Abstract
An alterative approach to the backward reasoning is presented. In classical reasoning, both users and developers of many expert systems are dedicated to the forward reasoning. However, in many newly arising expert systems such as various diagnosis systems, the backward reasoning is of special interest and often preferable. In this paper, the fuzzy Petri nets are used to analytically represent the knowledge of fault diagnosis in manufacturing systems and an iterative algorithm based on max-algebra is used to deduce the consequence-antecedent relationship between their manifestation and antecedent. Finally, the legitimacy and efficiency of the proposed approach are proved and validated by an illustrative example. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.