Boeing Blackboard System Erasmus

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Boeing Blackboard SystemErasmus

• By John Kimpel
• CSCI 222 Final Paper

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Introduction

• What is a blackboard system?
• What is the Boeing Blackboard System?
• How were things accomplished for the above
  mentioned system?
• Problems Encountered
• Additional Sources of Information

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What makes a Blackboard System?

• A central data storage location (blackboard)
• Usually a database of some type
• A set of independent tasks
• These tasks manipulate the data on the
  blackboard.
• A scheduler to determine when each task can
  manipulate the data.

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How does it all work?
Task2
Task1
Scheduler
Blackboard
Task3
Task4
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Boeing Blackboard History

• Derived from two different systems
• BB1 (Barbara Hayes-Roth, Stanford)
• GBB (Daniel Corkill, Univ. of Mass.)
• Development began mid 1980s
• Renamed to Erasmus Project
• Shelved in 1990
• Currently not used by Boeing Company

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Blackboard Architecture

• Blackboard divided into levels
• Should start with raw data and work up level
  hierarchy to solution
• Knowledge source triggers
• Usually triggered at one level
• Modifies data at other levels
• Resulting in other levels triggering

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Scheduler what does it do?

• Tasks tell the scheduler that they can do
  something with the data.
• Scheduler then prioritizes the available tasks
  and determines which one can begin.
• How was it actually implemented in the Boeing
  Blackboard Project?
• Separate Control Blackboard
• Evaluation Function

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Knowledge Sources

• Able to run in parallel
• A program of some sort that manipulates data on
  the blackboard.
• C
• Fortran
• Rule Based System
• Frames

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Bottleneck

• Many blackboard systems bottleneck in accessing
  the blackboard.
• GBB significantly addressed this problem so it
  wasnt really a problem.
• Bottleneck appeared at the scheduler.
• Evaluation function needed to be fast and
  accurate.

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Was Erasmus ever used?

• Used to develop many experimental programs.
• PHRED
• SADVISOR
• KRYPTO
• PATTON

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Places to turn for additional Information

• Blackboard Architecture and Applications
• Chapter written by developers of Erasmus
• International Journal of Intelligent Systems Vol
  3, pages 281-293
• Article written by Larry Baum
• Developer of Erasmus System

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Summary

• What is a blackboard system and how does it work?
• History of the Boeing Blackboard Project.
• How different parts of a blackboard system were
  handled in this case.
• Bottleneck that they encountered
• Where to go for additional information?

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References

• Larry Baum, Erasmus Project Developer
• Boeing Corporation
• Boeing Blackboard System
• Written by M. Benda, L. Baum, and
• V. Jagannathan
• The Opus Pipeline
• Written by James F. Rose