Integrating expert system diagnostics within ATE system software

It is shown that the Westinghouse Expert Diagnostic System (WEDS) Ada provides significant improvements over rule-based expert system shells for diagnostic applications, including a diagnostic-oriented development system and inference engine. By fully integrating the WEDS concepts within a standard Ada ATE (automatic test equipment) system, the expert system has gained more sophisticated operator interfaces, better interfaces with external software, and the ability to communicate with automatic test equipment. In turn, the ATE system has achieved expert system diagnostic capability. This effort provides test personnel using the ATE system with a practical tool to use as a repository for expertise and makes expert diagnostic knowledge available to all technicians in the field and in repair shops. The system also provides facilities for automatically acquiring statistical and historical diagnostic knowledge for both newly designed and previously fielded units under test