The inspection and maintenance of offshore structures is carried out by experts who have considerable experience, and are able to bring to bear a large body of knowledge, for solving a variety of problems. However, the full extent of knowledge required to completely rationally execute inspection and maintenance of offshore structures is beyond the scope of one individual without the assistance of a comprehensive system with access to the necessary databases and algorithms. The PLAIM (Platform Lifetime Assessment through Analysis, Inspection and Maintenance) project has been established to provide such a system. 'Knowledge-Based' Expert Systems methods and techniques, particularly those related to the acquisition of experiential knowledge and the representation of the knowledge for solving problems, have been used in the PLAIM project. The major deliverables of this project include: the documentation of informal and qualitative knowledge together with a prototype expert system for eliciting details of defects in structures, empirically assessing the severity of the defect and recommending a series of remedial actions.

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