide information for motoric activities which 
should not be suppressed but adequately integrated 
in operating the interface. In consequence, VDUs 
and touch keyboards will emerge to form an inte­
grated input/output device suitable to manipulate 
text and images by direct manual access. Preferably 
the screens should have the dimensions and porta­
bility of paper (electronic paper). Another approach 
to a more comfortable 'visual input' will be the large 
screen display. The need for multi-functional capa­
bilities will require the development of devices 
which allow graphic input and editing, on-line-
handwriting and ideogrammatic conversation. 
As long as there is no portable paperlike display, 
printing will be necessary and the need will be grow­
ing for faster more versatile (text, graphic, colour) 
printers at low cost. 
A high proportion of telephone or face-to-face com­
munication indicates that visual and spoken infor­
mation will be preferred whenever it is applicable. 
Visual communication will require the development 
of high definition colour video scanning devices 
with the necessary processing capabilities for effi­
cient storage and transmission and the use of the 
multifunction flat panel display. 
The acoustic channel cannot handle as much infor­
mation as the optical channel but is our most effi-
No C 47/48 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
cient means of information transmission. Acoustical 
communication will require the development of 
sophisticated processing for improving the acoustic 
environment, and the development of coding 
schemes. Voice communication between man and 
the office system will require the development of 
efficient speech recognition and of a natural speech 
synthesizer. 
An important aspect of facilitating the standard­
ization of the interface with the human world and 
the paper world is easy-to-use formalized languages. 
These are to be designed in a way which allows the 
user, rather than the computer professional, to 
specify his needs directly to the system. 
The developments of specific workstation compo­
nents should lead to a general architecture which 
will allow the integration of the subsystems in an 
architecturally homogeneous workstation. 
R&D TOPICS 
The following R & D topics are identified: 
4.2.1. System aspects of workstation design (*) 
4.2.2. Vision interface 
— flat panel displays, 
— high resolution video scanner, 
— image coding (*); 
4.2.3. Paper interface 
— advanced scanner (*), 
— advanced printer (*), 
— graphics coding (*), 
— graphics recognition (*); 
4.2.4. Speech interface 
— speech coding (*), 
— speech recognition (*), 
— speech synthesis (*); 
4.2.5. Office languages 
— office document language (*), 
— office interface language (*). 
(*) Note: Work is planned to start on these topics in 
Year 1 (1984/85). Pilot projects are underway in the vision interface, 
paper interface, speech interface and office lan­
guage R&D areas. 
TYPE A PROJECTS 
Projects on the topics listed below are planned to be 
started in 1984/85. The support of more than one 
project on R & D topic 4.2.1 is considered. 
4.2.1. System aspects of workstation design 
Description 
The elaboration of a general architecture which will 
allow the integration of the subsystems handling the 
multimedia input/output (viz. vision, paper, speech, 
language), the filing subsystem and the network 
interfaces in an architecturally homogeneous work­
station both from the hardware, the software and the 
human factors point of view. 
Prototypes shall be developed and tested thoroughly 
in adequate environments and in sufficient numbers 
to allow qualitative and quantitative evaluation on a 
statistically sound basis. 
Programme 
Year 1: 
— definition of a model of man/machine interac­
tion; 
— definition of computer performance, storage 
requirements; 
— definition of the requirements of advanced 
interfaces; 
— definition of workstation architecture. 
Year 2: 
— assembly of subsystems and start software 
development for experimental workstation. 
Year 3: 
— completion of software experimental work­
station ; 
— test of workstation; evaluation of results. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/49 
Year 4: 
— continued evaluation of experimental worksta­
tion in a number of environments (links with 
network and servers required); 
— definition and construction of advanced work­
station interfaces to multimedia input/output, 
filing system, network, etc.; 
— completion of language interface. 
Year 5: 
— assembly of advanced workstation; 
— identification of test-sites, requirements. 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— specification of experimental workstation archi­
tecture ; 
24th month 
— experimental workstation operational; 
36th month 
— experimental workstation evaluation; 
48th month 
— specification of advanced workstation interfaces 
(multimedia network); 
60th month 
— advanced workstation operational. 
4.2.3. Paper interface 
Description 
The development of devices for the scanning, the 
hard copying of graphic information (like typewrit­
ten, printed, handwritten and combination thereof; 
including text and images of various kinds), and the 
processing at different levels (e.g. uncoded digital 
I/O, coding with redundance, reduction, etc.). 
Projects in this area may contain topics listed under 
type B projects. Programme 
Year 1: 
— study of the state-of-the-art of the technology 
for scanners, bit-map printers, graphics coding 
and recognition; 
— specification of omnifont recognizer; 
— specification of graphics coder. 
Year 2: 
— specification of a multicolour scanner; 
— specification of a multicolour printer; 
— realization of omnifont character recognition. 
Year 3: 
— development of coding algorithms; 
— development of a multicolour scanner. 
Year 4: 
— development of a graphics coder; 
— development of multifont character recognition; 
— development of experimental multicolour prin­
ter. 
Year 5: 
— development of a handwriting recognizer; 
— development of a multicolour printer-scanner. 
Intermediate objectives: 
24th months 
— optical character recognizers; 
36th months 
— demonstration of scanner; 
48th months 
— demonstration of multicolour printer; 
60th months 
— demonstration of handwriting recognition; 
— demonstration of multicolour printer-scanner. 
No C 47/50 . Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
4.2.4. Speech interface 
Description 
The development and evaluation of devices and 
functions for the processing of human speech to and 
from the workstation. The R&D will be aiming at 
reliable recognition algorithms and high-quality 
speech output, guaranteeing user acceptance of the 
speech interface. Projects in this area may contain a 
number of research topics listed for type B projects. 
