"Story Generation and Aviation Incident Representation," Incident Reports

Introduction

In the 1990s, the aviation industry continued along avenues opened by Meehan’s TALE-SPIN and the Navy’s ACS. At Boeing, Peter Clark observed that aviation incident reports resembled plots, with characters, events, and causal connections. Clark concluded that if a computer learned to analyze these “stories,” it could answer questions like “Why did the pilots change course?” and “Was it because a passenger fell ill onboard?” Figuring a computer should first be able to generate its own stories in order to eventually analyze them, Clark devised a program like Meehan’s TALE-SPIN that emulated aviation incident reports. Clark used stories from the FAA Incident Data System (FIDES) as a starting point (just as TALE-SPIN used The Little Train) and scripted goal-oriented behavior (e.g. Get the passengers to Dallas), so the story engine would process actors and events until it reached a satisfying conclusion. Here you see examples of the incident reports generated by Clark’s program.

Additional Information

Label

"Story Generation and Aviation Incident Representation," Incident Reports

Author

Peter Clark

Original Publication Date

1999

New Publication Date

1999

Publisher

The Boeing Company

Location

Not in library

Case

8