Considerations in the development of a knowledge-based control systems design associate

The authors describe an intelligent design associate (IDA), with emphasis on the techniques used in developing the associate and the mechanics of its operation. The expert-system architecture is described, along with some of the problems encountered when coupling symbolic and numerical systems. Also considered is how to transfer information between the expert system and the analysis package, as well as how the expert system is able to direct the actual sequence of analyses performed by the CACSD (computer-aided control systems design) package. It is demonstrated that not only is such a coupled system feasible, but it is also replicatable in that it can be created with off-the-shelf, commercially available software. An example is included to show that the system is capable of designing simple compensators