Funds are provided for a a small computing system optimized for artificial intelligence applications that will be used in research on failure analysis of mechanical components. The aim is an extensible 'expert system' that can diagnose the causes of failure (of bolts, bearings, and similar components) and recommend corrective action. The system's knowledge base will contain knowledge from human diagnosticians as well as physical principles, and the system eventually will have links to external analysis packages (e.g. for finite-element analysis). A small proof-of-concept system has been programmed in FORTRAN and works well over a small domain. The new equipment will provide a host for a much more ambitious systems programmed in LISP that will be large enough to attack realistic problems over reasonable domains.
