Knowledge Based System

Although activated sludge process is a very widely used biological process in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), and there are properly functioning control loops such as that of dissolved oxygen, in practice, this type of plant requires a major time investment on the part of the operator, involving many manual operations. Treatment plants work well most of the time, as long as there are not unforeseen occurrences. Normal operating situations (generally similar to design conditions) can be treated mathematically by using efficient control algorithms. However, there are situations in which the control system cannot properly manage the plant, and in which the process can only be efficiently managed thanks to the operator's experience. This is a case in which a knowledgebased system may be useful. One of the difficulties inherent to the development of a knowledge-based system is to obtain the knowledge base (i.e., knowledge acquisition), specially when dealing with a wide, complic...