Linking the witness simulation software to an expert system to represent a decision-making process

Abstract

Expert systems, and artificial intelligence more generally, can provide a useful means for representing decision-making processes. By linking expert systems software to simulation software, an effective means of including these decision-making processes in a simulation model can be achieved. This paper demonstrates how a commercial off-the-shelf simulation package Witness can be linked to an expert systems package XpertRule through a Visual Basic interface. The methodology adopted could be used for models, and possibly software, other than those presented here.