Active operator support: a case study in steel production

This paper describes a prototype knowledge-based system, called CMSS, aimed at supporting the chief-melter in charge of controlling an arc furnace for steel production. CMSS is based on the new concept of active operator support, which is claimed to offer an effective trade-off between traditional informative and normative approaches. While preserving most of the advantages of both of them, active operator support makes it possible to avoid several of the drawbacks that a purely informative or strongly normative approach entail. CMSS supports online data collection and interpretation, process state control, operational advice, what-if reasoning, and justification