Programme 
Year 1: 
— specification of software for speech synthesis. 
Year 2: 
— specification of speaker independent recog­
nition of isolated words. 
Year 3: 
— demonstration of feasibility of speech synthesis; 
— implementation of 16 kb/s codec; 
— specification of speaker independent recog­
nition of connected speech. 
Year 4: 
— implementation of 8-4 kb/s codec; 
— demonstration of feasibility of speech synthesis 
in all EC languages, Spanish and Japanese; 
— specification of speech recognition in all EC 
languages, Spanish and Japanese. 
Year 5: 
— implementation of 2,4 kb/s codec; 
— specification of speaker independent speech 
recognition of connected speech; 
— implementation of speech synthesizer for at 
least three languages. Intermediate objectives 
36th month 
— speaker independent isolated word recognizer 
for limited vocabularies; 
— hardware implemented speech synthesis for one 
language; 
— 16 kb/s codec; 
48th month 
— speaker independent isolated word recognizer 
for limited vocabularies in at least three lan­
guages; 
60th month 
— speaker independent connected speech recog­
nizer for restricted syntax speech; 
— hardware implemented speech synthesis for at 
least three languages; 
— 2,4 kb/s codec. 
TYPE B PROJECTS 
Projects in this category are planned to start in 
1984/85, separately or as part of relevant type A 
projects. In exceptional cases, type B projects 
sharing a common methodology, or closely related 
objectives, may be combined to form one type B 
project. 
Vision interface: 
4.2.2. Vision interface 
The project aims at the development of devices 
which allow the pick-up and display of image infor­
mation with a definition at 1 000 lines and the hand­
ling of image information at different levels of 
understanding. The high-definition display will also 
allow the easy introduction of data and commands. 
4.2.2.3. Image coding. Devices for bit-rate reduc­
tion of video signals due to 64 kb/s and 256 kb/s 
respectively. 
Paper interface: 
4.2.3.1. Advanced scanner. Scanner for at least 
1 000 pixel resolution multicolour and grey scale. 
20.2.84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/51 
4.2.3.2. Advanced printer. Printer for at least 1 000 
pixel resolution multicolour and grey scale. 
4.2.3.3. Graphics coding. Hardware implemented 
intelligent coding algorithm with very high compres­
sion ratio. 
4.2.3.4. Graphics recognition. Algorithms for omni­
font and multifont character recognition respec­
tively, and for handwriting recognition. 
Speech interface: 
4.2.4.1. Speech coding. Hardware implemented 
algorithm for speech bit rate compression to 16, 8, 4 
and 2,4 kb/s respectively. 
4.2.4.2. Speech recognition. Algorithms for recogni­
tion of speaker independent isolated words (limited 
vocabularies), speaker dependent and speaker inde­
pendent connected speech (restricted syntax). 
4.2.4.3. Speech synthesis. Devices for text-to-
speech synthesis of satisfactory naturalness and 
resolution quality. 
Office languages: 
4.2.5.1. Office document language. Definition and 
implementation of a family of formal languages to 
represent documents, as well as translators between 
such languages. 
4.2.5.2. Office interface language. Definition and 
implementation of languages for easy multi-mode 
document description and natural user interaction, 
implemented for the official EC natural language 
environments. 
R& D area 4.3: 
Communication systems 
Description 
Office communication presents a number of possi­
ble long lead time research projects. Technological 
advances are needed in microelectronics and in 
fibre optics, and research is necessary on the prin­
ciples of future communication systems such as wide­
band local area networks (LAN), the interconnnec-
tion of LANs, and the gateway facilities for multi-
mode functionality. R&D should lead to new systems and to standards. Besides these technical 
problems, there are non-technical problem areas 
which have to be addressed in order to support the 
progress of office communication systems. The 
requirements of office communication have to be 
explored more systematically to get a more solid 
basis for future telecommunication systems design. 
The special aspects of human interface with com­
munication have to be studied, and the future rela­
tionship of the PTTs to new local communication 
systems has to be considered. New languages and 
operating system facilities are necessary in connec­
tion with distributed networks. 
Within this scope of possible research activities, four 
main topics which cover some key issues have been 
determined. 
The first topic is dedicated to the fundamental ques­
tion — how to provide a common communication 
system for all office communication needs. This 
question becomes more and more urgent, since 
non-voice communication will be needed at almost 
every desk in the future and video communication is 
on its way. 
The second topic addresses the wide band LAN, 
including the application of optical fibres, and all 
the technological problems related to this. 
The third and fourth topics intend to advance the 
standardization of value added communication 
services in the form of mail box messaging for text, 
image and voice, and for public information sys­
tems using interactive multi-mode Videotex. 
R&D TOPICS 
4.3.1. Communication system architecture (*) 
4.3.2. Optical wideband LAN (*) 
4.3.3. Multi-mode messaging 
4.3.4. ISDN-based advanced Videotex (*) 
Pilot projects are underway in LAN standardization, 
wideband transmission and communication system 
interfaces. 
(*) Note: Work is planned to start on these topics in Year 
1 (1984/85). 
No C 47/52 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
TYPE A PROJECTS 
Projects in this category planned to be started in 
1984/85 are described below. In communication 
systems architecture, support of more than one pro­
ject is considered when different aspects need to be 
emphasized. 
4.3.1 Communication system architecture 
Description 
Determine the topologies most appropriate for typi­
cal office situations including local, distributed and 
long-haul linked offices, given by traffic require­
ments and distance. Define network management 
strategy including appropriate network access proto­
cols and multiplexing schemes, exploring the possi­
bilities of network error recovery, reconfiguration 
and overall control. The architecture should provide 
for gateway functions to take account of future 
developments in the public network and also for 
privacy and security requirements. 
