Knowledge refinement for a formulation system.

This thesis describes the application of the knowledge refinement tool KRUST to the design system TFS, whose task is tablet formulation for a major pharmaceutical company. KRUST has already been successfully applied to a variety of classificatory problems, and a generic refinement framework is being developed. This thesis explores the differences in knowledge content and problem-solving steps for design rather than diagnosis systems, and how this affects the refinement process. It describes how novel components found in the design system were included within KRUST’s underlying knowledge model, and how KRUST’s refinement mechanisms were extended to apply to the design system by adding new operators to the existing tool-sets. Following this necessary adaptation of KRUST, new mechanisms were introduced whereby inductive learning from proofs of related examples is used to constrain and guide KRUST’s refinement generation. The concept of a generic refinement tool is introduced. In the course of the work described here, KRUST’s knowledge and operator representations have developed in a way that facilitate its future application to different shells. The successful application of KRUST to TFS is used to show that KRUST has grown nearer to being a truly generic tool, and provides evidence that the construction of such a tool is both feasible and desirable. Lastly, the role of knowledge refinement within software development is explored. Traditionally, refinement has been applied only to debugging, but the thesis shows how refinement can also play a role in software maintenance. In the course of its development, TFS has undergone both routine debugging, and also maintenance, when the formulation task was altered by a change in company policy. It was thus possible to test the extent to which KRUST was able to reproduce automatically the changes that were originally made manually to TFS, and hence to evaluate KRUST’s effectiveness in both debugging and maintenance roles.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Robert Gordon University

Year dc:date.issued

1998

Author dc:creator

• Boswell, Robin Alexander

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• S. Craw

• Knowledge refinement
• Krust
• Classificatory problems
• Refinement mechanisms
• Formulation system

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:rgu-repository.worktribe.com:2807305
https://doi.org/10.48526/rgu-wt-2807305

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:rgu-repository.worktribe.com:2807305