Human engineering in the design of expert systems for microcomputers system troubleshooting

Summary form only given. The development of a computer-based expert system to be used as a trouble-shooting aid for microcomputer systems is described. A knowledge structure for an expert system that describes the purposes or design objectives of the faulted microcomputer system has been created. The knowledge structure, along with appropriate design data about the faulted system has been computerized in a rapid prototyping AI (artificial intelligence) environment which permits potential customers to see the development results as they evolve and to inject their comments and ideas. The internal problem solving by the expert system can be initiated by the user at any point in the knowledge structure depending on the viewpoint of the user. The expert system is assumed to completely ´touch´ the faulted system and is intended to initiate tests that will exercise both the hardware and the software of the faulted system. This approach is being tailored to microprocessor-based process control systems installed in process plants.<>