Kluger.PA@PARC-MAXC.ARPA (10/12/83)
Piero P. Bonissone
Corporate Research and Development
General Electric Corporation
DELTA: An Expert System for Troubleshooting
Diesel Electric Locomotives
The a priori information available to the repair crew is a list of
"symptoms" reported by the engine crew. More information can be
gathered in the "running repair" shop, by taking measurements and
performing tests provided that the two hour time limit is not exceeded.
A rule based expert system, DELTA (Diesel Electric Locomotive
Troubleshooting Aid) has been developed at the General Electric
Corporate Research and Development Laboratories to guide in the repair
of partially disabled electric locomotives. The system enforces a
disciplined troubleshooting procedure which minimizes the cost and time
of the corrective maintenance allowing detection and repair of
malfunctions in the two hour window allotted to the service personnel in
charge of those tasks.
A prototype system has been implemented in FORTH, running on a Digital
Equipment VAX 11/780 under VMS, on a PDP 11/70 under RSX-11M, and on a
PDP 11/23 under RSX-11M. This system contains approximately 550 rules,
partially representing the knowledge of a Senior Field Service Engineer.
The system is provided with graphical/video capabilities which can help
the user in locating and identifying locomotive components, as well as
illustrating repair procedures.
Although the system only contains a limited number of rules (550), it
covers, in a shallow manner, a wide breadth of the problem space. The
number of rules will soon be raised to approximately 1200 to cover, with
increased depth, a larger portion of the problem space.
Thursday, October 13, 1983 4:00 PM
Hewlett Packard
Stanford Division Labs
5M Conference room
1501 Page Mill Rd
Palo Alto, CA 9430
** Be sure to arrive at the building's lobby ON TIME, so that you may
be escorted to the meeting room.