Scribd
Upload
35 views18 pages

Lecture 12 - Expert Systems

An expert system is a computer program that aims to mimic the problem-solving abilities of a human expert. It consists of a knowledge base that contains domain-specific knowledge in the form of rules, a working memory that stores facts about the current problem, and an inference engine that applies rules from the knowledge base to the working memory to deduce new facts. Expert systems can replace human experts in some situations, such as where safety, availability, or cost are concerns. They are commonly used to assist human experts by automating routine tasks or drawing on experience stored in the knowledge base.

Uploaded by

bscs-20f-0009
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
35 views18 pages

Lecture 12 - Expert Systems

An expert system is a computer program that aims to mimic the problem-solving abilities of a human expert. It consists of a knowledge base that contains domain-specific knowledge in the form of rules, a working memory that stores facts about the current problem, and an inference engine that applies rules from the knowledge base to the working memory to deduce new facts. Expert systems can replace human experts in some situations, such as where safety, availability, or cost are concerns. They are commonly used to assist human experts by automating routine tasks or drawing on experience stored in the knowledge base.

Uploaded by

bscs-20f-0009
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 18

Expert Systems

What is an Expert ?
• What characterizes an ‘Expert’
• Specialized knowledge in a certain area
• Experience in the given area
• Explanation of decisions
• A skill set that enables the expert to translate the specilized knowledge
gained through experience into solutions.
• e.g. Skin specialist, heart specialist, car mechanic, architect, software
designer.
What is an expert system?
• “A computer program designed to model the problem solving ability
of a human expert” Durkin
• Aspects of the human expert that we wish to model
• Knowledge
• Reasoning
Comparison of a Human
Expert and an Expert
System
• Example: medical ES modelling a doctor, discuss each
of the following issues in that context.
• The ES outperforms the ‘average’ doctor and is
available in regions where people may not have
access to any medical care at all otherwise.
Comparison
Issues Human Expert Expert System
Availability Limited Always
Geographic location Locally available Anywhere

Safety Irreplaceable Can be replaced


considerations
Durability Depends on Non-perishable
individual
Performance Variable High
Speed Variable High
Cost High Low
Learning Ability Variable/High Low
Explanation Variable Exact
Role of Expert system
• An expert system may take two main roles, relative to the
human expert.
• It may replace the expert
• Assist the expert
Replacement of Expert
• Raises many eyebrows!
• Not very practical in some situations, but feasible in others
• Consider drastic situations, e.g. where safety or location is an
issue, e.g. a mission to Mars.
• Oil Exploration Company
• France based oil exploration company maintains a number of oil wells.
• Problem: drills become stuck. This typically occurs when the drill hits
something that prevents the drill from turning.
• Often delays due to this cause huge losses (order of 100, 000 $ per
day) until n expert can arrive at the scene to investigate.
• Solution: deploy an expert system.
• A system called ‘Drilling Advisor’ (Elf-Aquitane 1983) developed.
Assisting an Expert

• Most commonly found application


• Aiding expert in routine task to increase
productivity
• Aiding in managing complex situations (May draw
on experience of other individuals)
• Solves by recalling problems
• XCON
• Lending Advisor
How are Expert Systems
Used?

• Diagnosis
• Interpretation
• Prescription
• Design
• Planning
• Control
• Instruction
• Prediction
• Simulation
Control Applications
• Adaptively govern/regulate the behavior of a system
• E.g. controlling a manufacturing process, or medical treatment
• Obtain data about current system state, reason and predict future
state, recommend/execute adjustments
• Example: VM (device to monitor patient)
Application Areas
• Medicine (MYCIN)
• Manufacturing
• Business (SMARTPlan)
• Engineering (R1/XCON) PEACE, CAD tool to assist in
design of electronic structures.
• Agriculture
• Education (GUIDON)
Expert System Structure
• Lets look at how an expert (say a doctor) solves a
problem:
• Focused area of expertise
• Specialized Knowledge (Long-term Memory, LTM)
• Case facts (Short-term Memory, STM)
• Reasons with these to form new knowledge
• Solves the given problem
• Lets define the corresponding concepts in an Expert
System.
Expert System Structure

Human Expert Expert System


Focused Area of Expertise Domain

Specialized Knowledge Domain Knowledge (stored


(stored in LTM) in Knowledge Base)
Case Facts (stored in Case/Inferred Facts(stored
STM) in Working Memory)
Reasoning Inference Engine

Solution Conclusions
Expert System Structure
Expert System

Working Memory
Analogy: STM
-Initial Case facts
-Inferred facts

USER Inference User USER


Engine Interface

Knowledge Base
Analogy: LTM
- Domain Knowedge
User Interface
• The user interface is the screen in to which the user types in
the query and it has 2 functions:
• Accept input in from the user,
• Output advice to the user.
• Depending on the system the user interface might involve a
touch screen, keyboard or even just a simple keypad ( for
example car diagnostic systems)
Knowledge Base
• Part of the expert system that contains the domain knowledge
• Problem facts, Rules
• Concepts
• Relationships
• One of the roles of the expert system designer is to act as a
knowledge engineer.
• Knowledge acquisition bottleneck
• You have to get information from the expert and encode it in
the knowledge base, using one of the knowledge
representation techniques we discussed in KRR.
• As discussed, one way of encoding that knowledge is in the
form of IF-THEN rules. We saw that such representation is
especially conducive to reasoning.
Working Memory
• ‘Part of the expert system that contains the problem
facts that are discovered during the session’ Durkin
• A session is one consultation.
• During a consultation:
• User presents some facts about the situation.
• These are stored in the working memory.
• Using these and the knowledge in the knowledge base,
new information is inferred and also added to the working
memory.
Inference Engine
• Processor in an expert system that matches the facts
contained in the working memory with the domain
knowledge contained in the knowledge base, to draw
conclusions about the problem
• The inference engine works with the knowledge base and the
working memory, and draws on both to add new facts to the
working memory.
• If our knowledge is represented in the form of IF-THEN rules,
the Inference Engine has the following mechanism

• Match given facts in working memory to the premises of


the rules in the knowledge base, if match found, ‘fire’ the
conclusion of the rule, i.e. add the conclusion to the
working memory.

You might also like