A tool for real-time requirements capture

The Computer Aided Knowledge Engineering (CAKE) project is creating a set of computer-based tools that aid in the construction of real-time expert systems-the primary application domain being the process and manufacturing industries. A principal aim of the project is to alleviate the often-cited "knowledge-acquisition bottle-neck" by moving the knowledge engineering task away from a specialist knowledge engineer towards the domain expert. The tool introduced in this paper, T-CAKE, aids in the specification and construction of a temporal model of a plant and its associated expert system. The temporal model, expressed in the form of a Quirk model, provides the basis of the temporal verification which is subsequently carried out on the system and used to prove that a system will meet the timing constraints imposed upon it.