Terminological Clarification of the Concept of the System

System’s Conception

Eckehard Schnieder; Lars Schnieder

Institute for Traffic Safety and Automation Engineering

Technical University Braunschweig


Extended Abstract

The term system is currently used in a inflationary fashion, calling for a methodical approach

in order to make it more precise and less ambiguous – the basis for this will be laid out

in this paper. Based on a solid linguistic foundation the term system will be explained

and formalized. The aspects relevant for automation engineering will be chosen from a

variety of aspects and applied to an abstract and generic model of a (technical) system.

The identification of properties and characteristics of (technical) systems and their inherent

relations serve as a basis for stabilization of an unambiguous terminology. Suitable means

of description can be employed to formalize the characteristics of the rather vaguely

substantiated term ‘system’.