The component oriented language COMODEL for the description of technical systems is presented. It represents technical knowledge by means of functions and geometric properties of components in a uniform way based on a small number of elementary concepts. Components together with interactions between components can be composed to aggregates, and a whole technical system is viewed as a big aggregate consisting of a hierarchy of subaggregates. Functions and geometric properties of aggregates can

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... derived from those of the subaggregates. Thus, a technical system can be modelled by a set of COMODEL expressions, and diagnosis and prognosis in the system may be performed by means of these expressions.