The Application of Expert System and Agent Technology to Water Mains
Rehabilitation Decision Making
Darryl N.Davis and Bernadette Sharp
New Review of Applied Expert Systems, Volume 5, 1999
Abstract
This paper discusses the challenges encountered in a recent project to
develop an expert system to assist water engineers in planning the rehabilitation
of water mains. The paper describes the adoption of an emerging agent-based
technology in designing the prototype, and highlights the many influential
factors and constraints in building the prototype. Many of the challenges
faced in developing the system may be typical of the hurdles faced in other
commercial domains where intelligent (agent and expert) systems offer solutions
to emerging Information Technology problems. These constraints may be particularly
acute where the company has no prior experience in applying AI–based technology
to its business, or where the domain is new to the AI community.