Trend of autonomous decentralized systems

The markets and the technologies have been rapidly changing and advanced. The users requirements have been diversified and unpredictable. Under these evolving situations, Autonomous Decentralized System (ADS) is proposed in 1977 for resolving the on-line property to achieve the step-by-step expansion, maintenance / test and fault-propagation prevention without stopping the total system. The research and development has been accelerated in the world not only for the control systems but also for the wide-area information systems. In China, the ADS activities are especially promoted in the railway systems. Here as examples, the railway ground-control system and the train on-board-control system, where each of railway stations and trains has, its autonomy to regulate the trains through coordinating mutually, are shown to be effectively operated.