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Second CLIPS Conference Proceedings, volume 2

Papers presented at the 2nd C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) Conference held at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) on 23-25 September 1991 are documented in these proceedings. CLIPS is an expert system tool developed by the Software Technology Branch at NASA JSC and is used at over 4000 sites by government, industry, and business. During the three days of the conference, over 40 papers were presented by experts from NASA, Department of Defense, other government agencies, universities, and industry.

Giarratano, Joseph↗

Adding run history to CLIPS

To debug a C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) program, certain 'historical' information about a run is needed. It would be convenient for system builders to have the capability to request such information. We will discuss how historical Rete networks can be used for answering questions that help a system builder detect the cause of an error in a CLIPS program. Moreover, the cost of maintaining a historical Rete network is compared with that for a classical Rete network. We will demonstrate that the cost for assertions is only slightly higher for a historical Rete network. The cost for handling retraction could be significantly higher; however, we will show that by using special data structures that rely on hashing, it is also possible to implement retractions efficiently.

Tuttle, Sharon M.↗

CLIPS application user interface for the PC

The majority of applications that utilize expert system development programs for their knowledge representation and inferencing capability require some form of interface with the end user. This interface is more than likely an interaction through the computer screen. When building an application the user interface can prove to be the most difficult and time consuming aspect to program. Commercial products currently exist which address this issue. To keep pace C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) will need to find a solution for their lack of an easy to use Application User Interface (AUI). This paper represents a survey of the DoD CLIPS' user community and provides the backbone of a possible solution.

Jenkins, Jim↗

ECLIPS: An extended CLIPS for backward chaining and goal-directed reasoning

Realistic production systems require an integrated combination of forward and backward reasoning to reflect appropriately the processes of natural human expert reasoning. A control mechanism that consists solely of forward reasoning is not an effective way to promptly focus the system's attention as calculation proceeds. Often, expert system programmers will attempt to compensate for this lack by using data to enforce the desired goal directed control structure. This approach is inherently flawed in that it is attempting to use data to fulfill the role of control. This paper will describe our implementation of backward chaining in C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS), and show how this has shortened and simplified various CLIPS programs. This work was done at the Aerospace Corporation, and has general applicability.

Homeier, Peter V.↗

Testing validation tools on CLIPS-based expert systems

The Expert Systems Validation Associate (EVA) is a validation system which was developed at the Lockheed Software Technology Center and Artificial Intelligence Center between 1986 and 1990. EVA is an integrated set of generic tools to validate any knowledge-based system written in any expert system shell such as C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS), ART, OPS5, KEE, and others. Many validation tools have been built in the EVA system. In this paper, we describe the testing results of applying the EVA validation tools to the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Fault Diagnosis, Isolation, and Reconfiguration (FDIR) expert system, written in CLIPS, obtained from the NASA Johnson Space Center.

Chang, C. L.↗

A CLIPS-based tool for aircraft pilot-vehicle interface design

The Pilot-Vehicle Interface of modern aircraft is the cognitive, sensory, and psychomotor link between the pilot, the avionics modules, and all other systems on board the aircraft. To assist pilot-vehicle interface designers, a C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) based tool was developed that allows design information to be stored in a table that can be modified by rules representing design knowledge. Developed for the Apple Macintosh, the tool allows users without any CLIPS programming experience to form simple rules using a point and click interface.

Fowler, Thomas D.↗

On the generation of graphical objects and images from within CLIPS using XView

A variety of features that support the generation and manipulation of graphical objects and images in C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) are described. These features provide the CLIPS programmer with the ability to develop an enhanced user interface. Windows and objects within the windows can be created, hidden, redisplayed, given new values, properties, or positions and manipulated in various other ways. Menus can be generated for any window or object and displayed when desired. Interaction with the user is primarily via mouse movements and mouse button selections made over windows, items, or menus. User input is recorded in the form of fact assertions. Limited animation of objects is also supported.

