In 1940, a 20-year-old science fiction fan from Brooklyn found that he was growing tired of stories that endlessly repeated the myths of Frankenstein and Faust: Robots were created and destroyed their creator; robots were created and destroyed their creator; robots were created and destroyed their creator-ad nauseum. So he began writing robot stories of his own. "[They were] robot stories of a new variety," he recalls. "Never, never was one of my robots to turn stupidly on his creator for no purpose but to demonstrate, for one more weary time, the crime and punishment of Faust. My robots were machines designed by engineers, not pseudo-men created by blasphemers. My robots reacted along the rational lines that existed in their'brains' from the moment of construction. " In particular, he imagined that each robot's artificial brain would be imprinted with three engineering safeguards, three Laws of Robotics: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law. The young writer's name, of course, was Isaac Asimov (1964), and the robot stories he began writing that year have become classics of science fiction, the standards by which others are judged. Indeed, because of Asimov one almost never reads about robots turning mindlessly on their masters anymore. But the legends of Frankenstein and Faust are subtle ones, and as the world knows too well, engineering rationality is not always the same thing as wisdom. M Mitchell Waldrop is a reporter for Science Magazine, 1333 H Street N.W., Washington D C. 2COO5. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

The development of an online turbine generator diagnostic system is described from conception to initial field verification. The system is composed of a data center located in the power plant that collects data from online measurement devices and communicates these data to a centralized diagnostic facility in Orlando, Florida, where the actual diagnosis is done. The resulting diagnosis and recommended actions are transmitted to the power plant where they are displayed to the operator by the data center. The market-place need, initial approaches to the product, system field verification are described.

The development of an online turbine generator diagnostic system is described from conception to initial field verification. The system is composed of a data center located in the power plant that collects data from online measurement devices and communicates these data to a centralized diagnostic facility in Orlando, Florida, where the actual diagnosis is done. The resulting diagnosis and recommended actions are transmitted to the power plant where they are displayed to the operator by the data center. The market-place need, initial approaches to the product, system field verification are described. The artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic program has been diagnosing seven large utility generators since July 1984 and has correctly diagnosed a significant number of generator and instrumentation problems. Issues such as a centralized approach, rule base quality control, and the range of resources needed for a successful product are discussed.

This article provides some basic assistance to entrepreneurs involved in artificial intelligence, offering a synthesis of standard business-planning and capital-raising practices. Three main areas are discussed: (1) developing a corporate strategy, (2) developing a business plan that works, and (3) approaching sources of capital.

The Center for Automation and Intelligent Systems monocrystal turbine blades for jet engines that are made Research at Case Western Reserve University, founded by investment casting. Essentially, the part is made by in 1984, provides the setting and the administrative and pouring liquid metal into a ceramic mold, but the environment funding mechanisms for coordinating and focusing the capabilities in which this is done must be tightly controlled. of faculty members and students from many There are several other subprocesses that are also tightly disciplines and departments to deal with significant realworld controlled, such as making the mold. The total process is too complex for a single expert The center serves as an interface between separate system; rather, several different expert systems are needed basic research efforts in the various disciplines and academic and should be coordinated in some way, perhaps by a more departments and the multidisciplinary group efforts global expert system. Currently, we are constructing an needed to deal effectively with nontrivial real problems. Wax patterns appear to be essential for the factory of the future.

Public opinion about artificial intelligence is schizophrenic. "It will never work" versus "It might cost me changes that are daily taking place in the This dichotomy of attitudes reflects a collective world because we read about them and know confusion about AI.

This report contains the following discussions: the defense program simulation of rocky flats plant; spatial representation and reasoning for automated mesh generation; INEL support to modernization efforts at the aberdeen proving ground; artificial intelligence applications at the ICPP; an expert system for tuning particle beam accelerators; quality control expert system; an easily maintained knowledge-based system for interactive delivery of detailed technical information; workload scheduling in DOE production complex; turning operations planning system; a nuclear power plant operator advisor based on artificial intelligence technology; a impact of artificial intelligence on the new production reactor; using expert systems in treaty verification; knowledge-basedmore » systems technology transfer in Oak Ridge; applications of AI to nuclear power plants; knowledge-based computer security systems; robotic grasping of unknown objects: a knowledge-based approach; applying expertise to data in the geologist's assistant expert system; feature recognition based automatic part classification and coding; object-oriented inventories for simulation of manufacturing process; expert system at AWE; plating expert system; inspection process planning expert; troubleshooting local area networks at Savannah River Site; maintenance importance generator; joint theater level simulator; a system for authoring of tutorials including video capture and annotation, links to manuals, and links to executable code; a personal computer based expert system for documenting compliance with the National Environmental Protection Act; spatial representation and reasoning for automated mesh generation; robotic grasping of unknown objects: a knowledge-based approach; and synthesis of engineering anticipatory systems.«

The major limitations in building large software have always been (a) its brittleness when confronted by problems that were not foreseen by its builders, and (by the amount of manpower required. The recent history of expert systems, for example highlights how constricting the brittleness and knowledge acquisition bottlenecks are. Moreover, standard software methodology (e.g., working from a detailed "spec") has proven of little use in AI, a field which by definition tackles ill- structured problems. How can these bottlenecks be widened? Attractive, elegant answers have included machine learning, automatic programming, and natural language understanding. But decades of work on such systems have convinced us that each of these approaches has difficulty "scaling up" for want a substantial base of real world knowledge.

The fifth Distributed Artificial Intelligence Workshop was held at the Schlumberger-Doll Research Laboratory from October 14 to 17, 1984. It was attended by 20 participants from academic and industrial institutions. It included brief research reports from individual groups along with general discussion of questions of common interest. This report summarizes the general discussion and contains summaries of group presentations that have been contributed by individual speakers.

The fifth Distributed Artificial Intelligence Workshop was held at the Schlumberger-Doll Research Laboratory from October 14 to 17, 1984. It was attended by 20 participants from academic and industrial institutions. As in the past, this workshop was designed as an informal meeting. It included brief research reports from individual groups along with general discussion of questions of common interest. This report summarizes the general discussion and contains summaries of group presentations that have been contributed by individual speakers.