Knowledge Capture and Re-use in Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul

The Internet and Computer Institute (ICI) is developing a unique maintenance advisory system which is created and maintained through input by technicians. The system is called MATE (Maintenance Advisor by Technician Entry). Having advanced MATE to the stage of an in-house prototype during Phase I, ICI now proposes in Phase II to convert the prototype to a finished product for the Department of Defense (DoD) and then market it commercially. MATE is useful to people and machines with expertise in a task and domain because it gives them a way to reuse hard experience gained in the past. It is equally useful, however, to those who know little about a task or domain. Consider, for example, a technician who has never done any aircraft repairs yet has been given an assignment to repair an engine. His own maintenance experience won't help him. But if he remembered previous repairs he'd seen by others under circumstances similar to those he has to deal with, he could use an appropriate example to get started. MATE emulates "seeing" historic solutions that have worked in similar situations.