A CONCEPT ORIENTED DISTRIBUTED EXPERT SYSTEM FOR SPACECRAFT

THE INNOVATION TO BE DVELOPED IS A PROTOTYPE DISTRIBUTED CONCEPT ORIENTED EXPERT SYSTEM FOR APPLICATION TO SPACECRAFT ANALYSIS MONITORING AND CONTROL. SYSTEM FUNCTIONS WILL BE PERFORMED BY SEMI-AUTONOMOUS EXPERT MODULES WORKING TOGETHER UNDER THE COORDINATION AND CONTROL OF A SUPERVISORYEXPERT . CONCEPT ORIENTED REPRESENTATIONS OF BOTH KNOWLEDGE BASE AND LOGICAL PROCESSES WILL BE EMPLOYED THROUGHOUT THE EXPERT SYSTEM PROVIDING A CAPABILITY FOR ABSTRACT REASONING CON- SIDERED NECESSARY TO THE FEASIBILITY OF A DISTRIBUTED SYS- TEM OF THIS SCOPE. PHASE I EFFORTS HAVE RESULTED IN A SYS- TEM THAT HAS DEMONSTRATED THE FEASIBILITY OF THE CONCEPT ORIENTED APPORACH BY THE DEVELOPMENT AND INTEGRATION OF A KNOWLEDGE BASE CONCEPT PROCESSING KERNEL AND SUPERVISORY EX-PERT FUNCTIONS WITH A SOFTWARE BUS. PHASE II OBJECTIVES PROVIDE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE PHASE I SYSTEM TO A PRO- TOTYPE LEVEL. THIS WILL BE DONE BY DEVELOPING ADDITIONAL SUPERVISORY EXPERT CAPABILITIES FOR INTERPROCESS COORDI- NATION DEVELOPING A PROTOTYPE APPLICATION SYSTEM AND BY USING TYPICAL CONTROL CENTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE. IT IS EXPECTED THAT THE PHASE I METHODOLOGY WILL PROVIDE A POWER- FUL AND CAPABLE TOOL FOR PROTOTYPE USE RESULTING IN THE REALIZATION OF THE PRIMARY PHASE II OBJECTIVE.