An expert system technology is applied to the transportation system management (TSM) process. Two simple expert systems were built to test the feasibility of applying expert system technology to certain aspects of TSM. Findings of the feasibility study were then used to define requirement specifications for a practical expert system to provide multisolutions for problems identified through the TSM process. Steps taken to implement a full-scale TSM expert system are then described. Experience gained during the feasibility stage of the project indicates that successful knowledge engineering is the key to successful expert system development. An extensive and detailed description of the formal knowledge engineering approach used to clarify and structure the TSM knowledge into a form usable in an expert system is provided. To test the effectiveness of the expert system, output from the system was compared with recommendations made by transportation consultants on seven large-scale intersection problems. The test indicates that the output of the system compares favourably with the recommendations made by human experts.
Abstract