TEAMS: technical expert aircraft maintenance system

The technical expert aircraft maintenance system (TEAMS) is an interactive system that supports the diagnosis of problems on new aircraft. The system uses expert system technology to provide the aircraft mechanic with the knowledge and experience needed to successfully repair an aircraft. TEAMS consists of a number of expert-system modules. The authors give an overview of the TEAMS effort, a description of the method used to develop each expert system, and a short discussion on how user acceptance was obtained. The development of each expert system was partitioned into four distinct phases: project identification, knowledge acquisition, knowledge codification, and testing. These activities are described. The results to date have been very encouraging. The expert systems are being introduced for use on a regular basis for the repair of aircraft