Development of a knowledge-based dispatch management system for a municipal transit centre

The Ministry of Transportation of the Ontario Government (MTO) is attempting to determine how suited expert-system technology might be to any of the operational areas within their mandate. To this end, MTO selected an area called ´spare-board´ management at a municipal transit dispatch center as a target. In developing the system for the twin cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, the development team adopted a set of ´real-world AI system´ criteria, and designed and refined the system accordingly. The use of commercial expert-system shells was abandoned early in the development cycle due to the inability of these products to comply with the selection criteria. Several phases of prototyping resulted in the emergence of a system which has recently been adopted into daily use. While most of the goals set at the outset of the project have been attained, development is still underway to incorporate other features, including a voice interface.<>