A METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE RELIABILITY OF SATELLITE BASED EXPERT SYSTEMS

MANY AREAS OF SATELLITE PROCESSING AND CONTROL HAVE BEEN FOUND TO LEND THEMSELVES WELL TO AN EXPERT SYSTEM APPROACH. HOWEVER, IT IS NOT PRUDENT TO USE A RULE-OF-THUMB ORIENTED EXPERT SYSTEM WITH POTENTIAL FOR ERROR AS A CRITICAL SATELLITE PROCESSING SOLUTION WITHOUT SOME METHOD OF VALIDATING THE EXPERT SYSTEM AND EVALUATING ITS RELIABILITY. RELIABILITY EVALUATION AND PREDICTION TECHNIQUES ARE DEPENDENT UPON A VALID METHODOLOGY FOR VERIFYING AND TESTING THE EXPERT SYSTEM. AN APPROACH IS PROPOSED THAT WILL PROVIDE AN INTEGRATION OF EXPERT SYSTEM VERIFICATION AND TESTING METHODOLOGIES WITH RELIABILITY MEASUREMENT AND PROJECTION. NEW TECHNIQUES WILL BE DEFINED AND EXISTING TECHNIQUES WILL BE REFINED THAT AS A UNIT ADEQUATELY VERIFY, TEST, AND DETERMINE THE RELIABILITY OF AN EXPERT SYSTEM. THE APPROACH WILL BE MPIRICALLY ANALYZED USING EXPERIMENTAL DATA. THE PHASE I EFFORT WILL SPECIFY THE APPROACH, AMPIRICALLY ANALYZE THE APPROACH, AND PLAN FOR TESTING, FORMALIZATION, AND DOCUMENTATION OF THE APPROACH.