From: rick@cs.arizona.edu (Rick Schlichting)
Newsgroups: comp.research.japan,comp.ai
Subject: Kahaner Report: RCAST activities in AI and Expert systems.
Date: 28 Aug 92 16:31:30 GMT
Followup-To: comp.research.japan


  [Dr. David Kahaner is a numerical analyst on sabbatical to the 
   Office of Naval Research-Asia (ONR Asia) in Tokyo from NIST.  The 
   following is the professional opinion of David Kahaner and in no 
   way has the blessing of the US Government or any agency of it.  All 
   information is dated and of limited life time.  This disclaimer should 
   be noted on ANY attribution.]

  [Copies of previous reports written by Kahaner can be obtained using
   anonymous FTP from host cs.arizona.edu, directory japan/kahaner.reports.]

To: Distribution
From: 
 David K. Kahaner
 US Office of Naval Research Asia
 (From outside US):  23-17, 7-chome, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106 Japan
 (From within  US):  Unit 45002, APO AP 96337-0007
  Tel: +81 3 3401-8924, Fax: +81 3 3403-9670
  Email: kahaner@cs.titech.ac.jp
Re: RCAST activities in AI and Expert systems.
27 August 1992
This file is named "rcast.ai"

ABSTRACT. AI and Expert System activities at Research Center for
Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), are reviewed. RCAST is a part
of Tokyo University.

This report is another spinoff from my March 1992 visit with the JTEC
team, see [hitachi.ai, 25 August 1992]. 

RCAST was established in 1987 in an extraordinary effort to develop a
new (for Japan) kind of research organization. RCAST was to grow under
four guiding principles (1) interdisciplinary studies, (2) international
cooperation, (3) mobility and flexibility of staff and research areas,
and (4) openness to the public and to other organizations. There are
four main departments with 19 regular chaired professors, as follows.

      Advanced systems department
        Urban environment systems chair
        Biomechanics chair
        Large scale systems chair
        Factory automation chair
        Knowledge processing and transfer systems chair <-- JTEC visit

      Advanced devices department
        Optical devices chair
        Biomedical devices chair
        High-speed functional devices chair
        Quantum microstructure devices chair
        Intelligent sensing devices chair   <-- earlier (Tachi) visit
        Biosensors and bioelectronics chair

      Advanced materials department
        Chemical materials chair
        Photonic materials chair
        Highly durable materials chair
        Molecular information materials chair
        Robotic materials chair

      Socio-technological research department 
        Science & technology and industry
        Information technology and industry
        Ethics of science and technology

In addition there are four guest chairs (currently functional materials--
dealing with interface phenomena, new laser devices, system tero-
technology, and technology assessment), and eight endowed chairs, as 
follows.  

      Frontier chemistry (Hitachi)
      Quantum materials (Hitachi)
      Computers and communication (NEC)
      Telecommunications (NTT)
      Marine biology (Toyo Suisan)
      Urban development engineering (GC5)
      Future system analysis (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries)

Lab facilities are augmented by a 3-meter wind tunnel, a process center 
(containing epitaxy and lithography rooms), a bio-clean room, and a 
running test center.  

In addition to fundamental research, RCAST also is involved in beginning 
an interdisciplinary graduate course which will be open to the entire 
public.  

There are about 80 faculty at various levels (53 professors), about 150
graduate or research students, and about 140 research fellows. The 1990
budget was approximately 1.8Billion Yen, almost $15M US.

RCAST is adjacent to one of the "standard" University of Tokyo campuses 
just outside the city's central ring. It has an attractive, weathered, 
academic appearance. Because its location is less congested and much 
greener than the University's main campus, RCAST would be a very pleasant 
place to spend a sabbatical or research visit.  

RCAST publishes two useful periodicals, the RCAST News (twice a year), 
containing introductory descriptions of research activities, and RCAST 
Journal (once a year), containing outline/summary of research, lists of 
publications, and current research status. General questions about RCAST 
can be addressed to 

        Prof. Setsuo Ohsuga, Director
        Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology
        The University of Tokyo
        4-6-1 Komaba
        Mejuro-ku, Tokyo 154 JAPAN
          Tel: +81 3-3481-4411  

Interestingly, Prof Ohsuga also holds the chair of Knowledge processing 
within the Advanced systems department, the focus of the current report 
(this dual appointment speaks worlds about the administrative structure 
of this research organization).  

I have reported on RCAST activities in the past, see for example 
["tachi.lab", 9 March 1992]. Professor Tachi is in the Advanced devices 
department, and under the chair of Intelligent sensing devices.  

Ohsuga is a former President of the Japan Society for Artificial 
Intelligence and has been engaged in research in AI since 1970. His lab 
is jointly run with Koichi Hori who joined in 1988 from the National 
Institute of Japanese Literature (Email: HORI@OHSUGA.RCAST.U-
TOKYO.AC.JP). Currently there is a visiting professor from France and 19 
students, about one third from outside Japan. Although the working 
language is Japanese, English is widely spoken and most of the technical 
reports are available in English. Computer user-interfaces are mostly in 
Japanese however.  

