Reference: Lam, C.-C. Principal-Investigator-in-a-Box: The Executive. Knowledge Systems Laboratory, January, 1991.
Abstract: Astronaut time during manned space-flight is a scarce resource. To maximize the effectiveness of the crew, both as scientist collaborators and equipment operators, would require more training than is practical. A prototype system is being designed to study the possibility of assisting astronauts in planning and performing experiments, using expert system technologies. The system is separated into different modules that respectively manage experiment protocol, flag down interesting experiment data and suggest refinements, and diagnose experiment equipment failure. This report describes the Executive module of the system, which integrates the above mentioned modules. It outlines how the Executive integrates the entire system together and how it interfaces with the other respective models. This prototype is being developed on Apple Macintosh, with the use of CLIPS as a forward-chaining rule based engine and HyperCard as an Object-Oriented user interface.