1. An artificial intelligence software shell for plant operation simulation comprising: a blackboard module including a database having objects representing plant elements and concepts; at least one knowledge source module including an artificial intelligence operation scheme, in communication with the blackboard module, operating on specific predefined blackboard objects; an input data module, in communication with the blackboard module and the at least one knowledge source module, enabling data to be inputted to the shell; a control module, in communication with the input data module and the at least one knowledge source module, receiving all input data and controlling operation of the at least one knowledge source; the control module including an event detector module, in communication with the input data module, receiving all input data and determining when the at least one knowledge source module should execute; the event detector module including: a hash table having entries for each input data source; a data point structure including entries for objects and corresponding attributes and values, the entries of the hash table pointing to entries in the data point structure; an indirect expression list pointed to by the data point structure; an expression list, pointed to by the indirect expression list including entries for knowledge source previous and updated values; and a message evaluator, receiving messages related to input data, checking the messages for syntax errors and implementing a hash table algorithm if no syntax error is found.
1. An artificial intelligence software shell for plant operation simulation comprising: a blackboard module including a database having objects representing plant elements and concepts; at least one knowledge source module including an artificial intelligence operation scheme, in communication with the blackboard module, operating on specific predefined blackboard objects; an input data module, in communication with the blackboard module and the at least one knowledge source module, enabling data to be inputted to the shell; a control module, in communication with the input data module and the at least one knowledge source module, receiving all input data and controlling operation of the at least one knowledge source; the control module including an event detector module, in communication with the input data module, receiving all input data and determining when the at least one knowledge source module should execute; the event detector module including: a hash table having entries for each input data source; a data point structure including entries for objects and corresponding attributes and values, the entries of the hash table pointing to entries in the data point structure; an indirect expression list pointed to by the data point structure; an expression list, pointed to by the indirect expression list including entries for knowledge source previous and updated values; and a message evaluator, receiving messages related to input data, checking the messages for syntax errors and implementing a hash table algorithm if no syntax error is found. 14. A software shell as claimed in claim 1 wherein the at least one knowledge source module includes: a rule-based knowledge source module having a forward-chaining belief propagation scheme including rules in if-then-else form with associated levels of belief; and a case-based knowledge source module having a data comparison scheme including predefined patterns and conditions, whereupon execution of the case-based knowledge source, the conditions are inferred to be true if a certain level of closeness is found between received data and the patterns.