"

"

March 1, 1990Vol. 7, No. 5

i ,

Fast Food and expert systemsManagingMtor Z^FV"*?T^T a"°WS the The tern is d^gned togmgtditor XeoMoteb assS'Jfftere ■

mn on IBMre/2 Model 30 systems

Zb^tSoo,1 _tss_" foTnt°^u££^ESrEi_ SIS??s9^n--1,200 company-ownedrestaurants. as a toolfor experiencedon« J'Su"PIOdUCt UneUntil the expert system was devel nfri^i^i wasrecommended by Expert Systemsoped,_*r„S wire graphic d p_Jy "hicTCuab^ ?"?*** <Dubli"'Vforced to wade through complex t^re__T_A. rf" „ En»neers at E-KE &!* Ist-Class Fusionmanuals and a two-tothr« month _Tm th^lh ' de"'°Pers can dla' would be best tobuild the initial sys-trainingcourse. IT/h^HP^ IVlng4.tepS tern, which could thenbe enhanced

Therange of problemstobe ad- fern to _^L SySt£m-"S aUOWS by ISt"CIaSS m's »—*«caPaM»-dressed includedpotable termi- onl"_fZ_ ?_,'^^ .^ ISt-C'aSS OT SUPP°rtS hyPert«'nals, time-clocks, and wireless he__- som" £7h fl°- h "fl" bUtt°nS and cards' Integrationwithsets. The expert system allows the nd uL st_rd t^u^hT .?I. eXtema' to md Plo*l3"' and ea^representatives to walk through a _Sn

._

JS i by t0-USe intofa«s *" *c end-user.problem solution cycle us ngt ques- S_ta__S blinV_ T? *" FUtUre Pa

nS

Ca" for dePloy""t oftion and answer format to receive di- theT^n^n.g

' """T8 eXpe" syStemS on other P latf°""foragnoses of problems. _re„ answers to__ tothe"'* "P""* adm?nistrati" a"d managementcan thenbe relayed alongto theres- ___________________ needs. Dtaurant.

-S_r_SErS^_f" 4/ industry to growby 30%ano^ngsimpleandcost-effecdve By R^rd P. Ten Dyke Always one of the more conserva-Productivity has increased, as well

ApP 'ICat'°n5 CorresP°ndent tiveof those companiesand agenciesas problem-solving consistency ac-

fh.,

m i,j , r , to forecast AI revenues. Ovum seesacording to Bruce sfabile Wendy's di- firm ha lus nu_S I?"^ r^P°Und«""* rate of 31% in therector of information systems . "This ?emrenon 2 l. h . , US fr°m 1989 to 199S' an CTensystem will often lead the represent. »_JX. ; . .md_? ." Ca"ed Str°nger 35% for ****■ "»tive from problem o solution in a SS^'?'**' I _"th'r owth ls in sharP ~"trasttomatter ofminutes." £"_Sm if

,aXe

lthe doomsday forecasts made by

The Wendy's system wasbuilt us- ".T^Z^f EUJ°pe that "nydurlnB the last mo V"* 'ning Ist-Class HT, an ES de.etopmen, «f to fo low he !. TI?°" JOb What haSbm termed *«* AI wj""tool with hypertext. The application __S^_J__£ ' ° °PtimiSm' aCCOrdin*tor X ' [continued onp. 4

In this issue...6,7 Remote Access Facility .. 1 2

8,9

10,11

Brain-like waves 2 Products

News briefs 3 Al and railroadsAl Market Watch 5 Calendar

"0

"

"March 1, 19902

Supercomputer produces brain-like wavesA computer model for studying the Perhaps the most startling aspect of provide insight intocertain aspects ofbrain has unexpectedlyproduced — the waves — technicallyknown as how thebrain works and help solveon its own — electrical waveslike population oscillations — is that no someof the mysteriesof how peoplethoseactuallyfound in thebrain it- one understands precisely how they think, learn andremember.self. The supercomputer-based model are generatedeither by the supercom- For example, the scientists have re-generated this result in tests con- puter model orby thebrain. The fact cently discovered that thewayneu-ductedrecentlyby its developers, IBM that the waves spontaneouslyarose in rons respond when stimulatedcanscientist RogerTraub, and Columbia the supercomputer model, however, change if the stimulus is applied re-University researchersRichard Miles gives the scientists potent evidence peatedly. Thesechanges may be atand Robert K.S. Wong. that theirmodel is accurate in its the heartof howmemory works.

The computer modelwas designed simulationof brain activity. The next Traub has begun examiningthis phe-to imitate 10,000cells in thebrain's step is to use the modelto discover nomenonin the model,hippocampus, an area that is essential the waves' cause and function.for the formation of new memories Theresearch began 10years ago as Technical backgroundand theorigin ofmany epileptic epi- an attempt to understand epilepsy. Built intoTraub'scomputer model ofsodes. Using the model, the scientists The study has alreadyyieldedvalu- the verycomplex mammalianbraincan simulate how the hippocampus able and unexpectedinsights into the are painstaking descriptions of bothworks and study, in a controlled envi- disease. the anatomy of single neuronsandronment, some of the medical bene- For example, the study provided a the wayany pair of connected neu-fits that the increased understanding surprising answer to the long-stand- rons is likely to interact. This ap-of epilepsy could bring. The study ingpuzzle overwhat starts an "inter- proach differs from studies thatcon-mayalso suggest newways for de- ictal spike." (An interictal spike is an centrate on the whole organ or on de-signing tomorrow'scomputers. abnormal burst of activity in a group tails of the activity of single, ran-

The studyis beingrun on an IBM of neurons. It indicates a propensity domly selected neurons. By examin--3090 supercomputer at the Thomas J. for thatgroup of neurons to initiate a ing the interconnectionsbetweenWatson Research Center(Yorktown seizure.) Traub's computer modelre- neurons, Traub has begun to discoverHeights, NY). The computer model is vealed that an impulsefrom a single thewaylarge collections of brain cellsbased in detail on how scientists be- neuron may under certainconditions must work in concert,

lievebrain cells work in mammals. start a chain reaction thatcan quickly "It takes months just toworkout"This constitutes a new human en- excitean entirepopulation of brain the anatomyof a single cell's connec-

deavor," said Traub, who is trained cells into the synchronizedfiring that tions," Traub said,both in mathematicsand in neurol- constitutes an interictal spike. A mammal's brain containsbillionsogy. "When I was starting out,we "I don'tthink anyone would have of neurons, and each neuronmay beonly used the model toconfirm looked for such an unlikely cause," linked to hundreds or even thousandsthings we saw in the lab. Now we are Traub said, "becauseno onewould of others. The apparently random ar-beginningto do experimentson it as have suspected it couldhappen." rangement has long baffled scientistsif it were an organismin its own In thefuture, Traub and his col- — a mammal has too few genes, inright." laborators believe, the modelcould fact, to specify every connection in its

"

"

"January 15, 1990 11

Spain. Contact Jose'R.

Chelate,

Alvarez de search

Council,

Canada Bldg. M-19, Mon- 0576.Baena, 3-2, 28006 Madrid, Spain, tel.: (91) treal Road Labs,

Ottawa,

Ontario ON KIA419 77 40, FAX: (91) 410 01 21.

OR6,Canada,

(613) 993-9009, FAX: (613) June 25-29: 4th European Knowledge975-9828. Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Sys-May 13-18: InternationalConference on terns Workshop (EKAW-90), Amsterdam,Robotics and Automation, Hyatt Re- May 28-June 1: Avignon '90, 10th Inter- The Netherlands. ContactJohn Boose, Ad-

gency,

Cincinnati,

OH. Contact Harry national Workshop on Expert Systems vanced Technology

Center,

Boeing Com-Hayman, P.O. Box 3216, Silver Spring, MD and tneirApplications, Avignon, France, puter Services 7L-64, P.O. Box 24346, Se--20901, (301) 434-1990 or (407) 483-3037. Contact EC2< 269 roe de a Garenne> attle, WA 98124, (206) 865-3253.

