PCM-CMM-2015 – 3rd Polish Congress of Mechanics & 21st Computer Methods in Mechanics September 8th –11th 2015, Gdansk,

mber 8th –11th 2015, Gdansk, Poland

Event driven approximate reasoning*

Krzysztof Psiuk1
1
Institut of Foudamentals of Machinery Design, Silesian University of Technology
Konarskiego 18a, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
e-mail: krzysztof.psiuk@polsl.pl

Abstract

This paper presents a concept of using event driven architecture in expert system. The considered expert system is a dynamic expert
system based on the multimodal statement networks. It is presented a concept of statement and multimodal statement networks. The
expert system is using a notice board on which values of statements are stored. It was assumed that the change of statement values
presented on the notice boards could be described as an event. So it is proposed to use an event driven architecture technic in the
inference process in such expert system.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, event driven systems, intuitionistic network,

content is a fixed element of notice and statement value is a

1. Introduction
One of the main objectives of technical diagnostics is the
assessment of technical condition of devices and machines.
Owing to the development of methods involving both the
possibility to carry out measurements and also the processing of
the existing data, the assessment of technical state can be
carried out basing on a great amount of data. Such a large
number of input data leads to a large number of investigated
diagnostic symptoms. In such cases, it is recommended to apply
expert systems. Each of the expert system consists of many
typical modules. Among others they include:
 user interface module,
 knowledge base module
 database module,
 inference module.
Considering expert systems for their operation, we can
distinguish two groups of such systems. The first group includes
static systems. Static systems are systems, working in the so
called off-line mode and search for the solution in fixed
environment. The reasoning process in this kind of systems is
realized using fixed data that are collected from the technical
object. The second group of expert systems include dynamic
systems. Dynamic systems work in the on-line mode. The
reasoning process in this kind of systems is realized in limited
time and with limited resources. So the reasoning process could
be realized using different methods. One of the method
assumes, that the data acquired from the technical object are
frozen for some time interval and the reasoning process is
realized like in static systems.
An interesting example of dynamic systems designed to
support processes of machine monitoring are systems based on
notice boards. A special class of this kind of expert systems are
systems based of intuitionistic notice boards [2]. In this kind of
systems the board consists of notices including statements. A
notice consists of a statement whose content serves as a notice
content. A statement is a declarative expression, resulting from
observed facts, or representing an opinion, which can be either
exclusively true, or exclusively false [2]. Results of the system
could be presented as colored rectangle on the notice board
view [3].
The notice presented on the notice board consists of two
elements: statement content and statement value. Statement
* Described herein are selected results of study, supported partly from the budget of Research Task No. 4 implemented under The National Centre for Research and
Development in Poland and ENERGA SA strategic program of scientific research and development entitled Advanced Technologies of Generating Energy.
variable element of notice.
An interesting solution which can be realized in dynamic
expert systems could be event driven reasoning. In this solution
the reasoning process will be started by different events placed
on the notice boards.
2. Event driven systems
The event driven systems are systems based on an Event
Driven Architecture (EDA) [5]. The event driven architecture is
a programing paradigm determining the behavior of a computer
program based on events [4]. An event is an occurrence or
happening, which originates inside or outside a system, and is
significant for, and consumed by, a system’s component [1].
Events are characterized by their types. We can distinguish two
types of events [1]:
 Primitive events,
 Composite events.
Primitive events, are atomic and occur at one point in time.
Composite events include several primitive events. In this case
primitive events occur in a time range and have a specific
pattern. In composite event we can distinguish an initiator and a
terminator. An initiator is a primitive event, that start the pattern
of composite event. A terminator is a primitive event that
completes the composite event. The occurrence time can be
defined as a time of the terminator or can be represented as a
pair of times, one for the initiator event, and the other for the
terminator event [1].
An event can be defined as a pair of two values:
e = <h, b> (1)
where h is an event header and b is an event body. The event
header is a vector that include information about the event such
as:
 event name,
 occurrence time,
 occurrence number,
 event source,
 possible other elements that are included in the event
specification.
The event body is a vector that include the details of the
detected state change.
PCM-CMM-2015 – 3rd Polish Congress of Mechanics & 21st Computer Methods in Mechanics
Event driven architecture is used in many domains e.g. pro-
cess management [6], programming applications or in managing
and control systems. One of the possibility of application of
event driven architecture is to use it in reasoning process.
3. Event driven reasoning
One of the main element of each expert system is the
knowledge base. The accumulated knowledge is the basis for
carrying out the inference process. The knowledge in expert
systems can be described in different forms. One the most inter-
esting form of knowledge representation useful for diagnostic
systems are multimodal statement networks [7]. The value of
statements that is used in the inference process in this kind of
network in many cases are evaluated using data acquisition sys-
tems or based on values of other statements.
In dynamic expert systems the process of evaluating state-
ments value is realised in the on-line mode. The calculated
statements values are the basis for the process of inference.
which is realized in limited time and with limited resource. The-
se limits are tried to be reduced in different ways. One possibil-
ity of reduction is the use of such an event driven architecture
technic. In expert systems based on the notice board, the state-
ments value are written on it. According to the definition of the
event, a change in the statement value on the notice board, can
be treated as an event, occurring in a given system.
Let the change in statement value will be an event ei. Then
we can define a set of events E, describing the events that can
occur in the system:
ei  E (2)
Each event can be described by a pair of vectors h and b in
accordance with the formula (1). In this case the header of the
event can be described as follows:
 event type,
 statement name,
 statement value timestamp,
 source of statement value,
 range of statement value where the event is omitted.
In the body of the event we can describe the following ele-
ments:
 old value,
 new value.
All events should be consumed by the system. So in the dy-
namic system a special function which could be run when the
event occurs should be defined. The function could realized one
of the following scenario:
 if the difference between old value and new value is to
small (less than range of statement value defined in event
header) the event should be omitted,
 the event could initialize the process of evaluation of other
statements value, using some equations or other special
prepared procedures,
 the event could initialize the inference process.
Application of EDA provides an opportunity for the infer-
ence process to a limited extent. We can imagine, that for the
purposes of determining the value of the statement will be nec-
essary to use an inference process. In this case, we can isolate a
small statements network for which the inference process will
be conducted. This will allow better use of available resources
and reduce the time of the ongoing process of inference.
September 8th –11th 2015, Gdansk, Poland
4. Conclusions
The application of event driven architecture in dynamic
expert systems is an interesting solution for the operation of
dynamic expert systems. It allows better use of available
resources and reducing the time needed to carry out the
inference process. This is especially helpful in currently
available multithreaded operating systems, where are available
multiple processors and large memory resources. This approach
also enables the integration of expert systems with data
acquisition systems. Changes in the value of conditioned data
could call the appropriate automatic reaction of expert system
and run an inference process.
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