On the general topic of expert systems Ohsuga pointed out that these are 
still fairly small scale in Japan, but are being rapidly implemented by 
industry. He is personally interested in large systems, for example the 
large knowledge base that is needed by the Electronic Dictionary Research 
project [see "edr.92", 27 March 1992], but feels that such a knowledge 
base can't be flat, i.e., it needs to be built as a multi-level 
structure.  Parenthetically, the question of ICOT was brought up. Ohsuga 
felt that their hardware was okay, but that there were no substantial 
applications developed yet. He also echoed the Japanese sentiment that 
ICOT had been a very good advertisement for AI, and in fact had moved 
students away from traditional areas, to the point now that the best 
students in Japan seem to be moving into AI subfields. He also offered 
that ICOT had propelled the growth of the AI in Japanese industry.  

OHSUGA LAB

Ohsuga has proposed a knowledge representation language (called multi-
layered logic) based on an extension of predicate logic by expanding its 
syntax. (Ohsuga believes that knowledge representation is the central 
issue in AI. He also feels that multi-layered logic satisfies most 
requirements for knowledge representation, is very convenient for 
defining structured objects, and is also convenient to describe and to 
link to databases and existing procedures.) The Lab has also implemented 
a knowledge base system (KAUS: Knowledge Acquisition and Utilization 
System) based on this language.  

KAUS runs under Unix. It utilizes a special procedural atom, 'Exec', that 
allows cooperation between knowledge processing and conventional 
computing in a simple way. Exec is a second order predicate that accepts 
character strings as arguments. It interprets the first argument as a 
program name and the remaining arguments as arguments of that program. 
Using the fork and join mechanism in Unix, it forks a new process and 
runs the program, eventually returning either 'yes' or 'no' according to 
the end code of the program. Thus many Unix programs can mesh nicely with 
KAUS, including various database systems.  

Ohsuga and his group have developed a variety of applications using KAUS, 
primarily in engineering domains, including mechanical design, feedback 
control system analysis, airplane wing design, chemical compound design, 
etc.  Some details and references are described below. What is important 
about this work, in my opinion, is the very close link between advanced 
knowledge processing concepts and traditional engineering issues. Most of 
the students working in Ohsuga's lab are trained in computer science, not 
engineering. Nevertheless, the lab as a whole has a strong bias toward 
practical problems as seen by the applications they are studying.
RCAST's philosophy emphasizes openness. When coupled to the quality of 
the work that is occurring there, collaborative activities with Western 
scientists are bound to be fruitful. 

A special interest in this lab is in intelligent CAD systems, i.e., the 
development of knowledge-based CAD system. In one feedback control system 
application, the system offers the designer a diagram language to define 
an object model of a control system with block diagrams and mathematical 
expressions. Routine tasks such as deriving transfer functions, 
calculating time responses, etc., are mostly done automatically. The 
system is distributed, using various computing facilities on a network.  
Such feedback control system design involves two kinds of man-machine 
cooperative activities--one to build the control system model in the 
computer, and the other to determine various physical parameters based on 
the model (time responses, frequency responses, root locus, relative 
stabilities, etc.).  

We were also told about the prototype aircraft wing design system 
developed using KAUS. Ohsuga pointed out the difficulties associated with 
such designs, requiring as many as ten years for complete design and 
manufacture, and requiring not only numerical and large scale database 
processing, but knowledge processing and model processing. The prototype 
system has two numerical packages, for aerodynamic and structural 
analysis, but others can obviously be added. A database of NACA wing 
sections is stored as standard wing sections and can be referred to by 
designers, or they can add their own wing sections to the database. A 
wing model consists of an aerodynamic and structural model.  In 
aerodynamic design, designers first make an initial model that specifies 
shape of the wing, and then analyze and modify this, repeatedly, until 
goal characteristics such as lift, drag, moment, etc., are obtained. In 
structural design, designers first make an initial model that specifies 
wing framework constructed by beams and ribs, then analyze and modify it, 
until the wing has enough strength. In case it isn't possible to obtain a 
strong enough structural model, the aerodynamic model must be modified. 
Since both models are integrated into this system consistency can be 
maintained. Associated with this project is a package, MODIFY (MODeling 
tool for Integrated Finite element analYsis), developed in the lab. This 
is an object oriented FEM system, which uses parts objects, and the 
concept of "degree of importance" to help with mesh generation. 

One of the most interesting papers on this subject appeared in Computer 
Aided Design, Vol 21, No.5, June 1989 pp315--337, "Toward Intelligent CAD 
Systems", S.Ohsuga. I recommend it to everyone studying this topic as a 
readable and thought provoking summary.  

