Construction of problem-solving methods as parametric design

The knowledge-engineering literature contains a number of approaches for constructing or selecting problem solvers. Some of these approaches are based on indexing and selecting a problem solver from a library, others are based on a knowledge acquisition process, yet others are based on search-strategies. None of these approaches sees constructing a problem solver as a con guration task that could be solved with an appropriate con guration method. We introduce a representation of problem solving methods that allows us to view the construction of problem solvers as a con guration problem, and speci cally as a parametric design problem. There are several methods for solving con guration tasks. Studying these methods and in particular the method of propose-critique-modify results in guidelines for arranging the automated con guration theory. Furthermore we illustrate this method by a scenario in a small car domain example. This scenario is detailed enough that it can be directly implemented in a suitable architecture, which we have described elsewhere.