A selection mechanism based upon the explicit expression of preference

One way to improve the flexibility and robustness of a system is to enable a range of behaviours to be supported and to select that which is most appropriate to the prevailing conditions during run time. This paper considers the issue of effecting choice in a real-time context. It draws upon theory from the realm of decision analysis to decompose the selection problem and proposes a specific selection methodology that directly employs the expression of preferences in the evaluation of the alternatives available.