Knowledge representation for real time industrial process modelization

The use of artificial intelligence tools in process control is considered. Industrial processes are a sequence of causal transformations of a product, or flow of products. The knowledge about the plant concerns the structure and the behavior as well as the relations between actions and effects. Reactive knowledge given by operators or control engineers is described. A synthesis of the different knowledge representations is given here, making reference to the classical feedback loop schema. In an example of an electric motor, controlled by its voltage, the electrical power, transformed into mechanical rotation power, is seen as the product flow, whereas the electronic signals driving the regulator are part of the process