Autonomous building

An autonomous building is a building designed to be operated independently from infrastructural support services such as the electric power grid, municipal water systems, sewage treatment systems, storm drains, communication services, and in some cases public roads.

Advocates of autonomous building describe advantages that include reduced environmental impacts, increased security, and lower costs of ownership. Some cited advantages satisfy tenets of green building, not independence per se. Off-grid buildings often rely very little on civil services and are therefore safer and more comfortable during civil disaster or military attacks. (Off-grid buildings would not lose power or water if public supplies were compromised for some reason.)

nal Reconnaissance Office

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), located in Chantilly, Virginia, is one of the 16 intelligence agencies in the U.S. It designs, builds and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the United States government. It also coordinates collection and analysis of information from airplane and satellite reconnaissance by the military services and the Central Intelligence Agency. It is funded through the National Reconnaissance Program, which is part of the National Foreign Intelligence Program. The agency is part of the Department of Defense.

Logic control

Pure logic control systems were historically implemented by electricians with networks of relays, and designed with a notation called ladder logic. Today, most such systems are constructed with programmable logic devices.

Logic controllers may respond to switches, light sensors, pressure switches etc and cause the machinery to perform some operation. Logic systems are used to sequence mechanical operations in many applications. Examples include elevators, washing machines and other systems with interrelated stop-go operations.

Logic systems are quite easy to design, and can handle very complex operations. Some aspects of logic system design make use of Boolean logic.

System-of-Systems Engineering (SoSE)

System-of-Systems Engineering (SoSE) is a set of developing processes and methods for designing and implementing solutions to System-of-Systems problems. SoSE is relatively new term being used in Department of Defense applications, but is increasingly being applied to non-military/security related problems (e.g., transportation, healthcare, Internet, search and rescue, space exploration). SoSE is more than systems engineering of complex systems because design for System-of-Systems problems is performed under some level of uncertainty in the requirements and the constituent systems, and it involves considerations in multiple levels and domains. Whereas SE focuses on building the system right, SoSE focuses on choosing the right system(s) to satisfy the requirements.