School Routing System                   James W. Carter
Structured Matcher Expert System        CSCI 222
 
 

Overview

The School Routing System (SRS) is intended for personnal use only.  My Structured Matcher system (SM) will ask weather related questions as well as quiz the user concerning what must be accomplished today. It will provide clothing, routing and method of travel suggestions in return. I live on the edge of Chapmantown, so the routing information is in relation to my home. A main planning goal is divided into three subtasks: choosing clothing, picking a route to take, and choosing a method of transportation. These subgoals are satisfied by differing aspects of the input parameters.  People must decide every day what to wear and how to get where they need to be for the day. Planning can be complicated by secondary duties to be performed, such as walking the dog. An entire days plans are generally determined by the weather and the daily duties to be performed.
 
 

I used the VisualWave structured matcher (SM) ability to set up variables in the database according to current task.  When the SM finds matches, it modifies existing parameters to reflect the current weather and todo parameters. The SRS then prints out the plan in a readable format.  Input parameters and intermediate decisions are created as simple database variables on the 'blackboard' for use by SM's.  Once a decision (match) is made, the parameter itself is modified directly, for both intermediate decisions and temporary parameters.  The main task of planning is divided into three subtasks: Get dressed, Get route, Get method. The Get dressed task asks some weather related questions and establishes a clothing recommendation for the day. The Get route task chooses a path based on what is to be done today (more questions) as well as other routing information. The Get method task chooses between walk, bike, and drive based on both weather and the things to do today.  Once the three subgoals have been met, a printout is displayed containg the suggested plan.  The program was created with a capacity for expansion.  For instance, routes are very general. A typical route may be 'park route', meaning to travel by way of the park. This could be expanded to plan a specific route from amoung many possible routes.  Clothing could also be made more specific based on a data base of clothing choices.  The program works quite well for the purpose created.  It is not general in that it could not be used by another person unless they had similar circumstances to mine. It could be used once I move by simply making changes in the database and SM's.  Other plans, like routing to work or the library, could be added quite easily by simply attaching them to the specialist and creating tasks to accomplish the new plans.