Expert System for the Evaluation of Rail/Highway Crossings

Abstract

This paper describes the stages in the development of an expert system for evaluating and prioritizing highway/railroad grade crossings for safety improvements in the state of Virginia. In the introduction, a brief description of the currently‐practiced procedure for solving problems noted at grade crossings is described. In the identification stage, the four main aspects of the problems are identified. They are the participants in this project and their roles, the problem to be solved, the resources required, and the objectives in building the expert system. The next stage, the conceptual analysis, deals with recognizing the key concepts and relations forming the basis of the system. The formalization stage describes how the expert's knowledge is formalized within the framework of the selected tools, and the implementation stage describes how the formalized knowledge is codified into a computer program. Finally, suggestions are provided for turning the current prototype system into a full‐scale expert system.