A qualitative circuit simulator

Describes some current work aimed at producing a system which will act as an assistant to engineers doing failure mode effects analysis (FMEA). The particular interest in FMEA is in the design of electrical circuits in an automotive context. In the FMEA application, it is important that faults such as short and open circuits (changes in the topology of the circuit) and their effects can be located quickly. The qualitative reasoning technique developed demonstrates how this can be done and also provides a technique for generating additional information, such as the possibility of current flow given a future change to the circuit