Development of an Intelligent Car Engine Fault Troubleshooting System (CEFTS)

Abstract

The mass production and wider use of automobiles and the incorporation of complex electronic technologies all indicate that the control of faults should be an integral part of engine design and usage. This paper discusses an expert system application for troubleshooting car engine faults using Auto-mechanic workshops in Calabar metropolis of Cross River State-Nigeria. The method of fact-finding called  knowledge acquisition which is an expert system approach to extract facts was adopted in order to achieve good judgment in the use of heuristics among experts. The results are represented as a set of IF – THEN judgments that expert mechanics can rely mostly on in the troubleshooting process. The system depends on an automated matching process between symptoms and procedures. The paper developed a new prototype named Car Engine Fault Troubleshooting System (CEFTS) using C++ programming platform. The purpose of the developed prototype is to assist motorists and auto mechanics in fault troubleshooting of car engines by providing systematic and step-by-step analysis of failure symptoms and offering  maintenance or service advice. The result of this development is expected to introduce a systematic and intelligent method in car engine troubleshooting and maintenance environments and also provides a troubleshooting framework for other researchers to work on.

Keywords: Expert System, knowledge base, troubleshooting, inference engine, knowledge acquisition, artificial intelligence.