設計一個規則系統應用於邏輯與流程控制 – 以自動化物料搬運系統控制器為例

Abstract

對一個軟體專案的開發生命週期而言，不論使用何種軟體開發流程，總是避免不了系統分析、系統設計、系統開發、系統測試、系統安裝與系統維護這幾個步驟，透過這些步驟來一一實現客戶的需求。然而在外部環境迅速變化之下使得軟體的開發週期變短、使用者的需求一直在改變，如何使軟體專案的開發能夠符合使用者不斷變更的需求同時又能兼顧軟體專案時程與成本的掌控已是現今軟體開發商所不能忽略的重大問題之一。 本研究方法是以專家系統中 Forware-chain 的 RETE Alogrithm 所設計而成的以規則為基礎的推論引擎，並搭配規則相關輔助工具所設計而成的規則系統，規則系統是一套應用程式開發輔助工具，這套工具可以將應用程式中的邏輯與流程控制的部份抽離出來獨立於應用程式之外，當使用者需求變更時只需要透過規則系統所提供的規則編輯器來變更該應用程式的規則邏輯，即可符合大部份的使用者需求變更，使得軟體需求變更所需的工時下降。另外透過商務元件的動態連結程式庫的技術結合規則邏輯的方式，使得軟體功能的新增與修改可以在不需停止應用程式的方式下更新軟體，大幅降低軟體更新所導致的停機時間。 本研究結果為提出一套名為規則系統的應用程式開發輔助工具，並實際應用於自動化物料搬運系統控制器 (AMHS Controller) 中。此套工具可以有效的縮短應用程式在開發與維護過程中所遭遇到的使用者需求變更所需的工時，同時降低應用程式更新時所需的停機時間，有效的協助軟體開發商改善專案時程延後與人力成本浪費問題。

A software development life cycle, no matter what kind of software development process is used, will inevitably consist of system analysis, system design, system development, system test, system installation, and system maintenance, and, through the referred steps, fulfill customer need. However, given the external ever-changing environment, the software development cycle turns shorter and users have been changing their requirements. It is an important issue to make software development match the change while taking the development schedule and cost into control. The study involves a rule system that is designed by a rule-based inference engine created with RETE Algorithm of the forward-chain in an expert system, in combination with rule-related auxiliary tools. The rule system, which is an auxiliary tool for application software development, can extract the logic and process control independently from the application software. When a user changes his/her requirement, we just revise the rule logic of the software through the rule editor supplied by the rule system to address the change of most user requirements. This will reduce the labor hours required for such a change. Moreover, by integrating the technology of the business object dynamic linking library with the rule logic, we may add and delete software functions without the need to exit the application, therefore significantly eliminate the down time for service due to update of software. As a study result, we present an auxiliary tool named “a rule system” for application development and practically apply it to the automated material handling system (AMHS Controller). The tool, which can effectively decrease the labor hours required for the development and maintenance of application software while cutting the down time for service during the update of the software, efficiently help software vendors improve the problems of delayed development schedule and wasted labor costs.