Knowledge Based Engineering

1. Knowledge Based Engineering Making Engineering Knowledge Active

2. Knowledge Is Structure What does that mean? Knowledge isn’t rules that work from the outside, but structure that works from the inside, modelling the world and providing predictions of behaviour in previously unseen situations. What sort of structure does it imply? The structure can’t be directed to any purpose, and the structure needs to adapt itself to a changing environment - the structure needs to be active and self-modifying.

3. Areas of KBE Capturing – Information & knowledge from different sources/domains using many different techniques - direct entry, simulation, data mining. Unifying – Different forms of engineering knowledge transformed into a single underlying form (analytical, experiential, topological) that is shareable among partners. Maintaining – Ensuring consistency & coherency of the knowledge. Personalising – Providing views of the knowledge that satisfy the needs of different users. Deploying – Where appropriate, deploying active, self-modifying knowledge structures to support and drive more flexible engineering solutions.

4. ORION Orion is a knowledge utilisation system based on using an active, undirected structure to represent knowledge Orion covers the full knowledge cycle – creation/capture, marshalling and deployment It is particularly suited to dynamically changing problems, where its ability to modify and extend its own structure comes to the fore

5. Orion The System as a Thinking Tool The user can turn what they know into a shareable and reusable piece of knowledge by describing relations among objects - the system will use the relations any way it needs to, when it needs to. Users can refine their thinking by observing a model of it in operation.

6. Combining Knowledge Domains Airframe Performance Avionics Assemble Pieces of Knowledge Into an Active Object Which Itself Can be Assembled...

7. Combining Structures It may seem simple, but the ability to combine knowledge structures is a very strong constraint on how the knowledge is structured. Each individual structure can’t have a beginning or an end, and can’t have an external algorithm which is needed to make sense of it - each structure has to be active, carrying all its own operation and phasing. Only then can the pieces build into larger assemblies which also carry the same properties.

8. In Practice • Knowledge is turned into a structure, made up of variables, operators and links. The structure is active, undirected, extensible in any direction, and supports the following problem-solving techniques by propagation through the structure: • Analysis using numbers, logic, objects, lists • Controllable stochastic information • Structure Self-modification • Ranges of Values • Structural Backtrack • Constraint Reasoning • Simulation • Processing of free text - Specifications

9. Constraint Reasoning & Structural Backtracking All engineering knowledge carries within itself constraints on its applicability. With more specific information, these constraints tighten, providing a powerful means of applying knowledge in specific circumstances. Sometimes knowledge is used to explore different scenarios. Backtrack allows the system to try something, observe the result, and then undo it and try something else. While trying something, it may need to erect new structure - “build a castle in the air” - then undo all that as well - Structural Backtrack is needed.

10. Using the System

11. Logic Editor - Used to enter declarative knowledge in textual form. The text is immediately transformed into active model structure.

12. Network Display The user can: • trace the structure of the network • observe the values in particular components • set and unset values • debug the network by halting propagation and observing states

13. Analysis and Visualization Drawing Editor Stochastic Editor List Editor

14. Probability Distributions Probability distributions are another important source of technical knowledge. They need not follow simple forms like Normal or Poisson.

15. Stochastic Editor • The user can • visualize and manipulate distributions and N-dimensional relations. • apply constraints to variables and observe the impact on other variables • construct ad hoc distribution and relation operators

16. Data Miner One of the shortcomings of existing data mining technologies is that in order to use the findings, the user needs to understand them. The reason is that the technologies used for mining are different to those used in operational systems. With Orion, the same technology is used for both tasks. The Miner actually morphs newly found correlations in the data into an active component of the operational system. The system can start with mined data, then “learn on the run” from new transactions.

17. Additional tools and facilities • Structural debugger • Script Editor • Control Panel • Simulator • Graphing • Logic Drawing

18. Applications • Knowledge Management in engineering organisations • Requirements Elicitation • Design and Analysis • Project Management of development projects • Risk analysis • Simulation, Workflow, Scheduling • Cognitive support for Systems Engineering

19. Examples

20. Events Event XML Earthquake Knowledge Model Structure Acceleration attenuation based on Find distance between site and magnitude, distance and local site Epicentre, local conditions, etc. conditions Attenuation Greece Info (GIS) Recorders Intensity/ Damage Relations between acceleration, intensity and damage ratio Relations between magnitude and frequency, building type, number of Frequency/ floors and natural frequency, Amplification including comparison and amplification estimates

21. Analytic Structure - Wave Attenuation A formula for attenuation Note the function on left hand side

22. Propagation Experiential submodel  Damage Ratio An example of one of many value propagation paths, from event magnitude to damage ratio. (Each of the nodes has many other connections) Experiential submodel  intensity Magnitude – Event submodel Attenuation submodel  SAh

23. Experiential Structure Wood Reinforced Concrete The Sauter curves, linking Intensity, Building Type and Damage Ratio, are loaded into distributions and relations.

24. Compatible Knowledge Structures A variable can have a PLUS operator on one side and a stochastic relation on the other, so analysis and experience are easily combined.

25. m Re h T Pr Cp k A L M D Flow in Fanjet Ducts Switching is occurring among flow modes in the duct based on the evaluation of coefficients which depend on the flow modes

26. Project Management Development projects have a life of their own. Here are logic and numbers interacting together in a plan that can encompass the rationale for the project. If there is insufficient time for Activity_4’s duration, or insufficient budget or resources, it forces itself false and the other alternative becomes True.

27. Stitching Most project failures are caused by segmentation - the strategist works out the why, the designer does the what, the project manager does the when and how much. In a world of knowledge, segmentation is unnecessary. We can stitch the different worlds together with undirected logical thread, so a change ripples anywhere it needs to

28. Knowledge about Systems Systems are far more than a few static relationships. They involve activity. It is not obvious how a few logical and numeric operators acting as building blocks will suddenly start to display activity.

30. The ship has properties: • Detection means • Layers of protection • Acting in concert • Logistics - replenishment • Mission length • Battle tactics • Learned behaviour from simulations

31. An active system contains many different sorts of knowledge some of it in a continuous state of flux You’ve got to catch them all and with a realised, active, undirected self-modifying structure you can

32. Systems Engineering A textual specification can be machine read and turned into an active and searchable structure - allowing everyone to work on the same knowledge. The long range connections in the text - they give the system its essential properties - are retained in the structure

33. Accept Anything • This is KBE at work. Need to accept: • Different forms of knowledge - analytic, experiential, textual • Dynamic instability - true for now, today, always • Different sources - handbooks, papers, consultants, suppliers, customers • Integrate it, iron out the inconsistencies, if necessary change it on the run.

34. Orion can handle a wide range of problem areas.Its power comes from its simple form - variables, operators, links - and the fact that it is easy to combine active structures which do not have a beginning or an end.