92000 Nanterre, France, tel.: (33 1) 4780May 14-16: 4th International Confer- 7000, FAX: (33 1)4780 6629. June 27-29: ACM Conference on Lispence on Expert Systems in Production and Functional Programming (LFP 90{Lnc Pumr^T^Z^'rT\ . June 5 -7: International Automation Nice, France. Contact GillesKahn, INRIA.K~ rL«S S T7-' V" 7?n Show-Robots & Vision, Cobo Hall, De- 2004 Route dcs Lucioles, Sophia Antipolis,

troit ML Contact international Automa- 06565 Valbonne

Cedex,

France.South

Carolina, Columbia,

SC 29208, *°n Sh°WTMaM^f«£ ")"*

S

?!? . , _ ,(803) 777-2231 Ve' McLean' VA 22102, (800) 828- July 2-6: 3rd International Conference

SHOW,

FAX: (703) 893-1 15 1. on InformationProcessing and Manage-May 15-18: 4th International Sympo- ment of Uncertainty in Knowledge-sium on Knowledge Engineering, Barce- June 17'21: International Joint Confer- Based Systems,Paris, France. Contact Sec-lona, Spain. Contact Jose R. Chelala Al- ence on Neural Networks (IJCNN '90), retariat de la Conference IPMU,

ENSTA,

32varez de Baena, 3-2, 28006 Madrid, Spain, San DieS°' CA- Contact Nomi Feldman, BoulevardVictor, 75015 Paris, France.FAX: 91-410-01-21. IJCNN '90 Conference

Coordinator,

5665OberlinDrive, San Diego, CA 92121, (619) July 9-13: InternationalNeural Network

May 16-18: Conference on AI in Petro- 453-6222, FAX: (619) 453-7930.leum Exploration and Production

Conference (INNC 90 Paris), Palais dcsCongres, Paris, France. Contact Nina Thel-

(CAIPEP), Texas A&M University, College June 18-22: Conference on Program- Her,

N.T.C.,

19rue de la Tour, 75116 Paris,

Station,

TX. Contact Tsai-Bao Kuo, Texas ming Language Design and Implemen- France, tel. (33-1) 45 25 65 65; or AdapticsA&M Univeristy, Dept. of Petroleum Engi- tation(ACM SIGPLAN '90), White Plains, Inc., 16776 Bernardo Center Drive, Suiteneering, College

Station,

TX 77843-3116, NY. Contact Mark Scott Johnson, Sun Mi- 1108/ San Diego, CA 92128, (619) 451--(409) 845-2241,FAX: (409) 845-1307. crosystems Inc., 2550 Garcia Avenue, M/S 3752.

12-40, Mountain View, CA 94043-1169,May 22-23: sth Conference on AI for (415) 336-7758. Ju]y 15.18. 3rd International Confer.Space Applications, Huntsville, AL. Con- ence on Industrial and Engineering Ap-tact

NASA/E844,MSFC,

AL 35812, (800) June 21-23: 2nd International Confer- plications of AI and Expert Systems448-4035 or (205) 544-5181 (AL). ence on Software Engineering and (lEA/AIE-90), Mills House Hotel, Char-

Knowledge Engineering,

Skokie,

IL. Con- leston, SC. Contact Dr. Moonis Ali, Uni-May 23-25: Bth Canadian Conference on tact C.Y. Hsieh, Computer Science Dept., versity of Tennessee Space Institute, M/SAI, Universityof

Ottawa,Ontario,

Canada. Knowledge Systems Institute, 1153 Oak 15, Tullahoma, TN 37388, (615) 455-0631Contact Ken Charbonneau, National Re-

Street,

P.O. Box 576, Winnetka, IL 60093- ext. 236, FAX: (615) 454-2354

\^sjgWEEKMail To:

I AlWeek Subscription OfficeP.O. Box 77286

Atlanta, GA 30357-1286

To order by phone, call(404) 434-2187 or

FAX (404) 432-6969.

" AlWeek offers discounts for. multiple subscriptionsI going to the same address.

Call (404) 434-2187 for■

_. _l _l

__

_"!

_

Yes. I want to subscribe to AIWEEK:□ One year—sl 99 (USA and Canada); □ $275 (elsewhere)□ Two years—s32s (USA and Canada); □ $475 (elsewhere)□ Payment enclosed □ Please charge to my :□ Please bill me □ VISA □ MasterCard □ American Expressl

Account number:Expiration date:

Name:Title:Company/Organization:Street:City:

■ further details.Signature: Tel: i

1

%

"

"January 15, 199012

-^sj/WEEK

Learning from the past: a final look back at '89By David A. BlanchardEditor

If there's any truth to the statementthatonly byknowing wherewe'vecome from can weknow wherewe'regoing,we humbly submit thefollow-ing analysis of some key events earlyin 1989, and how the stories devel-oped overthe course of the year.

January 1989ITEM: Envos and Sun Microsystemssign a

$4

million OEM agreementwhich will enable Envos tobundleMedley, its Lisp developmentenvi-ronment, with the Sun-4 workstation.

By early summer, Envos as a corporateentity had folded, with ownership revert-ing to Xerox. The company was stillworkingonporting Medley to Sun work-stations.

ITEM: Teknowledge, an earlyAIpio-neer and a publicly held company,merges with American Cimflex, a pri-vately held company bestknown forits computer-integrated manufactur-ing (CIM) products. The newpubliclyheld companyis named CimflexTeknowledge.

By the end ofSeptember, CimflexTeknowledgehad announced its firstprofitable quarter since the merger, hadsigned an agreementwith Genßad to in-corporate itsAl-based ELECTRA technol-ogy into Genßad's GENESIS softwaresystem, and hadreceived aDARPA grantfor a next-generationcontroller.

February 1989ITEM: The INNS and lEEE announcean agreement to sponsor joint techni-cal meetings. The first IJCNN will beheld in June in Washington.

More than 2,000 attendees and over30 exhibitors werepresent atIJCNN '89where, among otherthings, severalneu-ral networkchips wereannounced. En-thusiasm for neural nets had reached thepoint where it was beingprojected as abillion dollar industryby 1995.

ITEM: Representativesfrom 13majorJapanesecompaniesvisit the US aspart of an AI study mission. The Japa-nese are particularlyinterestedin ex-

pert system validationand neuralcomputing applications. Amongthecompaniesinvolvedare: Hitachi,Kansai Electric Power, MatsushitaElectric,

NEC,

and Sumitomo Metal.By year's end, Hitachi had developeda

neural network chip, Kansai had begunfield testing an expert system forpowerinterruption operation, Matsushita Elec-trichad developedan English/Japanesetranslation machinesystem, NEC hadannouncedan expert system to diagnosenetworkfailures, and Sumitomo Metalwas assessing its utilization ofan expertsystem onfurnaces. A survey undertakenby theJapan ManagementAssociationrevealed that more than 30% of themanufacturing firms surveyed wereeitheralreadyusing AI, haddetailedplans toimplement it, or werein the experimentalphase; another40% wereconductingfea-sibility studies.

ITEM: Apple Computer acquiresCoral Software, an AI language devel-opment company. The full Coral linewill be sold under theApple name.Apple's role will be toprovide tools,rather thanapplication

software,

todevelopers.

At IJCAI '89 inDetroit in August,Apple announcesMacintoshAllegroCommonLisp version 1.3, thecompany's first enhanced release sincethe acquisition. The new version includesa foreign function interface supportforMPW 3.0 objectfiles.

ITEM: IntelliCorp and Symbolicspostquarterlyprofits.

For both companies, which assumednew management leadership in 1988,1989marked areturn toprofitabilityand growth, after two years offlatreve-nues and ongoinglosses. IntelliCorp'ssuccess reflected its assessmentof thechanging tide in the AI Industry, awayfrom Lisp machine software and towardsoftware for standard hardware, such asSun andDEC workstations. ForSymbol-ics, a company once known almost solelyfor its by-now out-of-vogue Lisp worksta-tions, the moveback toprofitabilitywasmadepossible byreversing its proprietaryhardware strategyand making it bothmorestandard and faster. TheMaclvoryModel2 and the

UX4OOS,

which runs on

Sun-3 and Sun-4 workstations, werebothsteps in this new direction.

ITEM: NASA's requests

$13.2

billionfor FY '90, much of that total ear-marked for R&D, increasingAl's po-tential at the space agency. NASA asksfor a budget of

$2

billion for spacestation R&D.

Studentteams at NASA'sKennedySpaceCenterdevelop sevenexpert sys-tems, includinga hazardousgas

ES,

aliquidoxygen andgaseous oxygen trans-port system, and a launch vehicleproc-essing simulation assistant.Meanwhile,at IJCAI '89 inAugust, The JetPropul-sionLaboratory (JPL) spectacularly dem-onstrates the success of its expert systemto monitor the Voyager space probe asthe timingof theDetroitshow coincideswith Voyager's rendezvous with Nep-tune. SHARP, another JPLexpert system,is developed toautomate spacecraftfaultdiagnosis.

March 1989ITEM: Expert Systems International(ESI), a UK-basedProlog vendor, isliquidated. Chemical Design Ltd. ac-quires the intellectual propertyrightsto all of ESl's Prolog-basedproducts.

Byyear's end, another UK-basedAIcompany, AdvancedTraining Technol-ogyAssociates(ATTA), had also closeddown shop, leaving

£150,000

ofdebttotradecreditors. A managementbuyoutofSD-Scicon'sAIproducts division resultedin theformation ofa new AIcompany,Integral Solutions Ltd. And Expertech,the creators ofXi Plus, acquired Intelli-gentSystems International (ISI), develop-ers ofthe Egeria expertsystem tool.

April 1989ITEM: DARPA's Lt. Col. RobertSimpson reveals that at least 75 Al-re-lated projects are being funded byDARPA, as well as scores of othersunderway or funded by variousotherDoD agencies.At least 65 DoD-spon-sored expert systems are either in aprototypeor operational stage.

Later in the year, a callforproposalsby theDoD's Small Business InnovationResearch (SBIR) program includes atleast 65 projects directly involvingAIforFY '9O. C

"

"March 1, 1990 7

tate the developmentprocess. Plexiincludes a powerful graphical inter-face that can be operatedeither via amouse orcontrol key commands.Plexi,which was developedby PlexiSoftwareInc., is also still available onSymbolicsworkstations from Symbol-ics Inc. (Chatsworth, CA).

