Practical Model-Based Diagnosis with Qualitative Possibilistic
  Uncertainty
  An approach to fault isolation that exploits vastly incomplete models is
presented. It relies on separate descriptions of each component behavior,
together with the links between them, which enables focusing of the reasoning
to the relevant part of the system. As normal observations do not need
explanation, the behavior of the components is limited to anomaly propagation.
Diagnostic solutions are disorders (fault modes or abnormal signatures) that
are consistent with the observations, as well as abductive explanations. An
ordinal representation of uncertainty based on possibility theory provides a
simple exception-tolerant description of the component behaviors. We can for
instance distinguish between effects that are more or less certainly present
(or absent) and effects that are more or less certainly present (or absent)
when a given anomaly is present. A realistic example illustrates the benefits
of this approach.
