Expert system monitoring and control of a polymer plant

Describes the work carried out in a collaborative project involving Cambridge Consultants Ltd. (CCL), International Paint (IP) and Heriot-Watt University (HWU) on one expert system designed for use in a pilot plant. This plant is used to manufacture polymers for paint production. As well as being ale to diagnose fault conditions normally requiring expertise in polymer manufacture and plant operation, the expert system is capable of running the complete process and taking appropriate recovery actions should a fault condition be detected. The development of a computer simulator of the plant and the structure of the expert system used to control and monitor the processes is discussed. Examples from the knowledge sources (KS) are also presented