An architecture of the concurrent production system CONPUS

Presents an overview of a knowledge representation and control mechanisms of the concurrent production system CONPUS and distributed CONPUS (D-CONPUS). CONPUS is an object-oriented knowledge representation system for describing distributed production systems, whose rules are working concurrently. D-CONPUS is made up a group of sites working CONPUSs, which are interconnected by a network. The knowledge-base of CONPUS consists of a set of rulesets and a shared database. A ruleset is a unit for specifying a group of rules and its own database, as an autonomous object. The rulesets are described for cooperative problem solving, which can work simultaneously and independently to each other. A collection of rulesets are organized as a network data structure, and a ruleset has some slots for controlling its behaviors. The ruleset is activated by message passing, or by taking opportunity when suitable conditions are satisfied. A shared database is a database which is shared by rulesets in CONPUS, and, D-CONPUS has a global database which is shared by sites working CONPUS. Since the shared and the global database are shared by the rulesets and the sites, and rules are fired in parallel, CONPUS and D-CONPUS provide facilities to maintain consistency of the databases.