Expert systems are computerized tools designed to enhance the quality and availability of knowledge required by decision makers in a wide range of industries. They augment conventional programs such as databases, word processors, and spreadsheet analysis. Expert systems differ from conventional applications software in the following ways:
- The expert system shell, or interpreter.
- The existence of a "knowledge base," or system of related concepts that enable the computer to approximate human judgment.
- The sophistication of the user interface.
Components of an Expert System
All expert systems are composed of several basic components: a user interface, a database, a knowledge base, and an inference mechanism. Moreover, expert system development usually proceeds through several phases including problem selection, knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation, programming, testing and evaluation (George, 2002).
Knowledge in the Expert System
The knowledge the expert uses to solve a problem must be represented in a fashion that can be used to code into the computer and then be available for decision making by the expert system (George, 2002). There are various formal methods for representing knowledge and usually the characteristics of a particular problem will determine the appropriate representation techniques employed.
Knowledge bases can be represented by production rules. These rules consist of a condition or premise followed by an action or conclusion (IF condition...THEN action). Production rules permit the relationships that makeup the knowledge base to be broken down into manageable units. Having a knowledge base that consists of hundreds or thousands of rules can cause a problem with management and organization of the rules. Organizing rules and visualizing their interconnectedness can be accomplished through dependency networks (George, 2002). This method of knowledge representation is discussed later in this discussion under knowledge acquisition and representation.
During the consultation, the rule base is searched for conditions that can be satisfied by facts supplied by the user.......................
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