Welborix, a Novel Approach Towards User-Interface Technology in Well-Performance Simulation

Abstract

Shell Research has developed an integrated well-performance simulation tool that is widely used throughout the Shell Group. However, users do not fully appreciate its advanced functionality because of the cumbersome way in which relevant input data have to be composed. To alleviate this hindrance, the WELBORIX project was initiated, the aim of which was to build an adaptive human-computer interface for an existing wellbore simulator. The main aim of the research demonstrator WELBORIX, however, was to identify general requirements for a system designed to simplify a complex interaction between human and computer. When an experienced user of the simulator models a problem, he or she draws on an extensive body of knowledge. Applying knowledge-engineering techniques, the WELBORIX interface helps a less experienced user to work with the simulator by dealing with the complexity of the input. The compositon of a valid set of input parameters is described in a knowledge base, and the process of the human-computer interaction is controlled by an inference engine that is based on backward chaining. Moreover, facts derived during the computer's reasoning process determine the composition of the output and the sequence in which it is presented to the user. A special mechanism has been designed to obtain any needed factual information that cannot be derived from rules; it consists of a transparent layer connecting the missing facts with user-interface components. The adaptative human-computer interface of WELBORIX enables occasional users to interact with the wellbore simulator in a natural way, calling objects by their common name. The experienced user, on the other hand, does not have to sacrifice any of the system's flexibility; he or she is free to take short cuts. The user controls a session through a direct-manipulation, graphic user interface, which offers combined text and graphics, context-dependent help and multiple representations of data. Object-orientation, an excellent paradigm to support the flexibility such a system demands, was embraced during the design of the interface. Because a generic approach was followed, production-technology systems should benefit from the general-purpose user-interface components that were developed to represent objects relevant to the application domain. For efficiency reasons, WELBORIX was originally developed on a SUN/UNIX workstation using COMMON LISP (with object-oriented extensions) and X-Windows. However, because it has demonstrated the excellent potential offered by knowledge-engineering techniques in combination with object orientation in the area of human-computer interfaces, it is currently being made operational using C++ and OSF/Motif.