A troubleshooting process planning using knowledge base and distributed database approach

This study introduces an approach of knowledge acquisition and modeling for troubleshooting process planning. It is essential for constructing a knowledge base can be maintained and shared. A knowledge base should not merely be a set of rules but a framework of troubleshooting that can be controlled and customized by rules. For the construction of a knowledge base, identifying the types of knowledge components to be included is a prerequisite. To identify the knowledge units, this study employs a modeling approach consisting of three sub-models: object model, functional model, and dynamic model. In addition, mechanisms for maintaining dependency relations of the troubleshooting descriptions at different locations and reasoning using the knowledge at different locations are also developed. The system is implemented using an object oriented programming language. The proposed approaches are applied to the troubleshooting process planning in automotive braking system.