2nd generation expert system for technical diagnosis; A model and a procedure

This paper deals with the diagnosis of malfunction of industrial equipment through the use of Expert Systems. Intending to develop procedures that result in knowledge bases for Industrial Maintenance, the authors have considered 2^nd Generation Expert Systems. The authors have proposed a modified model and a diagnosis procedure. The authors used for the diagnosis strategy a ‘top-down best-first search’, that combines two types of uncertainty treatment: (i) entropy, to find the best way in the search through knowledge structures, (ii) belief in the symptoms, to validate the resultant diagnostics. This proposal has the following advantages: a more complete knowledge base, a better explanation and presentation of the resultant diagnostics. The authors have developed a prototype considering real information about centrifugal pumps.