Expert system based automated selection of industrial AC drive

The author discusses expert system-aided automated selection of industrial drive product based on application specifications supplied by a skilled or semi-skilled user. The selection is made by computer dialog of a program that is developed with the help of an expert system shell called PC PLUS. The knowledge base of the program incorporates cage-type induction motor drives in the range of 1-300 hp from three different vendors, although provision is made for other types of drives. Both voltage-fed and current-fed inverters are considered using appropriate devices, such as bipolar junction transistor (BJT), IGBT thyristor, and gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) devices. The authors highlight the methodology of the program development rather than the detailed description of the program itself with the intention of familiarizing similar technique to the power electronics community