The industrial interest for the development of stand­
ards and the execution of conformance tests is part 
of the project definition. 
Programme 
Year 1: 
— study alternatives of architectures, with partic­
ular respect to distributed working, technologies 
to be expected, traffic characteristics, require­
ments for monitoring and logging, network 
management and control, and for security of 
access and data transfer. 
Years 2 to 5: 
— design basic architectures (e.g. LAN-based, 
PBX-based) on the knowledge acquired above; 
— first statements on economics, performance, 
standards; 
— definition of communication server and other 
gateway functions, including functions which 
convert the different types of protocols into a 
common LAN protocol for intra-office network­ing, inter-office open system interconnection, 
data-base access and remote information 
centres; 
— refinement of architecture (e.g. routing); stand­
ardization activities; preparation of experimen­
tal implementation as far as appears necessary 
(e.g. pilot communication server); 
— standardization activities; realization of experi­
mental implementation; 
— evaluate architecture by results of experimental 
work. 
Year 3: 
— Work on tools to be started in Year 3: 
— identification of tools required. Identifi­
cation of relevant standard communication 
interchange and management protocols 
(session, transport and network). Identifica­
tion of relevant equipment architectures. 
Definition of tool architecture, 
— specification of individual tools. Design 
and construct tools. 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— network architecture requirements analysis; 
18th month 
— specification of network architecture for imple­
mentation; 
42th month 
— tools and methodology specification; 
48th month 
— pilot network implementation(s); 
60th month 
— evaluation report pilot network(s); 
— report on tool specification methodology. 
20.2.84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/53 
4.3.2 Optical wideband LA N 
Description 
Identify and formulate architectures and standards 
for optical wideband local area networks, define the 
design requirements of VLSI chips and demonstrate 
the functional and economic feasibility. 60th month 
— evaluation report of demonstrator. 
TYPE B PROJECT 
One B type project in this area is planned to start in 
1984/85. 
Programme 
Years 1 to 5 
— architectures and protocols for optical wide­
band LANs defined; 
— examine and design transmission and interface 
equipment for fibre optic techniques; 
— define the design requirements of VLSI chips to 
implement the protocols for network interfac­
ing, guaranteeing good levels of reliability and 
security; 
— evaluate demonstrator designs, carry out neces­
sary developments for demonstrator; 
— implement demonstrator to show functional and 
economic feasibility in an operational in-house 
environment. 
Intermediate objectives 
3rd month 
— specification of achitectures and protocols for 
optical wideband LANs; 
12th month 
— specifications for optical LAN transmission 
techniques; 
18th month 
— specification for VLSI chips for network inter­
faces ; 4.3.4 ISDN-based advanced Videotex 
Study and specification of the functional expansion 
of Videotex services on the basis of future ISDNs 
(narrowband and broadband digital networks): pres­
entation of text/graphics/images/speech/moving 
video and the extended two-way user interface. Set 
up of experiments and their evaluation. 
R& D area 4.4: 
Advanced filing and retrieval systems 
Description 
Information technology and office automation are 
fundamentally concerned with the storage, access­
ing and movement of information, covering data, 
text, graphics, voice, images and other forms. 
The proposed research is oriented towards construc­
tion of a number of experimental prototype office 
information servers, and the operation of these in 
realistic conditions, alone and in association with 
each other, to gain practical experience in the sys­
tems implications of building these servers, loading 
them with practical information and using them in a 
realistic way. 
The work is therefore divided into three general 
classes: systems issues; usage and needs; and com­
ponents. 
36th month 
— specification for demonstrator; 
48th month 
— implementation of pilot demonstrator; Systems issues cover the design and operation of 
office information servers, including high-perform­
ance filters, and investigations of new information 
models and the development of metrics relating to 
these. Work on the filing interface-related aspects of 
query languages and declarative content languages 
is identified. 
No C 47/54 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
Usage and needs addresses the nature of the infor­
mation (data, text, graphics, images, etc.), that will 
be held in office information servers, in terms of 
quality, quantity and combination, and the usage of 
that information. An internal adaptive interface is to 
be investigated, that responds to the needs and 
experience of users. 
Components addresses the development of hard­
ware, software and systems elements that will be 
incorporated into advanced filing systems, primarily 
in information servers, but also in advanced work­
stations. These include filters, the systems manage­
ment issues relating to using optical discs in 
advanced office systems, the systems techniques 
required to achieve very high perceived reliability, 
and the application of advanced information pro­
cessing techniques to advanced filing and retrieval 
systems. 
Investigations leading to the definition of an 
advanced data-base model for office applications, 
and studies of the security, privacy, authority of 
access and information distribution, are fundamen­
tal to a wide range of office systems research. 
R&D TOPICS 
The topics covered by this R&D area include: 
4.4.1. Office information server design and evalua­
tion (*); 
4.4.2. System issues: 
— new information models (*), 
— file query and declarative content languages; 
4.4.3. Usage and needs: 
— nature and usage of filed information (*), 
— user-file adaptive interface (*), 
— very high integrity systems; 
4.4.4. Components: 
— file filters (*), 
— optical storage systems concepts (*). 
(*) Note: Work is planned to start on these topics in 
Year 1 (1984/85). Pilot projects are underway on information server 
design and information models. 
TYPE A PROJECT 
One type A project in this area starts in 1984/85. It 
may contain topics listed under type B projects. 