Feagin, Terry↗

YUCSA: A CLIPS expert database system to monitor academic performance

The York University CLIPS Student Administrator (YUCSA), an expert database system implemented in C Language Integrated Processing System (CLIPS), for monitoring the academic performance of undergraduate students at York University, is discussed. The expert system component in the system has already been implemented for two major departments, and it is under testing and enhancement for more departments. Also, more elaborate user interfaces are under development. We describe the design and implementation of the system, problems encountered, and immediate future plans. The system has excellent maintainability and it is very efficient, taking less than one minute to complete an assessment of one student.

Toptsis, Anestis A.↗

Object/rule integration in CLIPS

This paper gives a brief overview of the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) with a focus on the object-oriented features. The advantages of an object data representation over the traditional working memory element (WME), i.e., facts, are discussed, and the implementation of the Rete inference algorithm in CLIPS is presented in detail. A few methods for achieving pattern-matching on objects with the current inference engine are given, and finally, the paper examines the modifications necessary to the Rete algorithm to allow direct object pattern-matching.

Donnell, Brian L.↗

QPA-CLIPS: A language and representation for process control

QPA-CLIPS is an extension of CLIPS oriented towards process control applications. Its constructs define a dependency network of process actions driven by sensor information. The language consists of three basic constructs: TASK, SENSOR, and FILTER. TASK's define the dependency network describing alternative state transitions for a process. SENSOR's and FILTER's define sensor information sources used to activate state transitions within the network. Deftemplate's define these constructs and their run-time environment is an interpreter knowledge base, performing pattern matching on sensor information and so activating TASK's in the dependency network. The pattern matching technique is based on the repeatable occurrence of a sensor data pattern. QPA-CIPS has been successfully tested on a SPARCStation providing supervisory control to an Allen-Bradley PLC 5 controller driving molding equipment.

Freund, Thomas G.↗

CLIPS template system for program understanding

Program understanding is a subfield of software reengineering and attempts to recognize the run-time behavior of source code. To this point, success in this area has been limited to very small code segments. An expert system, HLAR (High-Level Algorithm Recognizer), has been written in CLIPS and recognizes three sorting algorithms, selection sort, quicksort, and heapsort. This paper describes the HLAR system in general and, in depth, the CLIPS templates used for program representation and understanding.

Finkbine, Ronald B.↗

A parallel strategy for implementing real-time expert systems using CLIPS

As evidenced by current literature, there appears to be a continued interest in the study of real-time expert systems. It is generally recognized that speed of execution is only one consideration when designing an effective real-time expert system. Some other features one must consider are the expert system's ability to perform temporal reasoning, handle interrupts, prioritize data, contend with data uncertainty, and perform context focusing as dictated by the incoming data to the expert system. This paper presents a strategy for implementing a real time expert system on the iPSC/860 hypercube parallel computer using CLIPS. The strategy takes into consideration not only the execution time of the software, but also those features which define a true real-time expert system. The methodology is then demonstrated using a practical implementation of an expert system which performs diagnostics on the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). This particular implementation uses an eight node hypercube to process ten sensor measurements in order to simultaneously diagnose five different failure modes within the SSME. The main program is written in ANSI C and embeds CLIPS to better facilitate and debug the rule based expert system.

Ilyes, Laszlo A.↗

PalymSys (TM): An extended version of CLIPS for construction and reasoning using blackboards

This paper describes PalymSys(TM) -- an extended version of the CLIPS language that is designed to facilitate the implementation of blackboard systems. The paper first describes the general characteristics of blackboards and shows how a control blackboard architecture can be used by AI systems to examine their own behavior and adapt to real-time problem-solving situations by striking a balance between domain and control reasoning. The paper then describes the use of PalymSys in the development of a situation assessment subsystem for use aboard Army helicopters. This system performs real-time inferencing about the current battlefield situation using multiple domain blackboards as well as a control blackboard. A description of the control and domain blackboards and their implementation is presented. The paper also describes modifications made to the standard CLIPS 6.02 language in PalymSys(TM) 2.0. These include: (1) a dynamic Dempster-Shafer belief network whose structure is completely specifiable at run-time in the consequent of a PalymSys(TM) rule, (2) extension of the run command including a continuous run feature that enables the system to run even when the agenda is empty, and (3) a built-in communications link that uses shared memory to communicate with other independent processes.

