SD-Scicon Plc, British Gas Plc and Salford University Business Enterprises have set up a joint venture company to market industrial automation software based on artificial intelligence technology. Cogsys is the offspring of the Government-sponsored Alvey project which was established in the early 1980s to stimulate joint industrial and academic research and development projects. RESCU, the Real-time Expert System Club of Users also sprang from the Alvey initiative, and it is from the Club’s research into expert systems that Cogsys has evolved. The two main applications for Cogsys are in real-time control and plant monitoring, and it enables automation engineers to create industrial systems to run large manufacturing and process plants. It is capable of alarm analysis, data validation and reduction, and it uses historical information to maintain product quality and analyse plant performance. DEC MicroVAXs were chosen for the initial implementation, but Cogsys Ltd says that the software could be implemented for a number of environments, and Unix is of particular interest. Cogsys is headquartered at Salford Business Park, and the company hopes to distribute the product via the other members of RESCU. British Gas is the majority shareholder in the new company, and Frank Corrigan of British Gas’ new business division, has been appointed as chairman.
