Knowledge management system for marine diesel engine diagnosis

The paper presents the conception of knowledge management system for a diagnostic expert system. Development of knowledge management system is necessary during the construction of the expert system. The most important reason is that knowledge in this system is not a static whole, but is subject to dynamic growth, is modified and updated. Advantages afforded by the creation of diagnostic systems based on knowledge, such as expert systems, compared to traditional diagnostic systems based on closed algorithms were characterized. The conception of knowledge management system established in the diagnostic work associated with the development of expert system for marine diesel engine diagnosis. The main elements of the developed management system are: dictionary editor, rule editor, knowledge assessment module and import and export module. Knowledge management system is also equipped with an electronic form that is used to obtain knowledge from experts, specialists in diesel engines operation. The article presents the tasks and the performance of individual components of the system. The knowledge management system enables integration within a single frame of both information collected from experts and automatically collected one. A doubtless advantage of expert system is the opportunity of updating and developing the content recorded in the database. Due to this feature, the effectiveness of the system may grow during engine operation and facilitate gaining new experience.