The product is entirely menu-driven.Networks can be easily con-structed and modified via simplemouseactionsusing the NetworkEdi-tor and PatternEditor. Several con-ventional neural net paradigms —Hopfield Memory, Back Propagationand Competition— areprovidedwith Plexi. Mixed paradigm networksas well as modifiedorextended para-digms can be created. Plexi's availa-bility on UNIX platforms in LucidCommon lisp offers Lisp extensibil-ity. Lucid plans toport Plexi to allLucid CommonLispplatforms.

Lucid Inc., 707 Laurel Street, MenloPark, CA 94025, (415) 329-8400, FAX:(415)329-8480.

Nexpert compatible withIBM's RISC System/6000NexpertObject, an expertsystemshell, is now available for use withIBM's new RISC System/6000 familyrunning AIX Release 3. NexpertOb-ject is a rule and object-based systemthatfeatures an open, event-drivenarchitecture, graphical user interface,and interoperability across all stan-dard computingplatforms and oper-ating systems. Applications developedare SAA (Systems Application Archi-tecture) compliant, meaningthatNexpert applications running on theIBM mainframe and PCs can commu-nicate with otherSAA compliant ap-plications (including other Nexpertapplications). The RISC System/6000family containsan advanced floatingpoint processor, global superscalarprocessors and optimized 3-D graph-ics. The application also runs on theIBM RT system and the IBMPersonalSystem/2.

Neuron Data Inc., 444 High Street, PaloAlto, CA 94301, (41 5) 321-4488.

ES development environmentsIbis and Ibis-Plus arecomplete expertsystem developmentenvironments.All tools necessary toprototype,build, debug, and field an expert sys-

tern are present in both products. Ibis novicewith immediate system con-creates the optimum environmentfor trol while allowing theexperiencedcreatingan expert system. Incorpo- user access to the "nuts and bolts"rated into Ibis is afull-windowed en- necessary for serious programming,vironmentwith pull-down menus, a TheRl2 includes a24 inch arm ex-texteditor which can be called from a tension,position resolution of .003knowledge base, an inference engine inches, payload of2.4 lb, wrist rollthat performs forward and backward and pitch, as well as custom languagechaining, versatile and flexible rule generation. A complete Rl2 systemstructure, and English-like rules. The includes a five axisRl2 articulatedIbis-Plus environment includes all the robot arm, Xl1Rrobot and automa-options of Ibis plus someadvanced tion controller, the ROBOFORTH lan-features, such as the ability to read guage, IBM-compatible microcom-and display PCX files, access data- puter, cables, hoses and manuals. Thebase, spreadsheet and graphic files. Rl5 system features an "X" axis fromIbis requires two 360K drives and 512 4 feet to 42 feet, payloads up to 24X RAM. Ibis-Plus requires a hard disk lbs, speeds up to 30 inches a second,and 5 12K RAM. Price:

$250

for Ibis; optionalclean room configurations,tobe announcedfor Ibis-Plus. resolution of .0012 inches, "lead-by-

Intelligence Manufacturing Co., 340 the-nose" teaching, as well as applica-Bridge Place, West Sacramento, CA tiongenerationsoftware. Thecom--95691, (916) 372-6680. pleteRl5 system includes 1 to 5 axis

Rl5 robot, KIIRrobot and automa-

Robots tioncontroller, ROBOFORTH soft-An all-electric anthropomorphic and ware, IBM compatible microcom-a cartesian trackrobot systemfor puter, cables, hoses, and manuals,

light industrial manufacturing and St Monforte Robotics Inc., 30 Wardrobotics trainingareavailable.Both AvenueExtension, Trenton, NJ 0861 9,models are designedtoprovidethe (609)-587-3335, (800) 828-3012.

Announcing...Beginning in March

Al In financial services

«■»■»_»»■>,y*mm~~+» *f^_i^-_,alti-■ ■■ «-_■■

<w»»fc-i

i-_ -»

JV *■.■»». -_._iy.t-y.iii-yiljS i_^»yi>»iini|ifc"i

%t-r-»-_*.__v~~rf!^

mTfc

!_iii _mi,ii _m_nf ?J-.iL-Z____y

_i_ii

<

i_

??m!m!- uJfr* sasSsiT-.tsr■IIMl _ ill|>i»ii» nll>*^|^Nfe-*to■_l--fc-fctJfc■_m

m

Mil

wt»i ■■mi

j-iii-i

i—t____

i_

i n m+anf ■ i_ iU-gsa_a_ss- c_s£S_S_i b^^2issue zeroing in on aparticular aspect of appliedAI technology.

Systems AI will appear inMarch, May, July, Septem- please call (404) 434-2187,ber, November and De- or FAX (404) 432 6969.cember, and will be distrib-uted at major AI shows The March issue will focusand conferences through- on expert system applica-out the year. For advertis- tions in the financial serv-ing or other information, ices industry.

1990, Systems AIwill bemailed to AlWeek andNeural Network Newssubscribers as a free supple-ment. This new publica-tion will provide focusedinformation for the AIprofessional, with each

"

"8 March 1, 1990

Trains run on time, thanks to AlAnyonefamiliar with operations atNew York's Grand Central Station—and especially those who insist onmore accurately calling it Grand Cen-tral Terminal—will appreciate thescheduling problems encounteredatone of France's busiest terminals, theGare de lEst in Paris. All train termi-nals sharethe same logistics problem:they have to funnel trainsfrom manyparallel platforms intoa veryfewmainlinetracks.At Gare de lEst, 30platform tracks funnel into justsixmainlinetracks, and some 1,100trainsa daymust be hurried throughthisbottleneck. That's one trainevery30 seconds during busy periods everyday.

Raymond Moulin, managerof ex-pert system projects at the Cyberneticand Technical Research Departmentof

SNCF,

France'srailway authority,explained some of the problems thatconfront human schedulers. Trafficlevels arenear the theoretical maxi-mum. Each train must be assignedoneof 640 possible routes intoandout of the station. Local and long dis-tance trains aremixed on platformassignments. A single delayed traincan cause a chain reaction duringrush hours thatreverberates throughthe scheduleof subsequent trainsaslong as four hours afterward. Andwhen a track or platform must betaken out of servicefor repairs, asmany as 250 trains may haveto bediverted each day.

Human expertiseMoulin pays tribute to the dis-

patchers who, like chess masters,have solved theseknotty problemsquickly every day for scores of years."Onlyspecialists at the Gare de lEsthave the skills to reroute these trainswithout creating delays — skills thatderivefrom 10to 15 years' experienceof working at the station."

Now, however, thoseskills havebeenbuilt into GESPI, an expertsys-temrunning on a TI Explorer com-puter. The human experts now needinterveneonly torelax constraintsbeyond the system's authority tore-lax them.GESPI was tested at theGare de lEst for half a year in 1988,

and has been in full operational useevery daysince early 1989. The sys-tem was developedby SNCF incol-laboration with GSI-TECSI, a special-ist AI company, using aTI Explorercomputer and Carnegie Group'sKnowledge Craft developmenttool.

Moulin reports that GESPI is work-ingwell, and thatclear-cut benefitshavebeen achieved. "It has helped toimprovethe quality of plans for thedaily movementsof trains, and toprepare future timetables," he said."Theexperiencegained in this firstproject will be put to good use insimilarimplementationsat other sta-tions," he said. "GESPI has two goals:increasingthe regular traffic flow,and facilitatingthe integrationofnewdaily traffic conditions — supple-mentary trainsand track repairs.There is no algorithmic solution tothis problem."

The number ofpossible solutions tosuch problems is astronomical, as theresult of "combinatorial explosion."As in chess, thecombinations of allpossible movesand counter-movesare so numerous that a powerfulcom-puter may takeyears toexplore themall and select the best.Yet in the realworld ofrailroading, a solution isneededinminutes.

Until now, the solutionhas beenfor the human expertsto userules-of-thumb — heuristics — to givethem aworkingsolution that may not be theabsolute best, but that's adequate.Theserules may be enunciatedasconstraints thatsaywhat may andwhat may not be done in terms oftrain routes, and theeffects of anychangedroute on all the others.Thebasic rule inrailroading, of course, isthattwo trainsmust notoccupy thesame space at the same time; thefirstcorollary is that, on a single track, notrain may pass another from eitherdirection. These are rules that mustnever be violated; other rules rangeacross a spectrum whose other ex-treme is "slightly desirable ifconven-ient." At this extremeare suchrulesas "Don't assign a train to a platformuntil theprevious debarkees havefullycleared theplatform," whichmaybe relaxed to solve problems.

Thefirst advantage of GESPI is thata computer-based system can runthrough many morepossible arrange-ments than humans can in a limitedtime,resulting in improved manage-ment of the terminal. But GESPI goesmuch farther. When extra trains areadded, as for holidays, it often turnsout that no solution is possible thatobeys all the constraints.GESPI hasmetaknowledge that lets it begin torelax the least-crucial rules until satis-factory solutions are possible. Onlywhen it has exhausted its authority torelax rules does GESPI call for humanintervention torelax more-importantrules to meet emergencies.

