A common-sense reasoning system for mechanical engineering

This thesis describes the Mechnet system, which was created to test an implementation of analogy-based reasoning about mechanical engineering, focusing on tools and machines that would be found in a shop. Mechnet uses common-sense data about how these things are used and what they are made of, and attempts to judge which objects are similar to each other. The goal was to make "sensible" analogies about things, in that they make sense to a human who has experience in this area. Results show some reasonable analogies for many tools and machines entered, but non-sensical analogies in several instances. The problems which cause these non-sensical analogies are discussed and analyzed. Recommendations are made for improvement; and further research into other kinds of common-sense reasoning.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Sokoloski, Aaron M

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David Wallace.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32921

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32921