Knowledge based expert system approach to instrumentation selection (INSEL)

Abstract

The selection of appropriate instrumentation for any structural measurement of civil engineering structure is a complex task. Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help in an organized use of experiential knowledge available on instrumentation for laboratory and in‐situ measurement. Usually, the instrumentation decision is based on the experience and judgment of experimentalists. The heuristic knowledge available for different types of measurement is domain dependent and the information is scattered in varied knowledge sources. The knowledge engineering techniques can help in capturing the experiential knowledge. This paper demonstrates a prototype knowledge based system for INstrument SELection (INSEL) assistant where the experiential knowledge for various structural domains can be captured and utilized for making instrumentation decision. In particular, this Knowledge Based Expert System (KBES) encodes the heuristics on measurement and demonstrates the instrument selection process with reference to steel bridges. INSEL runs on a microcomputer and uses an INSIGHT 2+ environment.

First Published Online: 27 Oct 2010