A knowledge-based system for conveyor equipment selection

Conveyor equipment selection is a complex, and sometimes, tedious task since there are literally hundreds of equipment types and manufacturers to choose from. The expert system approach to conveyor selection provides advantages of unbiased decision making, greater availability, faster response, and reduced cost as compared to human experts. This paper discusses the development of a prototype expert system for industrial conveyor selection. The system, which was developed on Level V Object, provides the user with a list of conveyor solutions for their material handling needs along with a list of suppliers for the suggested conveyor devices. Conveyor types are selected on the basis of a suitability score, which is a measure of the fulfillment of the material handling requirements by the characteristics of the conveyor. The computation of the score is performed through the Weighted Evaluation Method, and the Expected Value Criterion for decision making under risk. The prototype system was successfully validated through two industrial case studies.