Knowledge-Based Information Systems: A Wind Farm Case Study

Abstract

The process of Information Systems Development (ISD) has been widely studied in order to enhance information systems so generated. Recently, it has been recognised that using the methodologies of knowledge management in ISD, so called knowledge-based information systems (KIS), will greatly support the acquisition and representation of knowledge both from application domains and development processes, in particular when a huge amount of data from the application domains requires processing and massive knowledge buried in the processes. However, the gap between knowledge management and information system development need to be closed. This paper intends to bridge this gap by proposing an agent-based knowledge management framework and applying it to an industrial case study from the re-newable energy industry. Firstly, within the framework we consider an organiza-tion (a complex system) with intelligent agents to handle internal and external in-formation. Then, we consider how the knowledge management methods can be integrated with information systems through use of intelligent agents and multi-agents to handle the domain and process knowledge. Finally, for the framework we define a conceptual model of Knowledge-based Information Systems (KIS) to support ISD to support an enterprise-wide knowledge, experience and decision making in a data-intensive and complex system of the wind farm management. We develop a prototype of KIS model and implement it into a working wind farm information system to evaluate and validate the proposed framework.