Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2002
We examine how symmetry and computer algebra can assist in solving the Cauchy problem for Pfaffian systems. We use recent results on integrating Frobenius integrable distributions via solvable symmetry structures to develop two techniques that when used in conjunction with symmetry determination software DIMSYM, allow us to solve the Cauchy problem for the special situation when there exists a one-dimensional Cauchy characteristic space. We also illustrate how our work can assist in extracting local solutions of a certain class of first and second order non-linear partial differential equations.