Knowledge Engineering - From Front-line Support to Preliminary Design

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Description/Abstract

The design and maintenance of complex engineering systems such as a jet engine generates a significant amount of documentation. Increasingly, aerospace manufacturers are shifting their focus from selling products to providing services. As a result, when designing new engines, engineers must increasingly consider the life-cycle requirements in addition to design parameters. To identify possible areas of concern, engineers must obtain knowledge gained from the entire life of an engine. However, because of the size and distributed nature of a company's operation, engineers often do not have access to front-line maintenance data. In addition, the large number of documents accrued makes it impossible to examine thoroughly. This paper presents a prototype knowledge-based document repository for such an application. It searches and analyzes distributed document resources, and provides engineers with a summary view of the underlying knowledge. The aim is to aid engineers in creating design requirement documents that incorporate aftermarket issues. Unlike existing document repositories and digital libraries, our approach is knowledge-based, where user browses summary reports instead of following suggested links. To test the validity of our proposed architecture, we have developed and deployed a working prototype. The prototype has been demonstrated to engineers and received positive reviews.