Bryson, Travis↗

DYNACLIPS (DYNAmic CLIPS): A dynamic knowledge exchange tool for intelligent agents

In a dynamic environment, intelligent agents must be responsive to unanticipated conditions. When such conditions occur, an intelligent agent may have to stop a previously planned and scheduled course of actions and replan, reschedule, start new activities and initiate a new problem solving process to successfully respond to the new conditions. Problems occur when an intelligent agent does not have enough knowledge to properly respond to the new situation. DYNACLIPS is an implementation of a framework for dynamic knowledge exchange among intelligent agents. Each intelligent agent is a CLIPS shell and runs a separate process under SunOS operating system. Intelligent agents can exchange facts, rules, and CLIPS commands at run time. Knowledge exchange among intelligent agents at run times does not effect execution of either sender and receiver intelligent agent. Intelligent agents can keep the knowledge temporarily or permanently. In other words, knowledge exchange among intelligent agents would allow for a form of learning to be accomplished.

Cengeloglu, Yilmaz↗

First CLIPS Conference Proceedings, volume 1

The first Conference of C Language Production Systems (CLIPS) hosted by the NASA-Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in August 1990 is presented. Articles included engineering applications, intelligent tutors and training, intelligent software engineering, automated knowledge acquisition, network applications, verification and validation, enhancements to CLIPS, space shuttle quality control/diagnosis applications, space shuttle and real-time applications, and medical, biological, and agricultural applications.

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Three CLIPS-based expert systems for solving engineering problems

We have written three expert systems, using the CLIPS PC-based expert system shell. These three expert systems are rule based and are relatively small, with the largest containing slightly less than 200 rules. The first expert system is an expert assistant that was written to help users of the ASPEN computer code choose the proper thermodynamic package to use with their particular vapor-liquid equilibrium problem. The second expert system was designed to help petroleum engineers choose the proper enhanced oil recovery method to be used with a given reservoir. The effectiveness of each technique is highly dependent upon the reservoir conditions. The third expert system is a combination consultant and control system. This system was designed specifically for silicon carbide whisker growth. Silicon carbide whiskers are an extremely strong product used to make ceramic and metal composites. The manufacture of whiskers is a very complicated process. which to date. has defied a good mathematical model. The process was run by experts who had gained their expertise by trial and error. A system of rules was devised by these experts both for procedure setup and for the process control. In this paper we discuss the three problem areas of the design, development and evaluation of the CLIPS-based programs.

Parkinson, W. J.↗

Automating symbolic analysis with CLIPS

Symbolic Analysis is a methodology first applied as an aid in selecting and generating test cases for 'white box' type testing of computer software programs. The feasibility of automating this analysis process has recently been demonstrated through the development of a CLIPS-based prototype tool. Symbolic analysis is based on separating the logic flow diagram of a computer program into its basic elements, and then systematically examining those elements and their relationships to provide a detailed static analysis of the process that those diagrams represent. The basic logic flow diagram elements are flow structure (connections), predicates (decisions), and computations (actions). The symbolic analysis approach supplies a disciplined step-by-step process to identify all executable program paths and produce a truth table that defines the input and output domains for each path identified. The resulting truth table is the tool that allows software test cases to be generated in a comprehensive manner to achieve total program path, input domain, and output domain coverage. Since the manual application of symbolic analysis is extremely labor intensive and is itself error prone, automation of the process is highly desirable. Earlier attempts at automation, utilizing conventional software approaches, had only limited success. This paper briefly describes the automation problems, the symbolic analysis expert's problem solving heuristics, and the implementation of those heuristics as a CLIPS based prototype, and the manual augmentation required. A simple application example is also provided for illustration purposes. The paper concludes with a discussion of implementation experiences, automation limitations, usage experiences, and future development suggestions.

Morris, Keith E.↗

First CLIPS Conference Proceedings, volume 2

The topics of volume 2 of First CLIPS Conference are associated with following applications: quality control; intelligent data bases and networks; Space Station Freedom; Space Shuttle and satellite; user interface; artificial neural systems and fuzzy logic; parallel and distributed processing; enchancements to CLIPS; aerospace; simulation and defense; advisory systems and tutors; and intelligent control.

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