A knowledge-based control architecture with interactive reasoning functions

A knowledge-based system architecture called IPEX is presented that uses a time-distributed, interactive reasoning paradigm for process control applications. Structural features of the system are presented, and it is shown that temporal considerations are included in each of the system's data structures either explicitly or implicitly. Diagnostic planning is discussed, and explanations of the algorithms that formulate and maintain diagnostic/control plans are given. In particular, it is shown that the IPEX system can manage concurrently executing interactive diagnostic plans for multiple problem hypotheses.