Expert computer systems and their applicability to automated manufacturing

A tutorial on techniques used in expert systems and some recommendations for an automated process planning system for the Automated Manufacturing Research Facility at the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) are presented. The tutorial portion of the paper discusses problem solving and knowledge representation techniques. Also discussed are ways in which these techniques have been used to build computer systems which achieve a high level of performance on problems which normally require significant human expertise for their solution. A summary of the activities required for process planning in the Automated Manufacturing Research Facility at NBS are presented, and recommendations for how to accomplish these along with recommendations for how to accomplish these activities. Recommendations for how an expert system could be designed to perform a process planning activity called process selection are also given.