Bioprocessing control and AI systems

Due to the complex nature of biological processes, the number of variants of plausible process models to be explored for process improvement, is myriad. The emerging success of expert system techniques in other fields has already led to their use for studying process modelling routes off line. But there is now becoming available a class of knowledge based systems which operate on-line to the process, using real-time sensor data. The ability of real-time AI systems to assert hypotheses and continuously validate their relevance is important in biological processes. Knowledge based selection of appropriate process models uses published and in-house biotechnical knowledge which can be described both in quantitative and qualitative terms. As well as discussing the application of knowledge based systems to bioprocessing, the authors look at other applications of the technology