This Paper describes work being carried out to develop an intelligent
knowledge-based system (IKBS) for use in the surveillance of naval nuc
lear submarine propulsion plant. In recent years, modem process plants
have increased automation and installed surveillance equipment while
reducing the level of manpower operating and monitoring the plant. As
a result, some of the local watchkeeping tasks have been transferred t
o control room operators, and the data reduction and warning filtering
expertise inherent in focal plant operators has been lost, while an a
dditional workload has been placed upon operators. The surveillance sy
stems installed to date have therefore been less usable than anticipat
ed. The solution being achieved for submarine power plant is to introd
uce IKBS into surveillance to replace lost expertise and return to a s
ituation in which operators receive small amounts of high quality info
rmation rather than large amounts of low quality information.