4.4.1. Office information server design and evalua­
tion 
Description 
This project will define and document the system 
functions and attributes of a range of office infor­
mation servers, and the logical interfaces of a range 
of subsystems with other components of a total 
office system. These will be translated into designs 
and implementation plans and several representa­
tive models will be constructed as laboratory proto­
types. These will be used, alone and in combination, 
to evaluate the practical operation of these servers. 
Programme 
Year 1: 
— describe a range of multi-mode servers and their 
functional attributes: 
— establish the systems design and components 
requirements. 
Year 2: 
— detail implementation plan and design; 
— simulate performance; 
— establish component availability. 
Year 3: 
— definition of a work programme to validate 
system concepts; 
— desk assessment of designs based on available 
devices. 
Year 4: 
— implement designs, including optical disc and 
first phase file filters. 
20.2.84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/55 
Year 5: 
— operate, evaluate and improve initial implemen­
tations. 
Intermediate objectives 
18th month 
— Specification of information server(s); 
24th month 
— Performance evaluation by simulation; 
48th month 
— Prototype(s) of information server(s); 
60th month 
— Evaluation of server(s). 
TYPE B PROJECTS 
Type B projects are planned to start in 1984/85 
according to the following subject list. In excep­
tional cases, type B subjects may be combined to 
form another type B project. Some type B subjects 
may be included in type A projects. 
System issues: 
4.4.2.1. New information models. New information 
models of an office environment, particularly one in 
which the users are shielded from awareness of the 
operation and design of the information systems, 
applying AI methodologies and experience. 
Usage and needs: 
4.4.3.1. Nature and usage of filed information. 
Theoretical studies and interviews with advanced 
office systems users to establish a range of scenarios 
covering the nature and the quantity of the objects 
that will be contained«in practical office information 
servers, and the usage that will be made of them. 
User file: 
4.4.3.2. User file adaptive interfaces. Study of inter­
actions between workstations and information serv­
ers in realistic user environments. Development of an adaptive interface between these subsystems that 
presents a common, standard user interface. 
Components: 
4.4.4.1. File Jitters. Study of the implications of 
searching large files with special searching aids, e.g. 
hardware, microcode, software, etc. Identify needs 
and develop extensions to existing file filter tech­
nology to satisfy predicted office requirements. 
4.4.4.2. Optical storage systems concepts. This pro­
ject concerns the development of systems applica­
tion and management techniques, and the creation 
of relevant software aids, taking advantage of opti­
cal storage devices ensuring that they are available 
for practical use at an early date. 
R& Darea4.5: 
Integrated office system design and evaluation 
Description 
The research and the prototype development of 
components for office systems has to be supple­
mented by the research and evaluation of integrated 
office systems concepts for a variety of office envi­
ronments. In an industrial R&D programme the 
testing of prototypes, against requirements that are 
representative for market conditions, is the most 
important check on the relevance of the research 
done. 
Two topics are identified in this area that are com­
plementary but not necessarily mutually dependent. 
First: the design, development and evaluation of 
advanced office system prototypes, based upon 
state-of-the-art components developed in Europe, 
possibly under the Esprit programme, and based 
upon the results of structured analyses in the office 
systems science and human factors areas. 
Second: the creation of test- and evaluation envi­
ronments for office system components and inte­
grated office system prototypes, that allow qualita­
tive and quantitative validation in a variety of simu­
lated offices and enterprises. 
No C 47/56 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
R&D TOPICS 4.5.2. Office system test and evaluation environ­
ments 
No work on these topics is planned for start in Year 
4.5.1. Advanced integrated office system prototypes 1 (1984/85). 
SUBPROGRAMME 5 
COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURE 
The long-term aim of the research programme is to increase the productivity and com­
petitiveness of the Community CIM vendors in particular, and industry in general, 
especially the 'discrete part' manufacturing industries, who ultimately utilize this tech­
nology. 
The specific main objectives of the subprogramme are to: 
— generate the necessary basic groundwork for creating, developing and formulating 
the principles and rules for future design of competitive components or total sys­
tems for computer integrated manufacturing, 
— generate total systems architectures that allow users to adapt to computer inte­
grated manufacturing systems in a progressive manner, at their own pace and ful­
filling their own specific needs 
— to ensure that the development programme applies equally well to small, 
medium-sized and large companies manufacturing in small-batch as well as large 
scale mass-production modes. 
In order to stimulate and facilitate the transfer of new information technology con­
cepts to the engineering industries within the Community, and properly to support, 
utilize and demonstrate the proposed research activities, it is strongly recommended 
that three or more pilot advanced CIM systems should be established as part of the 
Esprit programme within designated centres of excellence. Such systems will provide 
an important focus for the coordination of effort and the exchange of information 
among the various and sometimes disparate parts of the CIM R&D programme. The 
lack of such focus may well mean that the effort and money devoted to the R&D 
programme is needlessly dissipated. 
R& Darea5.1: 
Integrated system architecture 
Description 
A wide variety of CIM systems will be implemented 
within manufacturing industry. Each system has to 
serve its specific application in an optimum manner. 
In order to be competitive and preserve flexibility 
by taking advantage of new technologies as they 
become available, effective design methods for CIM 
must be developed. At present there are no guide­
lines or international standards available for the 
design of system architecture for CIM. 
New and innovative conceptual approaches are 
required in order to fit appropriate system architec­tures to the total manufacturing process from initial 
product development, product design, production 
planning and control, real time control of produc­
tion equipment, materials handling, through to 
inventory control and sales. 
To enable the development of integrated system 
structures it is necessary to include the requirements, 
specification, and possibly the development of data 
management techniques. The efficient structuring 
and manipulation of the stored data is critical to 
both storage needs and execution speed. 