Relations, objectsGESPI employs an object-oriented

approach. A plan's "elements" —trains, tracks and platforms — arelinked via "relations." The system be-ginsby examininga possible route,and as soon as a potential conflict be-tweentwo trainsoccurs, the typeofconflict triggers an appropriaterulethatrecommends how toremove it.Each time such an event happens, arelation is established between theconflicting objects, representing thetype ofconflict.

These processes quicklybuild a net-work ofobjects and their relations.But it isn't feasible toproduce a com-plete solution all at once, soGESPIsub-divides theproblem intosmallelements,and starts workingon areaswhereexperiencehas shown thetrains tobe most exposed topotentialconflicts. "Therules make it possibleto identifythesesituations in apracti-cal way, without calculation, andveryreliably. It is a provenmethod,because therules havebeen usedregularly for years,"Moulin said.

GESPI normally starts inbatchmode and applies itsrule base with-out an operator present, listing anysituations that cannotberesolved.Then, in the interactive mode, thehuman operatorcan intervene by us-ing a graphical interface, relaxingconstraints more than the system ispermitted to do, until afinal plan isproduced. The plan reproduces thepaper documents formerlyused by

"

"March 1, 1990 9

the humans to produce their plans, so system, coveringCN's Halton,the needfor behavioral changes out- Oakville and Dundas subdivisions,isside dispatching was held to a mini- part ofan industry-wide effort tomum. demonstrate and proveATCScon-

GESPI's interface also gives users a cepts and system reliability,clear windowinto the system, so they At the same time, theprocess ofcan easily see the effects of manually identifying,ratingand exploiting po-modifying data in the system. And it tential uses for the technologybe-invites them to investigatenewpossi- yond its primary role ofelectronicbilities off line. "Theexperts can rail-traffic manager is moving intomodify and manipulate the docu- high gear. As far as theplanners arements they're used to on the concerned, ATCS is just about onExplorer's screen, but theycan also schedule, even though it took fiveexploit newmethods of working. years for the industry to agree on theWhichever they do, they can use the final design and specifications,system without knowing anything "Thereisn't a whole lot of hard-about the underlying AI techniques," ware on the ground yet," saidJohnMoulin said. Reoch, CN Rail's assistantvice presi-

Even casual observers of the French dent, operations, "but in the contextrailroading scene must be impressed of thekind of technological break-with their system, which is one of the throughs thatare involved, and theworld's most advanced. While the size andcomplexity of the project,fastest train in the US is the 125-mph not to mention the potential cost, I'dMetroliner connectingWashington say it's just abouton track."and New York, and theJapaneseSh- Most railways will be watching pi-inkansenbullet trains travel at 150 lot projects like theBritish Columbiamph, the French Trains a Grande North Line installation — a leadingVitesse (TGV) Atlantique cruise at 186 edge application which will breakmph. And theFrench have earlier newgroundfor the railway industry,TGV models inabundance. One according to Walter Friesen, spokes-wouldthereforehave expectedthe man for a consortium of suppliersFrench railway system to adoptexpert headedby the SEL Division of Alcatelsystems technology earlyon: It's a CanadaInc. (Don Mills, Ontario). Thegreatway to run a railroad. consortium is running aprototype

ATCS installation on CN's HagersvilleSmart trains subdivision south of Brantford toputMeanwhile, at Canadian National hardware and integrated systems des-(Montreal, Quebec), the smart money fined for the B.C. North Line throughhas smart trains taking over the their paces. By 1991, therailway willNorth Americanrailway industry dur- have a first operational ATCS install-ing the next decade. Smart trainsare tionon 187 milesof the B.C. Norththeprodigy of Advanced Train Con- Line between Prince George, 8.C.,trol Systems (ATCS), the technology and Jasper, Alberta,thatmany arebetting will change Advanced Train Control is justasrailroading as profoundly as the excitingfor equipment suppliers be-switchfrom steam to diesel power cause ATCS equipmentisbuilt to in-almost a halfcentury ago. Smart dustry-wide specifications. What theytrains are said tobe safer, moreeffi- can sell to onerailway, they can sellcient, will improve productivity, will to them all,or so they hope. ForSELeliminate paperwork, and will diag- and consortium partnersMotorolanose their own mechanical problems. Canada (North York, Ontario) and

After six years on the drawing Vapor Canada (St. Laurent, Quebec),board, ATCS is movingonto therails that represents a crack at a North—- albeit cautiously — at severalma- American market worthbillions ofjorcarriers inCanada and the US. dollars.Canadian National (CN) recently Tocreate a smart train,you put aturned on thefirst ATCS operating computer on a locomotive, and havecommunicationssystem in North it "talk" via a dataradio hookup to aAmerica at one of two test-bedsover centralATCS computer, which directs100miles of therailway's main and traffic for maximumsafetyandeffi-secondary linesnear Toronto. The ciency. The ATCS computer sends

trainmovement orders to the on-board computer, which displays themfor the crew.

The glue for ATCS is the dataradiolink. To determine the optimumloca-tionfor radio base stations. CN Railpurchased a National Research Coun-cil software package that computesthe signalstrength needed toprovideproper coverage from any givenpointalongthe B.C. North Line.

The B.C. system is designed toper-form such ATCS functions as there-ceipt and display of train movementinstructions in the locomotive cabbymeans of an on-board computer.From the safetyviewpoint,enforce-ment of such instructions is the mostexcitingaspectof ATCS.

In a fullyconfigured ATCS environ-ment, the system can detectandoverride human error, virtually rulingout thepossibility of train collisions.The ATCS computerwillmonitor,separateand pace traffic just like anair trafficcontroller, sending trainmovement ordersto the on-boardcomputer. If something goes awry —if the train is speeding or is abouttopass a mandatory stop— the com-puter can enforce speed limits or stopthe train.

What's exciting to therailways isthat the ATCS framework — a "live"data network linkingcentral and re-mote computers as well as any track-side equipment — can serve a myriadof other masters. Once a trainbe-comes "smart," those smarts can beput to work for the marketing depart-ment,for the motivepower repairshops, for thepeople who allocatemotivepower and freight cars, andfor the trackrepair gangs.

The on-board computer can have adiagnostic capability tomonitor loco-motivehealth and forward troublereports to the next maintenancepoint. With improved traincontrol,more trains can operate on a line.That may encourage railways to oper-ate shorter, faster trains.And trainscan be paced to maximizefuel effi-ciency. Stop-and-go driving burnsmore fuel.

Perhaps the leading business appli-cationso far is a computerizedworkorder reporting system. Train consistinformation and work orders can betransmitted between the locomotive

[continuedonp. 12]

"

"March 1, 199010

CalendarMar. 4-7: 3rd Conference on TheoreticalAspects of Reasoning about Knowledge,Asilomar, CA. Contact Moshe Vardi, Con-ference

Chairman,

IBM AlmadenResearch

Center,

K53-802, 650 Harry Road, SanJose, CA 95120-6099.

Mar. 5-7: Symposium on Symbolic Com-putation, Zurich, Switzerland. Contact H.Lauchli, Mathematik, HG G 62.3, ETH-Zentrum,CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.

March 5-8: The James Martin World

Seminar,

Denver, CO. Contact Technol-ogy Transfer Institute, 741 Tenth

Street,

Santa Monica, CA 90402, (213) 394-8305,FAX: (213) 451-2104.

Mar. 5-9: 6th lEEE Conference on AIApplications (CAIA-90), Fess Parker's RedLion Resort, Santa Barbara, CA. Contact

CAIA-90,

lEEE Computer Society, 1730Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington,DC 20036-1903, (202) 371-1013.

Mar. 6-8: The Lyon Conference — Neu-ral Networks: Biological Computers orElectronic Brains, Lyon, France. ContactSolange Dubeauclard, Concord Interna-tional Inc., 1030 North

Glenhurst,

Bir-mingham, MI 48009, (313) 647-7833.

Mar. 12-16: lEEE Computer SocietyInternational Conference on ComputerLanguages, New

Orleans,

LA. ContactBoumediene Belkouche, Tulane Univer-sity, Computer Science Dept., 301 StanleyThomas Hall, New

Orleans,

LA 70118,(504) 865-5840.

Mar. 13-15: The Object-Oriented Sys-tems Symposium, Washington, DC. Con-tact Dr. George

Schussel,

Digital Consult-ing Inc., 6 Windsor

Street,

Andover, MA01810, (508) 470-3880, FAX: (508) 470--0526.

Mar. 14-16: 2nd ACM SIGPLAN Sympo-sium on PrinciplesandPractice of Paral-lel Programming,

Seattle,

WA. ContactEdward Lazowska, Dept. of Computer Sci-ence, University of Washington,

Seattle,

WA 98195, (206) 543-4755.

Mar. 20-21: AI and Expert Systems inManufacturing, Bloomsbury Crest Hotel,London, England. Contact Hazel Leech,Conference Manager, IFS

Conferences,

Adams

Close,

Wolseley Business Park,Kempston, Bedford MK42 7PW, England,tel.:(0234) 853605,FAX: (0234) 854499.

Mar. 20-22:

Southcon/90,

Orange Coun-

try Convention

Center,Orlando,

FL. Con-tact

Southcon,

P.O. Box 92275, Long An-geles, CA 90009-2275, (213) 215-EXPO.

