An expert system for the compilation of engineering specification documents

✍ Scribed by J.H. Pettit

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 793 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-1976
• DOI: 10.1016/0952-1976(90)90028-k

✦ Synopsis

An expert advisor (SPECIFAC) has been developed to assist design engineers in the creation of written engineering specification documents. A 'mix & match' style of clause library is used to provide a framework for the particular specifications. A proprietary shell was employed to build the advisor and the shell has been linked with a professional word processor to perform text handling. The advisor seeks to suggest clauses that should be included, based on pre-defined associations with relevant criteria.

Knowledge representation was facilitated by the use of a two-stage process. First, a conceptual picture of the knowledge was built up to assist in the acquisition, structuring and coding of the knowledge. Second, a shell-dependent coding scheme was enacted.

This paper describes the design and operation of the expert system and explains how it improves upon existing methods. Some of the main features are considered in detail and the issues surrounding the important design decisions are discussed.

The advisor was developed as a pilot system for British Rail, Civil Engineering Department. It has resulted in resources being committed to implement SPECIFAC on an operational basis.