CIM systems require a high degree of fault toler­
ance; therefore methods for error detection, predic­
tion, recovery and system maintenance must be 
developed. Communications systems will be 
required to operate efficiently within the CIM envi­
ronment. There is also a need for effective man-
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/57 
machine interfaces with graphics capability and a 
requirement for a command language to facilitate 
interaction with the system at all levels. 
To encourage the wider use of CIM systems by 
reducing the risk of failure, formal methods should 
be developed to allow the representation, specifi­
cation and testing of proposed systems prior to instal­
lation. 
R&D TOPICS 
To fulfill these objectives, work is planned in two 
area: 
5.1.1. System architectures: 
— design rules, 
— system structure, 
— command languages and data management stra­
tegies, 
— factory local area network; 
5.1.2. Graphics subsystems 
Work on both these topics is planned to start in 
Year 1 (1984/85). Work on design rules has already 
started under a Year 0 pilot project. 
TYPE A PROJECT 
5.1.1. System architectures 
Description: 
Design rules. 
Prepare detailed recommendation for a set of design 
rules covering hardware and software of CIM sys­
tems; 
System structure 
Develop elemental components and subsystems, 
consistent with the design rules, with which to 
implement CIM architectures; 
Command languages and data management 
strategies 
Develop a data management strategy (DMS) to 
serve all components of the CIM system. Develop a common command language to facilitate interaction 
with systems at all levels from CAD through CAM 
to control systems on the shop floor; 
Factory Local Area Network 
Identify requirements for factory LANs. Explore 
possibilities for exploiting current LAN develop­
ments. Define work needed to achieve requirements 
identified above. Carry out necessary developments. 
Programme 
Year 0 (pilot project): 
— produce first draft of design rules for specific 
areas of manufacturing. 
Year 1: 
— finalize design rules; 
— identify elemental components and subsystems 
which it is necessary to develop; 
— specify common command language; 
— identify requirements for DMS; 
— identify requirements for robust data links; 
— definition of formal methodology; 
— investigate suitability of available LAN systems. 
Years 2 and 3: 
— develop components and subsystems; 
— identify requirements for operating system, pos­
sibly in cooperation with software technology 
(2.2); 
— develop common command language, DMS 
and protocol for robust data link; 
— develop formal methods; 
— investigate problems specific to factory LANS 
and prepare design specification. 
No C 47/58 Official Journal of the European Communities 20.2.84 
Years 4 and 5: 
— interface with AIP. Apply knowledge based sys­
tems to CIM; 
— apply formal methods to CIM systems; 
— develop prototype factory LAN system. 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— issue preliminary set of design rules; 
— definition of requirements for robust data links; 
— definition of formal methods. 
24th month 
— finalize and issue design rules; 
— phase 1 components/system prototypes avail­
able for testing. 
36th month 
— develop data management strategy and issue 
first draft; 
— first draft of command language; 
— define design specification for LAN; 
— phase 2 component/subsystem prototypes avail­
able for testing; 
— formal methods for simulating CIM systems 
available for testing. 
48th month 
— definition of interfaces between CIM architec­
tures and AIP; 
— formal methods available; 
— interface command language with various activ­
ities in CIM; 
— LAN prototype system available for testing. 
60th month 
— industrial evaluation of LAN system. TYPE B PROJECT 
5.1.2. Graph ics subsystems 
Graphics are an integral part of CAD/CAE, but 
other areas of CIM can make extensive use of 
graphics, at management and shop-floor levels. 
Examples of application areas include simulation 
(e.g. work flow, what-if costing), performance infor­
mation (on suppliers, production levels, costs) and 
management information (work schedules, resource 
allocations). This project is to identify the differing 
requirements for graphics within the many areas of 
CIM but excluding CAD/CAE, and to develop 
software prototype subsystems where appropriate 
(for subsequent transfer to VLSI, see section 5.5.2). 
R& D area 5.2: 
CAD/CAE 
Description 
The importance of computer aided design is that it: 
— reduces the design time and facilitates optimiza­
tion of the design, 
— facilitates storage of all relevant aspects of the 
design, and rapid update and retrieval of infor­
mation, 
— forms the basis of an integrated data base for 
the whole manufacturing process. 
Current CAD systems include facilities for design­
ing and drafting parts, calculating physical para­
meters and simulating kinematic and dynamic 
behaviour. Future developments should aim at 
CAD/CAE systems which take full advantage of 
using computers as a means for representing prod­
ucts in the design process. Such systems should 
include facilities for designing products with opti­
mal performance and economy. 
Modular structures for CAD/CAE subsystems 
(which include 3D-modellers, geometrical design 
20.2.84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/59 
systems, engineering computational programs, simu­
lation programs) must be developed in order to 
allow the designer access to different software pack­
ages and data bases. Such systems supply data that 
is readily usable for all subsequent enineering and 
production activities, as well as good display quality 
and capabilities. 
This requires an integrated CAD/CAE system 
which can generate the information needed to 
select, define, verify (simulate) and optimize the 
production process in terms of generalized manu­
facturing operations. Starting from this, the CAM 
systems will produce the detailed production data 
for actual manufacturing. 
The role of AI techniques in product and produc­
tion system design must be analyzed in order to 
verify feasibility. 
R&D TOPICS 
The R&D topics in this area are: 
5.2.1. CAD/CAE facilities for product and process 
design. 
5.2.2. Use of AI techniques in CAD/CAE. 
Work on both topics is planned for start in Year 1 
(1984/85). 
TYPE A PROJECT 
5.2.1. CAD/CAE facilities for product and process 
design 
— formulate possible CAD/CAE systems struc­
tures, consistent with the design rules of 5.1, and 
define a development and integration pro­
gramme; 
— survey available subsystems and general tools. 