Mar. 26-29: EuropeanConferenceon thePractical Application of Lisp (Europal'90), University of Cambridge, England.ContactDr. Tim Rajan or Dr. JohnDomin-gue,

HCRL,

Open University, MiltonKeynes, MK7 6AA, England, tel.: 908652453/655014.

Mar. 26-30: 12th lEEE InternationalConference on Software Engineering,Nice, France. Contact ICSE 12, lEEE Com-puter Society, 1730 Massachusetts AvenueNW, Washington, DC 20036.

Mar. 27-29: AAAI Spring SymposiumSe-ries, Stanford University,

Stanford,

CA.Contact Carol Hamilton, AAAI, 445 Bur-gess Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025-3496,(415) 328-3123,FAX: (415) 321-4457.

Apr. 2-5: 4th Annual Expert SystemsConference and Exposition, Cobo Con-ference & Exhibition

Center,

Detroit, MI.Contact ESD Regional Conference

Center,

24 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive, Suite

C5OO,

Ann Arbor, MI 48105, (313) 995-4440.

Apr. 3-6: Florida AI Research Sympo-sium onKnowledge Engineering(FLAlßS'90), Cocoa Beach, FL. Contact Dr. AvelinoJ.

Gonzalez,

Dept. of Computer Engineer-ing, University of Central Florida,Orlando, FL 32816, (407) 281-5027.

Apr. 6: Recent Advances and SuccessfulApplications in Expert Systems, NewYork,NY. Contact

TIMS,

290 WestminsterStreet,Providence,R102903, (401)274-2525.

Apr. 10-12: Advanced Computing forthe Social

Sciences,

Williamsburg Hiltonand National Conference

Center,

Wil-liamsburg, VA. Contact Lloyd F. Ar-rowood, Oak Ridge National Lab, P.O. Box2008,

MS-6207,

Oak Ridge, TN 37831--8165, (615) 574-8700.

Apr. 10-12: InternationalSymposium onDesign and Implementation of Sym-bolic ComputationSystems (DISCO 90),Capri, Italy. Contact Alfonso Miola, Infor-matica c SistemisticaDipt., Via Buonarroti,12, 00185 Rome, Italy.

May 1-3 : 2nd Conferenceon InnovativeApplications of AI, Georgetown Univer-sity, Washington, DC. Contact AAAI, 445Burgess Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025,(415) 328-3123, FAX: (415) 321-4457.

May 7-11: 4th InternationalSymposiumon Knowledge Engineering, Barcelona,Spain. Contact Jose' R.

Chelala,

Alvarez de

Baena, 3-2, 28006 Madrid, Spain, tel.: (91)419 77 40, FAX: (91) 410 01 21.

May 13-18: InternationalConference onRobotics and Automation, Hyatt Re-gency,

Cincinnati,

OH. Contact HarryHayman, P.O. Box 3216, Silver Spring, MD20901, (301) 434-1990 or(407) 483-3037.

May 14-16: 4th International Confer-ence on Expert Systems in Productionand Operations Management, Hyatt Re-gency, Hilton Head Island, SC. ContactThe Daniel Management

Center,

Collegeof Business Administration, University ofSouth

Carolina, Columbia,

SC 29208,(803) 777-2231.

May 15-18: 4th International Sympo-sium on Knowledge Engineering, Barce-lona, Spain. Contact Jose R.

Chelala,

Al-varez de Baena, 3-2, 28006 Madrid, Spain,FAX: 91-410-01-21.

May 16-18: Conference on AI in Petro-leum Exploration and Production(CAIPEP), Texas A&M University, College

Station,

TX. Contact Tsai-Bao Kuo, confer-ence co-chair, Texas A&M Univeristy,Dept. of Petroleum Engineering, College

Station,

TX 77843-3116, (409) 845-2241,FAX: (409) 845-1307.

May 22-23: sth Conference on AI forSpace Applications, Huntsville, AL. Con-tact

NASA/E844,MSFC,

AL 35812, (800)448-4035 or (205) 544-5181 (AL).

May 23-25: BthCanadian Conference onAI, University of

Ottawa,Ontario,

Canada.Contact Ken

Charbonneau,

National Re-search Council Canada Bldg. M-19, Mon-trealRoad Labs,

Ottawa,

OntarioKIA

OR6,

Canada,(6l3)993-9009,FAX:(613)975-9828.

May 28-June 1: Avignon '90, 10th Inter-national Workshop on Expert Systemsand their Applications, Avignon, France.Contact

EC2,

269 rue de la

Garenne,

92000 Nanterre, France, tel.: (33 1) 47807000, FAX: (33 1)4780 6629.

June 5-7: International AutomationShow—Robots & Vision, Cobo Hall, De-troit, MI. Contact International Automa-tion Show Management, 7901 WestparkDrive, McLean, VA 22102, (800) 828-

SHOW,

FAX: (703) 893-1151.

June 17-21: International Joint Confer-ence on Neural Networks (JJCNN '90),San Diego, CA. Contact Nomi Feldman,IJCNN '90 Conference

Coordinator,

5665OberlinDrive, San Diego, CA 92121, (619)453-6222, FAX: (619) 453-7930.

June 18-22: Conference onProgramming

"

"March 1, 1990 11

Language Design and Implementation July2-6: 2ndACM SymposiumonParal- England, tel.: 01 637 0471, FAX: 01 631(ACM SIGPLAN '90), White Plains, NY. kl Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA 1049.Contact Mark Scott Johnson, Sun Mi- 90),

Crete,

Greece. Contact Tom Leighton,crosystems Inc., 2550 Garcia Avenue, M/S MathDept. andLab for Computer

Science,

July 27-29: 6th Conference on Uncer--12-40, Mountain View, CA 94043-1169, MIT, Cambridge,MA02139X617) 253-3662. tainty in AI, Cambridge,MA. ContactPi-(4ls) 336-7758. eroBonissone, GeneralElectric,

CRD,

P.O.July 9-13: InternationalNeural Network Box 8, Bldg. K-l, Room

5C32A,

Schenec-June 21-23: 2nd International Confer- Conference (INNC 90 Paris), Palais dcs tady, NY 12301, (518) 387-5155.ence on Software Engineering and Congres, Paris, France. Contact Nina Thel-Knowledge Engineering,

Skokie,

IL. Con- lier,

N.T.C.,

19 rue de la Tour, 75116 Paris, July 29-Aug. 3: Bth National Conferencetact C.Y. Hsieh, Computer Science Dept., France, tel. (33-1) 45 25 65 65; or Adaptics, on AI (AAAI '90), Boston, MA. ContactKnowledge Systems Institute, 1153 Oak 16776 Bernardo CenterDrive, Suite

HOB,

AAAI, 445 Burgess Drive, Menlo Park, CA

Street,

P.O. Box 576, Winnetka, IL 60093- San Diego, CA 92128, (619) 451-3752. 94025, (415) 328-3123.0576.

July 15-18: 3rd International Confer- Aug. 6-10: 9th European Conference onJune 25-29: 4th European Knowledge ence on Industrial and EngineeringAp- AI (ECAI '90),

Stockholm,

Sweden. Con-Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Sys- plications of AI and Expert Systems tact

ECAI,

c/o Stockholm ConventionBu-tems Workshop (EKAW-90), Amsterdam, (lEA/AIE-90), Mills House Hotel, Char- reau, Box 6911,

S-102, Stockholm,

Swe-The Netherlands.Contact John Boose, Ad- leston, SC. Contact Dr. Moonis Ali, Uni- den, tel.: 46-8-23 0990,FAX: 46-8-3484 41.vanced Technology

Center,

Boeing Com- versity of Tennessee Space Institute, M/Sputer Services 7L-64, P.O. Box 24346, Se- 15, Tullahoma,TN 37388, (615) 455-0631, Aug. 20-25: 13th International Confer-attle, WA 98124, (206) 865-3253. ext. 236, FAX: (615) 454-2354. ence on Computational Linguistics

(COLING 90), Helsinki, Finland. ContactJune 27-29: ACM Conference on Lisp July 17-20: sth International Confer- Hans Karlgren, KVAL, Skeppsbron 26 S-and Functional Programming (LFP 90), ence onAI in Engineering(AIENG 90), 111 30

Stockholm, Sweden,

tel.: 46-8-Nice, France. Contact GillesKahn, INRIA, Boston, MA. Contact SandraElliott, Com- 7896683.2004 Route dcs Lucioles, Sophia Antipolis, putational Mechanics Institute, 25 Bridge06565 Valbonne

Cedex,

France.

