| 摘要 |
<p>A knowledge system has a hierarchical knowledge base (14) comprising a functional decomposition (22) of a set of elements (24) into subsets (41-46) over a plurality of hierarchical levels (40), a plurality of predefined functions or conditions (16) of the elements (24) within the subsets (41-46) of a plurality of the hierarchical levels, and a predefined set of operations to perform on a user-defined set of elements responsive to the functional knowledge base. Preferably, the knowledge base (14) is defined declaratively by assigning parent sets to offspring subsets to define the hierarchy (22), by indicating the conditions (16) of the subsets which satisfy the predefined functions and by writing task blocks (23) in an imperative language defining the sequence of operations to perform on the user-defined set of elements. Preferably the operations include matching (120), configuring (130) and expanding (150) the user-defined set of elements into the defined subsets of individual elements and evaluating (140) the predefined functions, and the operations are executed recursively. In a specific embodiment the elements are available components for a system or item of manufacture (30), and the subsets of elements are sub-asemblies (32-39) or functionally related components. The predefined functions define condition-action constraints (16) to insure that the sub-assemblies (32-39) have compatible components.</p> |