Another related system is Chemilog. This is a logic programming language 
and system to support the development of chemical knowledge information 
processing systems. It is an extension of Prolog and is viewed as a 
constraint logic programming language. In Chemilog, graphs representing 
chemical structures are treated as basic components and isomorphic graphs 
are identified. Constraints such as substructure recognition and 
replacement of substructures make it possible for users to write programs 
that handle chemical structures in a visual form. There are two parts, an 
inference engine and a chemical structure database. Ohsuga emphasizes 
that while this project is in the domain of chemistry the method can also 
be applied in other engineering domains where graph representation is 
used. CHAUS is an extension of Chemilog using KAUS.  This was a national 
project that enlisted the aid of chemists throughout Japan who prepared 
"knowledge sheets" describing what functionality appears when certain 
kinds of structural change in chemical compound are made.  

Ohsuga has recently been thinking about applying KAUS to the problem of 
software design. He claims that an important step in software design is 
conceptual modeling (rather than formal specifications) and that 
knowledge processing technology can be fully used in the process of 
conceptual modeling. Moreover he claims that conceptual models can be 
directly converted to procedural programs. He is building a system using 
the meta-level mechanism of KAUS to explore these ideas.  

Prof Hori is involved in the articulation problem. This is the process of 
cutting a set of symbols out of the nebulous mental world. "I have a 
concept but I can't verbalize it." It is necessary to articulate this 
mental world in order to acquire knowledge, model information, etc. Hori 
and co-workers have built a system, AA1 for aiding this articulation.  
Experts often put fragments of ideas consisting of several words and 
hand-drawn figures on paper with frequent erasure and rewriting, when 
thinking about new ideas. Hori claims that AA1 assists in this stage, and 
have experimented with it in the conceptual design of automobiles.  
Currently they are trying to investigate, from the cognitive science 
point of view, why the system works so well.  

Hori's work mainly concerns the bottom-up symbolization process in the 
human mind. Ohsuga's work is mainly concerned with solving a problem 
symbolically modeled. Currently they are trying to connect these two 
activities. Ohsuga emphasized that he also has interests in human 
interface, natural language understanding, analogical reasoning, 
abductive reasoning, nonmonotonic reasoning, learning systems, hypothesis 
generation, etc., with special emphasis on the world of engineering.  

Recent papers.

S. Ohsuga, "How Can Knowledge Based System Solve Large Scale Problems--
Model Based Decomposition and Problem Solving, to appear in Knowledge
Based Systems, Vol 5., No.3, 1992.

K. Hori, S. Ohsuga, "Word Space Processor for Assisting the Articulation
of the Mental World", in Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases,
Ohsuga, Kangassalo, Jaakkola, Hori, Yonezaki (eds), IOS Press, Amsterdam
1992.

Other papers.

S. Ohsuga, "Framework of Knowledge-Based Systems -- Multiple meta-level
architecture for representing problems and problem-solving processes",
in Knowledge Based Systems, Vol 3, No.4, Dec 1990, pp204--214.

T. Akutsu, E. Suzuki, S. Ohsuga, "Logic-based Approach to Expert Systems
in Chemistry", in Knowledge Based Systems, Vol 4, No.2, June 1991, pp
103--116.



During the JTEC visit to RCAST, Prof Ohsuga also provided us with a 
package of preprints from graduate students working in his lab. The 
titles and authors of these papers are listed below, but for specific 
information it would be best to contact Ohsuga or Hori directly.  

Hiroyuki Yamauchi, "KAUS: Knowledge Acquisition and Utilization System"

Chunye Li, "Problem Model Design/Transformation-Based Program 
Development"

Ning Zhong, "Knowledge Discover and Management in Integrated Use of 
Knowledge-Bases and Databases"

Kousuke Yoshizawa, "Soft-Defined Machine"

Satoshi Kobayashi, "A Method for Acquiring Problem Decomposition Strategy 
from Traces"

Einoshin Suzuki, "Framework for connecting several knowledge-based 
systems under a distributed environment"

Akira Utsumi, "Primitive Based Representation of Adjectives and 
Figurative Language Understanding"

Nigel Ward, "Structured Connectionist Studies in Natural Language 
Processing"

Ionnis Zannos, "Interactive Music Generation System"

Jari Vaario, "Study on the Development of Neural Networks in the Context 
of Artificial Life"

Shinichiro Yano, "An Approach to Aid Large-Scale Design Problem by 
Computer"

Y. Minagawa, "The Study to Aid Finite Element Method's Preprocessing with 
Knowledge Engineering"

Akira Tajima, "Supporting the development of Intelligent CAD system on 
KAUS"

Masanori Sugimoto, "A method to assist the acquisition and expression of 
subjective concepts and its application to design problems"

Yasunuki Sumi, "A study of computer aided thinking--Mapping text-objects 
in metric spaces--"


---------------------------END OF REPORT-------------------------------