Street,

Billerica, MA 01821, (508) 667- Sep. 11-14: Intertechno '90, Budapest,5841, FAX: (508) 667-7582. Hungary. Contact GTE (Scientific Society

of Mechanical Engineers), Intertechno '90July 2-4: 2nd InternationalSymposiumon Databasesin Paralleland Distributed July 23-25: International Workshop on

Conference,

H-1372 Budapest, P.O. BoxSystems, Dublin, Ireland. Contact Sushil Principles of Diagnosis, Menlo Park, CA. 451, Hungary.Jajodia, George Mason University, Infer- Contact Walter Hamscher, Price Water-mation Systems and Systems Engineering, house Technology

Center,

68 Willow Sep. 19-22: 4th International Confer-

Fairfax,

VA 22030-4444, (703) 764-6192. Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, (415) 688- ence on AI: Methodology,Systems, Ap-6669. plications (AIMSA '90), Albena-Varna,

Bulgaria. Contact Dr. Christo Dichev orJuly 2-6: 3rd International Conferenceon Information Processing and Manage- July 24-27: Software Engineering 1990, Mrs. Galia Pencheva,AIMSA '90, ITKR-Bul-ment of Uncertainty in Knowledge- Brighton Metropole Conference

Centre,

garian Academy of

Sciences,

81. 29 A,Based Systems, Paris, France. Contact Sec- Brighton, England. Contact BISL Confer- Acad. G. Bonchev

St.,

1113

Sofia,

Bulgaria,retariat de la Conference IPMU,

ENSTA,

32 ence Dept., The British Computer Society, tel.: (0359) 2707586 or (0359) 271 69Boulevard Victor, 75015 Paris, France. 13 Mansfield

Street,

London WIM

OBP,

53, FAX: (0359) 272 23 11.

\^sjIWEEK Yes. I want to subscribe to AIWEEK:□ One year—sl 99 (USA and Canada); □ $275 (elsewhere)D Two years—s32s (USA and Canada); □ $475 (elsewhere)□ Payment enclosed □ Please charge to my :

Mail To:| AlWeek Subscription Office

P.O. Box 77286 □ Please bill me □ VISA □ MasterCard □ American Express| Atlanta, CA 30357-1286 Account number:

Expiration date:j To order by phone, call| (404) 434-2187 or Name:j FAX (404) 432-6969. Title:

Company/Organization:Street:AlWeek offers discounts for

j multiple subscriptionsj going to the same address,j Call (404) 434-2187 for

City:

Signature:j further details.

__^f__E____

"

"March 1, 199012

Product review:

Datability's Remote Access FacilityBy Martin BergTelectronics Pacing SystemsMiami, FL

As PC/mainframe connectivityhasmoved from file transfer and terminalemulation into the eraof "virtualdriveproducts," importantchangesare in the offing for software andhardware developers. We will herere-viewbriefly theRemote Access Facil-ity (RAF) by Datability (New York,NY), and analyze its implications.

Software system's on mainframesand PCs have traditionally been sepa-ratedby the differentoperatingsys-tems. On larger machines, software isexpensiveand notrich infunctional-ity: It is sold to a captivemarket withdeeppockets. For

PCs,

softwareis de-velopedfor a mass market, under in-tense competition, the advantageofthe mainframeis multiple access bymany users under high fault-toler-ance and security, while the PC offersrichness, speed and easeofuse.

A link between theseworlds is nowavailable,and promises in the longterm a complete halt in the develop-ment of mainframe application soft-ware, and newrewards for PC soft-ware developers, particularly thoseworking on virtual address expressionsystems, i.e., the ability to treat in anapplicationan area of the diskasmemory.

RAF by Datability connects VAXcomputers over an ethernetto PCs bymakingoneor many VAX directoriesavailable as a PC virtual drive, rang-ing fromD: to S:, and accessible byDOS syntax.This means notonlythat files can be transferedbetweenhost andclient atroughtly 100 timesthe speedof terminal emulator pack-ages, but also that the VAX side canbe tied intoPC applications. For ex-ample, aPC AI application coulddraw on a huge datafile located at D:,and manipulate its contentswithoutfirst transferring it to the PC. As beta-site administrator for the most recentPC-side versionof RAF, which is com-patible with DOS 4.01, 1 was able torapidly move hugeclinical data filesto and from the VAX, and even inte-

grate the "VAX drive" into the PC package in easeofPC integrationandprogram withoutperforming anyfile operation, both from the standpointtransfer. of the developerand user. (Telectron-

VAXDCL commands can be cxc- ies uses TCP-IP worldwide, but I feltcuted from thePC side, and the that locally,integrationease and PCscreencan be toggled to access the syntax made RAF preferable over theVAX as a vt22o terminal ifneeded. File-Transfer-Protocol offeredbyTCP-Datablility has more than 35,000 in- IP, and overvirtual driveproducts of-stallations,is welldocumented(even fered for TCP-IP by smaller vendors.)though my draft release notes were The implications of RAF (and simi-outdated in some instances),and has lar products about tocome onto thean 800 number for troubleshooting. market by other firms) are far-reach-The installation was uneventful,ex- ing: The gigabyte storagepower ofcept that theencrypted parameter file the mainframe is nowdirectly avail-used to guaranteed legal ownership able for applications developedonmaynot containexcess white-spaces PCs, with all the lower costs and de-or carriagereturns to function. velopment timethis entails. Anybody

RAF works with most ethernet who is developingapplication soft-cards, which can be connected to ware on mainframes should look atDELNIs or to theethernet directly. the length of theedit/compile/link/The VAX side of the software adds run test-cycle and will probably findtwo processes, with ample installation that the application is bestported toand diagnosisprograms. For thePC a PC with the datakept on the host,user, the VAX directory environment If one considers the tremendouslylooks like a PC, and is responsiveto high expense of maintainingand op-PC commands. RAF is hencealso ex- crating database managers on mini'stremely useful as a backup mecha- or mainframes, it makes sense tonismfor PCs in lieu of tapedrives. A switch to aPC system using the sameMacintosh interface for RAFhas al- data, andpay PC developers insteadreadly been released, and a UNIX port of mainframe software developers. □is planned.

The most common alternativeto DatabilityRAF is aTCP-IP interface. Though 322 Bth Avenuetimetested, this older inter-network New York, NY 10001protocol cannot measureup to this (800) 342-5377

Trains awholerange ofbusiness payback[continuedfrom p. 9] — return on investment— that com-

plements the safetyaspects of the sys-and arailway's business computers. tern for therailway industry to makeThat has thepotential to greatly cut the kind of investments that are in-down on paperworkand enable the volved."railway torespond more quickly to Over the next two tofive years, "acustomer pick-up and deliveryre- lotofpeople will start installingquests. ATCS, but therewill also be some ap-

CN and a jointventure company plications ofconventional technol-owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, ogy," said Walter Friesen. "In theTandem Computers and Alcatel SEL seven to 10-year time frame, how-are tryingout a workorderreporting ever, ATCS will be the technology ofsystem on a 125mile territory near choice for North American railways."Belleville,in eastern Ontario. * The current industry projection is for

"Right now, thecritical issuefor the installation ofATCS alongATCS is developing thebusiness 200,000 miles of track by theend ofcase," said John Reoch. "There has to the century.

"AlWeek 5

Expert system for software validationBy Paul BeardManaging Editor

ILEX, Inc. demonstrated its hybridexpertsystem tool, The IntelligentComparison Tool, at the InnovativeApplications ofAI '90 conference,held at Georgetown University inWashington, DC, May 1-3. TheIntelligent Comparison Tool or ICT isa hybrid of embedded expert systemsand procedural components.

ICT was designed to assist in thesoftware validation process bycomparing the results of a test suiteofdata, used as a benchmark, andanother set that had beenrunthrough arevised price of software.Theresults areprinted on greenbarcomputerpaper and can consistofthousands of lines of figures, whichmust be compared to ensure accuracyof data. The ICT application removesthe numbers thatfall within apresetrange of tolerance, meaningthat theyare correct, and leaves only theanomalous ones tobe read andanalyzedby theprogrammer. Thissaves hours of programmer time (anaverage of 200 hours of reviewtime,cut to four) and theresulting loss inproductivity and developer time. Italso increases the chances that errorswill be caught thefirst time, as themachine is notgoing to getboredand skim over theresults.

The ICTworks in two phases, theliteral comparisonphase and theintelligent difference eliminationphase. The first phase compares thetwofiles literally. This is donewith astandard DIFF tool. The second phaseuses an expert system toprocess thedifferences, removingas much text aspossible. Thereduction of text isdirectedby rules. The literal differ-ences arewhittled down, through theuse of therules, to what could becalled "intelligent differences."

The textpattern matching compo-nent of the ICT usesregular expres-sions to define textstring patterns;more on the techniques used can befound in The AWK ProgrammingLanguage (Aho et al. 1988).

