TEST: A Model-Driven Application Shell

Book One

Volume

Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 6

Expert Systems

TEST (Troubleshooting Expert System Tool) is an application shell that provides a domain-independent diagnostic problem solver together with a library of schematic prototypes. TEST fills a design niche halfway between rule-based and causal-model approaches. This approach has resulted in a design that meets several functional requirements for an effective troubleshooting shell. Most critically, TEST can represent both the impact of failure-modes on a machine or system of interest, as well as the heurist!c problem-solving behavior which can lead to rapid conclusions. This paper provides an overview of TEST’s approach to diagnosis. As a special purpose application shell, TEST provides considerably more leverage to developers than can be gained through the use of general purpose heuristic classification systems.