It is increasingly accepted that future dependable, real-time digital computer control systems will have distributed architectures. Advantages of distributed computer control systems include the possibility of composing large systems out of pre-tested components with minimal integration effort, their well-defined fault containment properties and their capacity to make effective use of mass-produced silicon chips.

The IFAC Workshop series on Distributed Computer Control Systems (DCCS) focuses on design requirements and fundamental principles encountered in such systems and highlights and traces the growth of key concepts at their various stages of development. Theoretical and application-oriented viewpoints receive equal emphasis. These Workshops also provide an excellent forum for the exchange of information on recent technological advances and practices in the distributed computer control field.

The 1997 DCCS Workshop was notable for the attention given to practical implementations of ideas that have been under discussion for decades and maintained the high technical standard set by previous Workshops in the series - the policy of concentrating on a specific topic, inviting a number of key authors and of accepting only a limited number of papers paid dividends.

The IFAC International Workshop on Automation in the Steel Industry: Current Practice and Future Development (ASI'97) was held in Kyongju, Korea from 16th to 18th July 1997, with the Steel Processing Automation Research Center (SPARC) serving as the official host. The objective of the workshop was to bring together engineers and scientists with expertise in applying modern control theories and techniques to industrial problems, particularly those involved in the steel industry.

These proceedings present papers covering various processes in the steel industry, such as cold rolling, hot stripping, continuous casting, sintering, tube making and welding. New technologies with a strong potential for application to the steel industry, such as fuzzy control, AI techniques, neural networks, robust control, predictive control, and instrumentation and measurement are also covered.