Application of a new logically complete ATMS to digraph and network-connectivity analysis

摘要

The binary decision diagram (BDD) and the metaproduct technologies have made possible to perform interactively exact qualitative and quantitative analysis of fault trees that could not previously be exactly analysed. This paper shows that these technologies can also be used to build an interactive tool to perform exact analysis of digraphs and of network connectivity problems. The paper also shows that the basic functionalities needed to perform these analyses are exactly those of an assumption-based truth maintenance system (ATMS), and it describes a new logically complete ATMS built using BDDs and metaproducts. The usefulness and the efficiency of this approach is demonstrated through the analysis of the feedwater system of a nuclear plant.