The expertsystem's rules specifytext string patterns that are matchedon the input text.The rule premises

June 15, 1990

can combine any number ofcondi- dependingon the magnitudeof thetions,whether simultaneous match- original numbers. If the difference ising of several text strings occurred small enough, the two floatingpoint(context), whether a particular numbers are replaced withblanks andpattern did not match (exceptions)or the searchcontinueswhat the matched stringactually it evolved that a set of severalcontained. Therules can ignore simple rules accomplished thedifferences in dates or file version comparison much more quickly thannumbers only in certain contexts, or one complex rule that was written toignoredifferences if the difference cover everyinstance.falls within a certainpercentage. ict uses a stepwise differencing_ method tobreak the comparisonDevelopmenttools and methodology process intosteps. Suitable test stepThe ICTwas built usingPersonal markers and titles are inserted intoConsultant Plus from Texas Instru- the original textfiles, generallyments and was written in Scheme during capture of the output. TheseLisp. The Lisp routines can call markers break up the text intoprocedureswritten inC or Pascal. sectionsor steps. When the textfilesThe expertsystem shell is run from are literally compared only corre-DOS in batch mode. Abatch com- sponding steps that appear inbothmandfile invokes the expert system files are comparedtoeach other. Thisshell, with a different input file each allows steps that appear inboth filestime, and specifying the knowledge in different orders or that donotbase tobe used. For each session, a appear in both files tobe comparedsingle input file containing oneor or noted. The test steps are storedin amoresets of literal textdifferences is tablefor later referenceprocessed by the expertsystem. For

each set of differences, a PC+

««,/

woHd experiencesubframe is established. The premise The systemwas used in the springofof this subframe establishes whether 1989 to aid in the validation of athere is another set of differences to SO,OOO line Fortran system. A typicalbe processed and if so loads each part difference file was 2.5Mb in size; theof the next difference into a DOS ICT stripped out 82% of the non-virtual file. bjank characters. Approximately 100Therules are generatedin a floatingpoint numbers were strippedlanguage that closely resembles that down to mostly blank with a few out-of the engineer.For example, "...this of-range numbers easily visible. Afterdifference is unimportant because stripping out extraneousinformation,both outputs differ only in the the engineercan focus his attentionsdate... translates verynaturally into on theessential differences. The ICTa rule. A typical rule suppresses time data file includes the step test tableand date stamps in a particular reSults, aswell as the stripped outcontext.Regular expressions are are difference data,

written that describe the date andtime stamp and the appropriate Conclusionscontext.A rule searches both parts of Among the lessons the ILEX teama differencefor a string matching the learned while developing ICT firstregular expressions. If the matches are and foremost was that qualitycan befound, the date and time stamps are improved, inboth quantifiablewaysreplaced with blanks and the two as in a better check of regression testparts are comparedagain. output, and intangibles such asAnother useful rule compares improved morale on thatpart of thenumbers that are different,but might reviewengineer.The skills learned inbe within tolerances. This rule uses a the developmentof ICT can be easilyregular expression to searchfor and cleanly carried forward into otherfloating points numbers and com- knowledge-based applications. Inputes the discrepancy. Varying addition, when a minor revision ispercentagedifferences are allowed [continuedon n 41[continuedon p. 4]

m

"

"

"

"6 AlWeek June 15, 1990

Expert system helps FordESCAPE warranty headacheBy NancyKahnt Development and informal training.Assistant Editor Initial progress was guided largely by

the developmentof Inference'sART- Technical descriptionThe Expert Systemfor Claims Autho- IM/MVS tool, with the ESCAPEteam ESCAPE is deeplyembedded intoarizationand Processing (ESCAPE), an providing inputon its functionality. large COBOL program and consists ofexpert system developedby Ford The ART-IM/MVS product was two majorparts. Thefirst is an ART-Motor Company's Parts and Service released last July, and the ESCAPE IM portion containingall the rulesDivision (FFSD) System Activity, is team's concentration returned to the that check theclaims for validity. Theused to process incoming warranty ESCAPE project itself. second, a COBOL portion, detectsclaims and attach error codes to any In the nextstep, "special edits" in when to invokeESCAPE andhowtothat are invalid. ESCAPE was devel- the ACES system were converted from most efficientlypass data to theoped using ART-IM/MVS, the new COBOLcode into ART-IM rules. A program.release of Inference Corporation's "special edit" is a setof checks for one Figure 1 is a high-level viewof the(Los Angeles, CA) Automated Reason- special warranty policy. After each interaction betweenART-IM anding Tool (ART) for the IBM main-frame environment.

policy was converted intoa set of COBOL. When an appropriate claimrules in ART-IM, it was validated by is recognized, the ART-IM environ-parallel testing against the original ment is initialized a single time, andCOBOL program. The team concen- the COBOL program passes control toWarranty claims processing

Each night, Ford dealerships through- tratedon the conversion of only a it. ESCAPE thenasserts needed data asout the world submit a

facts,

processes thelarge number ofwarrantyclaims toFord Motor Companyfor processing and, ifapproved, reimburse-ment. The claims areprocessed by a systemcalled ACES (Auto-matedClaims EntrySystem). ACES isactually a seriesofprograms, eachperforming part of theoverall validation

facts, processes theincomingclaim,returns codes for anyerrors that it finds,and retracts all of thefacts assertedfromthe current claim.Finally,ESCAPEreturns control to theCOBOL program and"hibernates"untilthe COBOL programdetectsanothersuitable claim.According to

function. ESCAPE, an expert system subset of "special edits" so that Inference chief technical officerembedded into this larger COBOL ESCAPE could be put into production Chuck Williams,ESCAPE is embed-program, replaced a part of the more quickly. The edits chosen were ded in the mainframe application inprogram which validated a major those that required changes and an unusual way. "Essentially theyportionof claims for special warranty maintenance most often. redid the logic component ofabatchpolicies. Ford began using the ESCAPE processingapplication," he ex-

The ESCAPE projectbegan in the program last October. Currently,an plained, "and actually connected asecond quarter of 1988.At thattime, average of 1,000claims are processed knowledge base in, directly to thethe ACES program was becoming each night through ESCAPE. This is a custom COBOL data structures thatincreasinglycomplicated and expen- small percentageof the total number were there. It's deeplyembedded,sive for personnel to maintainand of claims processed, but the number almost as if it were a very smartupdate in accordance with frequent is expected to grow as more "special COBOL subroutine." This workedchangesin Ford'swarranty policies. edits" are converted from COBOL to well for the ACES system, he said,The FPSD system group responsible ART-IM rules. because a large COBOL systemfor making and implementing these To date, the original subset offour already existed with extensivecodeschanges went to the AI/ES group in edits has grown to 25. ACES mainte- for moving and accessing data. TheFord's Corporate SystemsOffice with nance personnel have taken over the design teamwas ableto use all of thethe problem, and together the two task of convertingand implementing existing data-manipulation codes andgroups developeda prototypeusing additional edits, and, accordingto simply replace the hard-codedthe ART-IM/DOS software and Con Ford, the technology has been easily COBOL logicwith an ART/IMan IBM PC/AT. and quickly adopted through formal knowledge base.

COBOL ARTJMRead in asingle >. Assert needed data fromclaim inputbuffer

Determine if claim Free any rules forerrorgoes to ART conditions

Assert anyvariable Write errors back tolength data to ART original claim

ICall ART passing 600 Clean up data from

I byte fixed record theclaim

"

"

"

ESCAPE presentsa scenario in expansionin the market for thiswhich a COBOL program — which technology,was clearly capable of performing a

for maintaining ESCAPE estimatesthat theprogramreduces theeffort

IZ «hy

i S / 8 approximately 20%, which leads toho^th J^

S

v*ty d°mg "' SaVl"gS an annual sa*n8s ofalmost $15,000though with a high maintenancecost According to Ford, the mainsavings inmaintenance costs alone. Ford also-was rewritten as a knowledge- creditable toESCAPE are a reduction claims a 20% decrease in the time itbased system and made toperform of maintenance and development takes toprocess a client's claimmore quicldy and easily. According to efforts for the specialwarranty Reportedly, ESCAPE has run'

Williams, the project s success proves validation process. Williams said that consistently and correctly in thethatknowledge-based systems bring because theART-IM code providesa several months it has been in use atpreviously unrecognizedbenefits to one-to-onemappingof business Ford. On the basis of these resultsconventionsapproaches, even where policies to software, it can be main- Ford plans to increase the number ofconventional approaches alone are tamed with much greaterease and edits converted toART-IM code untilpossible. He predicted that this reliability than thecomplicated all the COBOL edits have beendevelopmentwill lead to a major COBOLcode. The group responsible successfullyconverted □

Talk isn't cheap:KurzweilAl develops speaker-independent voice reportingBy Nancy KahntAssistant Editor

she saves a voice profile, and this is improved, and indirectly theconstantly improves the system's quality of care is improved." Spaconerecognition.

