FABB: a blackboard development tool and its application to command and control

The Ford Aerospace Blackboard System (FABB) and its application to intelligent command and control are described. FABB is a blackboard development tool built upon Knowledge Craft that combines and extends many of the features found in current university blackboard shells. Extended use is made of Knowledge Craft´s context mechanisms, both to isolate multiple blackboards within a single knowledge base and to allow independent knowledge sources to perform alternate world reasoning. Intelligent control of the problem-solving process is obtained by defining control blackboards, control knowledge sources, and control data objects. High-level plans and strategies are predefined before program execution and chosen opportunistically in a manner that best suits the problem situation. FABB is being used as the development tool in the initial stage of building a command and control system that analyzes and combines multiple, and often incomplete and inaccurate, information in an effort to identify enemy plans intelligently