Identify those which are usable and where 
necessary specify and develop additional items 
or modifications; 
— develop and integrate into overall system struc­
ture^) ; 
— based on CAD/CAE general tools, adapt or develop further tools and subsystems to support 
integrated CAD/CAE activities, e.g.: 
— product design activities such as project 
management, concept design, preliminary 
design, analysis and simulation, final 
design, product documentation manage­
ment, 
— production design activities such as process 
selection, process modelling, process plan­
ning, process plan simulation, process plan 
optimization, process quality assurance 
planning, 
— tools specific to different classes of prod­
ucts and processes, and to 'group technolo­
gies' concepts (geometry, dimensions, 
materials, tolerances, process operations 
type). 
(The list is not exhaustive.) 
Programme and intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— identify requirements for product design metho­
dologies; 
— complete survey of available systems and hard­
ware. 
24th month 
— formulation of CAD/CAE system structures 
and definition of development and integration 
programme; 
— definition of product and process design metho-
— dologies; 
— definition of coding and classification metho­
dologies. 
36th month 
— initiate development of application software for 
product design system, CAD/CAM tool inte­
gration and coding and classification system. 
48th month 
— finalize development of CAD/CAE general 
tools; 
No C 47/60 Official Journal of the European Communities 20.2.84 
— finalize development of application software for 
product design system, CAD/CAM tool inte­
gration and coding and classification system. 
60th month 
— finalize integration of general tools with other 
CAD/CAE activities. 
TYPE B RESEARCH THEME 
5.2.2. Use of AI techniques in CAD/CAE 
Review developments in artificial intelligence which 
might be applicable to CAD/CAE. Carry out 
development work in appropriate areas. 
R& I) area 5.3: 
Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) 
TYPE A PROJECT 
Description 
A computer-aided manufacturing system in this con­
text addresses the management of factory opera­
tions. In principle a CAM system acts as a high 
integrity information network that monitors a broad 
spectrum of inter-related tasks and asserts conse­
quent control on the basis of an overall manage­
ment strategy (ideally in real time). 
Design aims of a CAM system should include: 
(i) minimum amount of human supervision and 
intervention for individual process tasks; 
(ii) processes to be individually programmable; 
(iii) interfaces to all other production activities; 
(iv) possibility for introducing modifications and 
extensions without violating total system con­
cept. CAM software is an interrelated set of computer 
programs able to process, monitor and control the 
flow of manufacturing data needed at the various 
stages of production. In this context only the soft­
ware elements of CAM systems are considered in 
this project. 
A clear rationalization effect can be expected if 
design data prepared with computer assistance is 
used directly for computer-aided preparation of 
production data and instructions such as workshop 
drawings, parts lists, process sequence plans, 
NC-programs, quality control programs, product 
test programs, etc. 
The requirements for the data base systems and data 
base management system for CAM should be care­
fully identified and formulated during the concep­
tual system definiton and design phases. 
Programme 
Year 1 (third and fourth quarter): 
— define and specify in detail the structure and 
modularity of CAM system hardware and soft­
ware. This work should be tightly coupled to 
project 5.1.1, particularly the 'system structure' 
and the 'design rules' topics; 
— the consequent CAM definition should include 
such generic activities as planning, scheduling, 
machine programming, tool design and man­
agement, flow control, monitoring, data collec­
tion, materials handling, warehousing, inventory 
control, testing, repair, quality control, docu­
mentation and costing; 
— the primary activity for year 1 is the full defini­
tion of subsequent stages of the CIM R&D 
workplan; 
— identify suitable test-bed environment. 
Years 2 to 4: 
— develop selected CAM subsystems with an 
emphasis on high-integrity real-time operation, 
and integration in test-bed environment. 
20.2.84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/61 
Year 5: 
— conduct comprehensive tests of the overall inte­
grated CIM system(s) using software developed 
in years 2 to 4. 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— definition of CAM subsystems; 
— recommendations for subsystem tool develop­
ment (with emphasis on real-time operation); 
— definition of development and implementation 
plan. 
24th month 
— phase 1 subsystem/tools ready for integration 
and testing. 
48th month 
— phase 2 subsystem/tools ready for integration 
and testing. 
60th month 
— prototype CAM system demonstrable in test-
bed application. 
R& Darea5.4: 
Machine control systems 
Description 
The major problem confronting the manufacturing 
industry specializing in manufacturing a great 
variety of parts in low and medium volumes is the 
development of a highly flexible, high productivity 
system. The major task of the suppliers of CIM 
equipment is that of enhancing the technologies 
required for automation, flexibility and systemiza-
tion. All these technologies are essential factors in 
developing the flexible and versatile manufacturing 
system. 
Machine centres for automatic machining of metal 
parts plus a system for automatic loading and 
unloading and a conveyor system for automatically 
transferring workpieces from one machining process 
to another, are available from many sources. A 
problem which still has to be attacked is the integra­
tion of machine centres into overall CIM systems. Further development is required to apply CNC 
machines to other than metal parts, to develop auto­
mated assembly systems and enhance the capability 
of robots beyond the simple operations at present 
carried out. 
Research and development are also needed to reach 
two of the principal, and often conflicting, goals of 
all future automated plants, namely maintenance of 
consistently high product quality and maximum 
plant availability. 
R&D TOPICS 
The R&D topics to be addressed in this area are: 
5.4.1. Flexible machining systems 
— numerical control of machines, 
— definition of general structure of flexible manu­
facturing systems (FMS). 
5.4.2. Automated assembly and robotics 
— automated assembly systems, 
— robot systems. 
