Robust Strategies for Diagnosing Manufacturing Defects

We describe a manufacturing screening task, the diagnosis of defects on a computer board. Then we describe several strategies used by expert trou-bleshooters performing the task. These strategies use "inexact models " of the components and con-nections on the board. A prototype expert system has been implemented that uses the strategies and models. The strategies and models are robust be-cause they are applicable to a wide range of prob-lems, including problems not previously encoun-tered. Brittleness is a common problem with diagnostic systems. We propose the use of these types of strategies to increase the robustness of diagnostic systems