A framework for design verification and evaluation systems

Although current efforts have indicated the need for design verification and evaluation systems, little has been done to develop knowledge representation systems for implementing this class of expert systems. In this paper, we describe CANDLE, a knowledge representation system built to solve design verification and evaluation problems. We define the class of design verification and evaluation systems and the functionality required of knowledge representation systems used to develop these systems. We present an example design verification and evaluation problem, illustrating how this problem imposes these functionality requirements on the knowledge representation system used. In the remainder of the paper we discuss CANDLE, a knowledge representation system created to develop design verification and evaluation systems. We show that CANDLE meets the knowledge representation requirements for this class of systems. We also present some of CANDLE'S functionality that exceeds the defined knowledge representation requirements and provides a knowledge engineer with the capability to expand the functionality of a design verification and evaluation system.