5.4.3. Plant availability and quality optimization 
— basic plant diagnosis technology, 
— diagnosis formulation, 
— action planning. 
Work on all these topics is planned to start in Year 1 
(1984/85). 
TYPE A PROJECTS 
5.4.1. Flexible machining systems 
Description 
— design and implementation of communication 
and data transfer among NC, FMS and CIM; 
No C 47/62 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
definition of specific microelectronic subsys­
tems and components to be integrated into 
special IC's; 
extension of numerical control to other 
processes and machines; 
define a general FMS structure; identify, design 
and implement major subsystems, such as prod­
uction line operating system; command lan­
guage, tool ordering scheme. 
Programme 
Year 1: 
— definition and specification of communication 
and interfaces among NC equipment and other 
subsystems; 
— definition of general architecture and subsys­
tems of FMS. 48th month 
— develop NC equipment for processes previously 
identified; 
— complete development of major subsystems in 
FMS. 
60th month 
— develop NC equipment with integrated process 
optimization; 
— implement major subsystems in FMS. 
5.4.2. Automated assembly and robotics 
Description 
Years 2 and 3: 
— definition and functional specification of dedi­
cated microelectronic circuits for NC, PC and 
FMS; 
— design of major subsystems for FMS. 
Years 4 and 5: 
— analyses of manufacturing processes and mach­
ines where NC can be applied and implementa­
tion of new applications; 
— implementation of major subsystems for FMS. 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— define specification for interfaces between NC 
equipment; 
— define FMS system architecture and subsystems. 
24th month 
— specification of dedicated microelectronic 
circuits for machine control systems; 
— initiate major subsystems for FMS. 
36th month 
— analysis of the application of NC to a variety of 
processes; 
— develop major subsystems in FMS. Computer automated assembly systems (CAAS): 
— extend existing systems to part identification, 
part mating; 
— algorithmic description of the assembly process; 
— application of AI in order to provide 'self-refer­
ential' control environments. 
Robot systems 
Based on the preliminary design rules developed in 
5.1.1 and the development paths outlined there, 
there is a need to realize some systems for the inte­
gration of robots in CIM. These include: 
(a) a system to integrate the data flow between 
CAD and the robot. There is a clear linkage here 
to that part of project 5.1.1 which deals with 
command languages only; 
the CAD area includes the design of single parts 
and assemblies as well as the graphics/geome­
tric simulation of production processes and the 
linkage to process planning; 
(b) a system which provides a set of tool/proce­
dures to deal with the planning and installation 
of robots into production systems. This includes 
AI, support systems and simulation systems; 
(c) a set of requirements for the design of compo­
nents/products for robot-based production. 
20. 2. 84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/63 
Programme 
Year 1: 
— review the draft design rules from 5.1, assess 
and comment; 
— review development paths in robotics identified 
in 5.1; 
— propose formal design rules for robots, in coop­
eration with R&D item 5.1.1; 
— identify and formulate strategies for safety 
requirements. 
Year 2: 
Identify requirements for: 
— CAD to 'robot process' linkage, 
— robot languages, 
— robot control systems, 
— graphic simulation for robot planning, 
— safety, 
— sensors, 
— prepare rules for interface with CAM sys­
tems. Year 5: 
realize the generalized robot planning/integra­
tion system. 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— evaluate AI strategies for robot systems. 
24th month 
— establish rules for interfacing automated assem­
bly systems with CAM; 
— application of AI strategies to robot systems. 
36th month 
— incorporate AI strategies into automated assem­
bly systems; 
— develop generalized robot language. 
48th month 
— develop algorithmic structure for supervision of 
automated assembly systems. 
60th month 
— develop integrated automated assembly system 
using real-time sensor-driven control. 
Year 3: 
consideration of the requirements identified in 
Year 2, in terms of multi-robot systems; 
development of robot subsystems based on 
identified requirements and the use of AI; 
development of generalized robot planning/ 
integration system within the framework of 
robot applications in CIM. TYPE B PROJECT 
5.4.3. Plant availability and quality optimization 
Year 4: 
— continuation of work for Year 3 and realization 
of priority subsystems. Research, develop and finally integrate the group of 
diagnostic/decision-making technologies essential 
for the principal, and often conflicting, goals of (i) 
maintenance of consistently high product quality 
and (ii) maximum plant availability. 
No C 47/64 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
R&D will be carried out under three headings: 
Basic plant diagnostic technology involving 
methodologies of sensor signal data compres­
sion, system/machinery fault modelling, archi­
tecture and design of diagnostic systems, etc. 
2. Diagnosis formulation involving methodologies 
able to rank system/machinery faults thought to 
be either threatening plant availability or caus­
ing a fall-off in product quality. 
Action planning in the areas of initiating actions 
to avoid system shutdown, maximizing utiliza­
tion in the case of partial failure, user guidance 
and maintenance planning. TYPE A PROJECTS 
5.5.1. Image processing 
R& Darea5.5: 
Subsystems and components Real-time capture of images and their interpretation 
is going to present many difficult problems to solve, 
both as regards hardware and software. 
A prime application of imaging is going to be in the 
use of complex images as 'sensory input' for a large 
range of applications with respect to CIM, such as: 
— automatic assembly, 
— monitoring in CNC machinery — 3D measure­
ment, 
— manipulator control, 
— testing and inspection, 
— tool use detection and measurement, 
— automatic diagnosis and repair, 
— global monitoring. 
