Hierarchical skeletal plan refinement : task- and inference structures

This paper presents the task- and inference structure for skeletal plan refinement which was developed for lathe production planning, the application domain of the ARC-TEC project. Two inference structures are discussed: a global inference structure which was developed in the first phase of knowledge acquisition and a more detailed inference structure which builds on the hierarchical organization of the skeletal plans. The described models are evaluated with respect to their cognitive adequacy and their scope of application. The benefits and limitations of the KADS knowledge acquisition methodology are discussed with respect to the development of the two models.