S

aid that he has experiencedlittleCurrently,Kurzweil AI claims that resistance to the voice-reportingKurzweil AI (Waltham, MA)j, ,

"

—

■ ■

— —

—""-«„ ...*»... i»_ju«.t»nv.v.

iw lilt: VWiV.C-ICLHJII.iIIIiannounced in May a new speaker- there are over 300 VoiceMED systems system. He found that some usersindependent technologyfor speech- in use at over 200 sitesnationwideby were initially somewhat phobic aboutcontrolled reporting. According to a total of over 400 doctors. Systems learningto use the computer butu^ol^n"V"D allowf "& *n cost from $12,900 I they qJLklycam."oTepend £m it.users tobegin creating, editing, and $30,600, dependingon application He also reported that he has foundpnntmg out complex reports by voice and configuration. Spacone said that thesystem^SSSe^Je"_ nT. i* 7' " ,v

his hospital has found voicereporting transcriptionistscan become sick orThe new technology is used by tobe cost competitivewith dictation take vacations, the computer isemergency medicine (VoiceEM), to tape and other traditional meth- always availab c. SpaconesaM thatZ^"^1f dpathol^ The annual salary and"* of his >y«"hJtS^^S^VoicePATH) The* systems are the a transcriptionistcan be roughly failure in twoyears, which wasthird generation of speech-controlled equal to the cost of the system. remedied in twelvehours H_RelievesSSS^^^r^AI SpaC°n^WOU* ideal* like to« this is a reasonable downtime, andvLt^pn H-i , .nCW PnCeredUCed' hoWever' added that a transcriptionist wouldVoiceMED differs from earlier "It's ironic that the hospitals who have requiredmuch more. Occasion-versions in that trainingtime is have thecapital tobuy this sort of ally the computer has trouble Soggreatlyreduced. Dr. Alan B. Spacone, thing are already doing well, and this nizing words if the computer ismedical director of Emergency will help them save even more placed in a loud area Se user hasMedicine at MacNeal Hospital in money, but the hospitals who need it a cold). Spacone aid heBerwyn Illinois,reported that his most can't afford it," he added. these timesis noticeable but "nothospital was using the VoiceMED In addition tobeing financially terrible "

n°tlCeaWe' bUt not

systemfor two years before it was beneficial, Spacone said thatthe A developmentsystem is alsospeaker independent,but now their system has led to substantial im- available for users who want to createtrainingtimes havebeen cut 50%. provements in quality control. their ownapp^P" m r.«UP*> ReP°*s are generally far more his hospital is developingTrppUca-two days oftraining including the accurate and legible than dictation or tionfor nurses and uriitfecreSs ASH "g°?6y VOCabula;7' hand-written reports, and prompts Boston hospital acquiredSerawto teach the system torecognize the built intoall VoiceMED programs technology and adapted it to ne^rol-user's voice. With the speaker- lead the doctor to reply with greater ogyrepoSng. Kurzweil Asiindependent version of the system, completeness and accuracy. Spacone leaking into^ssibraM ofvoice recognition is initially very said the system acts as a greaton-line this system inother fields, such LLb^omeXtT^n th

Pr°ne', remin^ lf dOCt°r f°rgetS any le*al and flnancial -*--d"becomes better When the useris part of theexamination. He believes which requirehighlystandardizeddone at theend of each day, heor that overall "the quality of the record and highlys^Sn^ DJune 15, 1990 .,

v/

. ,AlWeek 7

"

"

"June 15, 19908 AlWeek

TRW uses field service expert system

By David BlanchardEditor

Senior TRW field service techniciansarecurrently using an expert systemtoenhance its computer outputmicrofilm (COM) servicewith anintelligent laptop computer. Thetroubleshooting is provided by CAIS(Computer-Aided Intelligent Service),a software package developedbyROSH Intelligent Systems (NeedhamHeights, MA).

CAIS is a fieldengineer's computer-ized assistant, providing electronicservice manuals for each productmaintained, automatically loggingevery event in the call, automaticallyinjectingand interpretingdiagnostictests. It features a diagnostic expertsystem that guides the engineerthrough a logical sequenceof actionsdesignedto efficientlyisolate andresolve equipmentmalfunctions.

"We maintaincomplex equipmentwhich can be configured with a widevariety of options," said Larry Blaha,TRW's national COM productsupport manager,based inTustin,CA. "With differentparts andalignment procedures for eachconfiguration, the number ofpossiblesystem combinations is very large. Inother words, certaincircuitboardsonly workincertain systems."Havingcontext-sensitiveinformationand intelligent guidance available tothe service technician on a laptopcomputer can improvethe speed,accuracy and consistencyof repairs,he said.

"Ina competitive environmentsuch as the third-party maintenancebusiness," Blaha continued, "we'reoften not allowed to use the vendor'sdocumentation because we competehead-to-headwith them, offering athird-party alternative for mainte-nance. In this respect it createsfor usa non-copyrighted, non-infringe-ment-on-patent typeof environmentto work in wherewe have basically aservice manual on the computer."

The advantage to using an expertsystem, which operates as an intelli-gentservice manual, is that it guides

and directs aserviceman through atroubleshooting scenario, Blaha said.When a serviceman entersa systemor whenhe searches the menu for asymptom similar to the onehe'stroubleshooting, the system will leadhim through troubleshooting alterna-tives.

The CAIS system offers the serviceorganizationseveral levels of support.The systemkeeps a record ofreplace-ment parts, provides illustratedinstructionsfor adjustments andalignments, maintains an up-to-daterecord of machine configurations byserial number, and sends a completelog of each service call to a centralcomputer system for subsequentaccess by otherservice personnel. Atthecentral facility,managers andspecialists can electronically monitorcurrent callsordynamically generateanalytical reports from a call historydatabase. "Basicallywe're working ina paperless environment," Blaha said."We have to be because the docu-mentationbelongs to the originalmanufacturer and in a lot of cases wedon'thave license to use thatdocu-mentation.So the system creates thatfor us."

What particularly pleases Blaha isthat the system learns from what itdoes. "As you step through thevarious things," he explained, "ifyourepeatedly find that this particularservice solution doesn't work appro-priately, the ROSH system notes that.The original programmer on it canthen go back laterand modify thatroutine and strengthen that weaknessin the system."

TRW began the project about fouryears ago, and it was first used by thecompany's customer service divisionin Grand Prairie, TX, on Diebold ATMsystems. They developedboth a textand graphics interface that displayedsuch itemsas troubleshooting testpoints to service an ATM machine."We were in a competitiveenviron-mentwith Diebold," Blaha explained."Dieboldwouldn't release documen-tation to us, so we had to come upwith our own and kind of reverse-engineer it,whichworked very well."

After the success of the GrandPrairie project, part of the ROSHsupport system was transfered to theTustin office, where itis usedcm aCOM system, manufacturedby DataGraphics (San Diego, CA).

A software package has also beendeveloped,running under the ROSHsystem, that is sensitive to theconfiguration of the machineso thatif a servicemanenters the properserial number of the machine, it willnot, for instance, tell him to changethe XYZ assembly when that assem-bly doesn't existon the machine.

Theprogram is still in its pilotphase, and 12individuals in thefieldareusing it, at four differentdistrictlocations. Blaha said he'd like toexpand the system to more locations,but theproblem is acquiringmoreToshiba 3120 laptop computers torun the system on.

It's the classic problem: convincingmanagementof thebenefits of anexpert system thataren't necessarilyquantifiable in dollars and cents."Theydon't see a hard dollar advan-tagewhen it'snot tangible dollars,something they can put their armsaround, so theyget a little skittish,"he said.

One of the things that has hurtdevelopmentof theproject is lack ofmanpower, Blaha noted. Due tocutbacks last year, the division lostone of the two key programmers whohad been working on the system. "Onthe front-end, whenyou're doing theinitial set-up, it really is a very labor-intensive job," heexplained. "Youhave to have somebody sit down withit and workwith it on a day-to-daybasis and really focus it. We wouldhavebeen a lot further along had wehad adequate manpower, but we haveto dealwith the economics of ourbusiness too.That's always the case.Any product support manager willtell you: the more manpower in theproduct support group, thebetter."Meanwhile,Blaha will continue tourge for expanding the systemimplementation to more locationsand to add more products to the CAISdiagnostic library. D

aDimosm mmin machineformmanADVANCEDMANUFACTURINGENGINEERING

The ProductCharley is acomputerized

diagnosticsystem. It warns when amachine is not operating normally

before acatastrophic failureoccurs. And itcan help pinpoint the

cause ofa problem.

Charley uses vibration patterns todetect irregularities. Butthe core of

the program is the Expert System— a computerizedknowledge basethat imitates human thinking.

"

Specifically, Charley imitates thethinking ofa man namedCharlesAmble —a retired MaintenanceEngineer who, in 23years withGM, became an acknowledged

industry expert. Mr. Amble workedclosely withAES as aconsultant to

develop Charley. Theprogramreflects Mr. Amble'sunique

approach to machine diagnostics.

Description FeaturesTo use Charley, the plant must The system can identify andhave a Vibration Maintenance

Program inplace. # Unbalance

Contact-Richard Marczewski(313) 947-06988-227-0698

Vibration analysishas always " Misalignment Bruce Winkler(313)947-1274been limited to the expertise Of " Mechanical Looseness

the individuals using it, andthelimitednumber of variables that

Structural WeaknessResonance

8-227-1274

HowardE.Falls (EDS)(313)947-0481can be evaluated quickly. But with

Charley, all this has changed.EccentricityCavitation 8-227-0481Bearing WearGear Wear.Readings are taken and fed into

Charley for analysis. CharleySteveMarney (EDS)(313)696-20148-366-2014

does by computer What a Charley can work with:diagnostic expert like Charles " Any kind of machine including:Amble used to do inperson. It g^ers, dri"s'r blowers, mills, and more.

applies more than 1,000rules of # New machjnes and o|dvibration analysis. It directs

maintenance personnel whenmachines: no history data isrequired, so Charley can be

more readings are needed. // J«ffiS£"chinery

follows a multi-step logicalprocedure to identify and Charley saves money by:

Reducing maintenance costsSpeeding diagnosis

diagnose problems, much as anexpert human operator would.

And it does it with the speed and Reducing downtime byidentifying problems priorto failure.efficiency of a computer.

ADVANCED

MANUFACTURINGENGINEERING