Book excerpt: Expert system technology is receiving increasing popularity and acceptance in the engineering community. This is due to the fact that there actually exists a close match between the capabilities of the current generation expert systems and the requirements of engineering practice. Prepared by a distinguished team of experts, this book provides a balanced state-of-the-art presentation of the design principles of engineering expert systems, and a representative picture of their capabilities to assist efficiently the design, diagnosis and operation of complex industrial plants. Among the application areas covered are the following: hardware synthesis, industrial plant layout design, fault diagnosis, process control, image analysis, computer communication, electric power systems, intelligent control, robotics, and manufacturing systems. The book is appropriate for the researcher and the professional. The researcher can save considerable time in searching the scattered technical information on engineering expert systems. The professional can have readily available a rich set of guidelines and techniques that are applicable to a wide class of engineering domains.