Embedable problem-solving architectures: a study of integrating OPS5 with UMass GBB

The requirements of a problem-solving architecture that can be tightly embedded within other architectures and coexist with multiple instances of itself and of other problem-solvers are discussed. The additional effort needed to produce an embedable problem-solving architecture is minor compared to the substantial increase in applicability of the architecture. A specific need for embedable problem-solvers arose with the University of Massachusetts Generic Blackboard Framework (UMass GBB). UMass GBB is based on the blackboard paradigm, which naturally integrates heterogeneous problem-solving representations as individual knowledge sources (KSs). This need is met by developing general specifications for embedable problem-solving architectures, and the specifications are used to modify the public-domain version of OPS5 in order to embed it as an integral KS language within UMass GBB. The OPS5 modifications result in an easily integrated GBB KS language (distributed with the UMass GBB system) that has been used in several GBB applications