AWKWARD: Towards Database Reasoning.

Combining the technologies of expert systems and databases results in enhanced use of information, maximizing productivity and quality. A factory test-repair history database, equipped with deductive capabilities, finds its use as a troubleshooting expert system prototype in Denver Works. In addition, the system is used as a troubleshooting knowledge engineering guidance device, focusing the efforts on acquiring only the troubleshooting knowledge pertaining to the given manufacturing process. Error recovery, persistency, concurrency, and freedom from knowledge size limitations are the main benefits of deductive databases. To develop such intelligent databases we have written several AWK queries to automatically extract circuit pack troubleshooting knowledge from the history database and an AWK-based forward chainer to emulate troubleshooting reasoning. The simplicity of our technique is enhanced by standard availability of AWK. The entire expert system shell takes as few as 60 lines of AWK script.