Knowledge Level Planning in the Search and Rescue Domain

The increased use of intelligent decision support systems has created a demand for efficient acquisition, implementation and maintenance of the knowledge required by such systems. The field of knowledge level modelling has developed as a means to this end. This has led to the construction of methodologies for KBS development that facilitate a generic approach to knowledge acquisition. Such generic approaches have achieved great success when applied to various domains, yet have thus far largely neglected the generic areas of planning, scheduling and resource allocation. In this paper we outline the development of such a generic approach within the domain of planning for Search and Rescue. Our generic approach makes a distinction between domain derived knowledge level models and those derived from systems. We describe how the combination of these two types of model can achieve definite benefits within the course of KBS development. Acknowledgements: Thanks to RCC Edinburgh for their co-operation and support, in particular Squadron Leader W. Gault. The work described has been done under contract to the Defence Research Agency Flight Systems Division, Farnborough.