APPLICATION OF AN EXPERT SYSTEM TO MONITORING AND CONTROL IN AQUACULTURE

When any measurement task is approached from the point of view of the knowledge which is needed, it is found that this knowledge often comprises a range of data, interpreted in terms of a set of rules. In the current explanatory application, measurement and control of water quality is fundamental to the breeding of healthy fish in aquaculture installations. It is the rule base, fed with real-time measured data, which is of primary importance in ensuring the health of the fish. Computer based expert systems simplify the application of rules and heuristics to real-time monitoring and control. This paper discusses the development of a computer-based, distributed monitoring and control system built around the "Crystal" expert system. The system enables both heuristic and real-time varying knowledge to be integrated into the rule base on which control decisions are automatically made. An important feature is that, by directly accessing the expert system's rule builder, the application domain user can change the configuration and operating rules of the system using only low-level computing skills. By also building 'sensor knowledge' into the expert system, the sensor design and operating requirements are simplified, allowing the inexpert user to specify the needed sensors, or build them to drawings supplied by the system.