Building an Expert System for the Basic Design of Ships

Abstract

An expert system for the basic design of ships is developed. The design process is understood as determining the design parameters and the relationships among them. The relationships among the design knowledges are represented by a network model. The object-oriented knowledge representations are introduced in the computer system to handle the design parameters such as the principal particulars of a ship in the network model. The expert system build with the above concept provides the following functions: (1) Flexible model building and easy modification. (2) Effective diagnosis of the design process by using rule-based knowledge representations. (3) Hybrid function with both numerical computations and symbolic treatments of the design knowledge by coupling the systems programmed with LISP and FORTRAN languages. Finally the system is ascertained its validity and effectiveness by applying to the basic design of a bulkcarrier ship.