Ada and expert systems: the Intelligent Missile Project

The Intelligent Missile Project was formed to develop techniques for embedding rule-based artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the US Navy´s tactical air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, and to concurrently develop tools that will assist in AI systems development. The author discusses the overall approach taken by the project, including some of the technical problems encountered, solutions to these problems, and two missile applications where AI technology is being used. Based on experience gained during this project, it is concluded that Ada can be used to develop rule-based systems. However, with the advent of rule-based processors, work in Ada will be slowed down at least temporarily while this technology is being investigated. The new hardware technology has the potential to overcome a major obstacle to using rule-based systems for hard real-time applications