  This article presents a general and novel approach to the automation of
goal-oriented error control in the solution of nonlinear stationary finite
element variational problems. The approach is based on automated linearization
to obtain the linearized dual problem, automated derivation and evaluation of a
posteriori error estimates, and automated adaptive mesh refinement to control
the error in a given goal functional to within a given tolerance. Numerical
examples representing a variety of different discretizations of linear and
nonlinear partial differential equations are presented, including Poisson's
equation, a mixed formulation of linear elasticity, and the incompressible
Navier-Stokes equations.