Description 
A number of subsystems and components will be 
required to implement CIM systems. It is not con­
sidered that many of these require collaborative 
research on a European scale. Such items as intelli­
gent sensors, transducers, etc., are considered within 
the competence of individual companies, providing 
the basic microelectronic technology is developed, 
and requirement specifications are disseminated 
from the CIM programme. The requirement is for the real-time capture and 
processing of 3D images, the development of meth­
ods of understanding of complex images at speeds 
which make off-line and real-time control, testing 
and inspection possible. 
R&D TOPICS 
However, three topics that have been identified as 
requiring collaborative effort are: 
5.5.1. Image processing 
5.5.2. Microelectronic subsystems 
5.5.3. Sensor programming and standards. 
Work on 5.5.3 is planned to start in Year 1 (1984/ 
85). Work on 5.5.1 and 5.5.2 has already been started 
under a pilot project in Year 0. Programme and intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— specification of high-speed algorithms which 
can be implemented in VSLI; 
— start specifications of VLSI combinations of 
imaging sensors and programmable pre-proces-
sors. Regarding algorithmic processors, the algo­
rithms may be based on the preliminary out­
come from AIP (3.2); 
— commence development of 2V2-D demonstrator 
model; 
— investigate AI techniques for image processing; 
— specify hybrid coherent optical and electronic 
architecture. 
20.2.84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/65 
24th month 
— development of image processors; 
— development of the 2V2-D demonstrator. (b) CNC axis controller; 
(c) Servo interface and degree of freedom con­
trollers for robotic manipulators. 
36th month 
— investigation of 3D image processing; 
— incorporation of VLSI processors; 
— continue development of image processors; 
— incorporation of hybrid optoelectronic process­
ing. 
48th month 
— implementation of AI techniques and 3D 
demonstrator. 
60th month 
— continue development and evaluation; 
— undertake exploratory work on holographic 
methods for inspection and image processing; 
— implementation of some selected pilot opera­
tions on the factory floor. 24th month 
— incorporation of chips in machine tools and 
robot control systems and evaluation. 
36th month 
— complete testing, finalize design and issue 
design information to SC manufacturers; 
— start definition and specification for graphics 
primitives in VLSI. 
48th month 
— test commercial products and issue any modifi­
cations required; 
— develop graphics primitives in VLSI. 
60th month 
— finalize/review/refine graphics primitives in 
VLSI. 
5.5.2. Microelectronic subsystems TYPE B PROJECT 
5.5.3. Sensor programming and standards 
In order to compete successfully in the world mar­
kets for plant automation systems, it is essential to 
make maximum use of microelectronic technology. 
The objective is to realize many of the subsystems 
required for machine control, picture processing, 
graphics, etc., on single chips. This will require close 
collaboration between automation specialists and 
semiconductor designers. 
Programme and intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— Design specification for: 
(a) 3-axis continuous path interpolators; Sensors and sensor configurations will be used in 
many of the CIM subsystems. Each sensor system 
must be individually programmable and re-pro­
grammable for a specific task. In particular, atten­
tion should be given to the standardization possibil­
ities offered by integrated VLSI combinations of 
image sensors and measurement pre-processors. 
Similar to graphics, a functional interface to sensors 
and sensor configurations is needed which allows 
the development of sensor application systems inde­
pendent of the particular sensor system used. The 
functionality should also be independent of a parti­
cular application. 
Such a functional level sensor standard could have 
a tremendous impact on application range, and 
No C 47/66 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 2. 84 
compatibility of sensor systems. In connection with 
the standards to be developed, sensor programming 
tools must be developed which recognize the func­
tional classification. 
NB: This approach is orthogonal to the 5.5.1 area 
where emphasis is on individual, high- or low-
quality (expensive or cheap) sensor development. 
R& D area 5.6: 
CIM systems applications 
Description 
In order to promote and support the more wide­
spread application of CIM, it is desirable to estab­
lish CIM application and development centres. To 
fulfil the needs for education, research and develop­
ment, and demonstration, at least two such sites 
must be identified, one with an academic infrastruc­
ture but with a proven record of technology transfer, 
and one in a real manufacturing environment. 
In order to achieve this objective, the following pro­
jects and themes have been identified: 
5.6.1. CIM application and development centres 
5.6.2. General topics for CIM support 
— product design guidelines for automatic produc­
tion; 
— economic methodologies for evaluating invest­
ment in CIM systems; 
— interaction of CIM systems with management 
information systems. 
TYPE A PROJECT 
5.6.1. CIM application and development centres 
Description 
Establish centres of expertise, continuing education 
and research where CIM-technology and tools can 
be tested, demonstrated and developed. Programme 
Year 1: 
— Preparatory study for CIM application and 
development centres. 
Years 2 and 3: 
— Formulate plans and select sites for CIM 
application and development centres. 
Years 4 and 5: 
— Establish CIM application and development 
centres. 
Intermediate objectives 
12th month 
— Complete preparatory study for establishment 
of centres. 
24th month 
— Formulate plans for development of centres. 
36th month 
— Select suitable sites for development centres. 
48th month 
— Complete detailed plans for development 
centres; 
— Undertake preparatory work in establishing 
centres. 
60th month 
— Complete the establishment of centres. 
TYPE B PROJECTS 
5.6.2. Miscellaneous support for CIM 
The following areas are considered of interest: 
— Product design guideline for automatic produc­
tion 
Create an understanding and ability to design 
mechanical products for automatic manufactur­
ing. 
2.84 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 47/67 
Economic methodologies for evaluating invest- Definition of data interchange between CIM 
ment in CIM systems systems and 'management information systems' 
(MIS). 
Develop tools and methodologies for a correct 
economic evaluation of investment in CIM sys­
tems. 
— Interaction of CIM systems with management 
information systems The purpose of these activities is to develop tools 
and facilities to promote successful CIM applica­
tions.