Technology transfer utilizing automated knowledge acquisition tools

An application for expert systems that takes advantage of their capability to improve productivity and carry out technology transfer is described. There is a vast need for routine reporting on the evaluation of the capability of weapon systems to withstand the effects of nuclear weapons. Six expert systems have been developed which demonstrated productivity improvements by a factor to 10 to 30 in a prototype demonstration. These expert systems evaluate the hardness of a weapon system to nuclear weapon effects and produce reports on hardness planning, test planning and reporting, and hardness assurance/maintenance throughout their life cycle. The expert systems are constructed and maintained by the interaction of a technical domain expert and the KNACK software, an automated knowledge acquisition tool. KNACK is a special-purpose expert system generator or shell which allows the domain expert to construct an expert system of the type discussed while having no particular knowledge of any programming language, syntax, artificial intelligence representation scheme, or any particular computer science training