Chapter 1:

Introduction to
Expert Systems

Expert Systems: Principles and

Programming, Fourth Edition
 Objectives
• Learn the meaning of an expert system
• Understand the problem domain and knowledge
domain
• Learn the advantages of an expert system
• Understand the stages in the development of an
expert system
• Examine the general characteristics of an expert
system

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 Objectives
• Examine earlier expert systems which have given
rise to today’s knowledge-based systems
• Explore the applications of expert systems in use
today
• Examine the structure of a rule-based expert
system
• Learn the difference between procedural and
nonprocedural paradigms
• What are the characteristics of artificial neural
systems
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 What is an expert system?

“An expert system is a computer system that

emulates, or acts in all respects, with the
decision-making capabilities of a human expert.”

Professor Edward Feigenbaum

Stanford University

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Fig 1.1 Areas of Artificial
Intelligence

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 Expert system technology
may include:
• Special expert system languages – CLIPS

• Programs

• Hardware designed to facilitate the

implementation of those systems

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Expert System Main Components

• Knowledge base – obtainable from books,

magazines, knowledgeable persons, etc.

• Inference engine – draws conclusions from the

knowledge base

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Figure 1.2 Basic Functions
of Expert Systems

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 Problem Domain vs. Knowledge
Domain
• An expert’s knowledge is specific to one problem
domain – medicine, finance, science,
engineering, etc.
• The expert’s knowledge about solving specific
problems is called the knowledge domain.
• The problem domain is always a superset of the
knowledge domain.

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 Figure 1.3 Problem and
Knowledge Domain Relationship

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Advantages of Expert Systems
• Increased availability
• Reduced cost
• Reduced danger
• Performance
• Multiple expertise
• Increased reliability

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 Advantages Continued
• Explanation

• Fast response

• Steady, unemotional, and complete responses at

all times

• Intelligent tutor

• Intelligent database

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 Representing the Knowledge

The knowledge of an expert system can be

represented in a number of ways, including IF-
THEN rules:

IF you are hungry THEN eat

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 Knowledge Engineering

The process of building an expert system:

1. The knowledge engineer establishes a dialog

with the human expert to elicit knowledge.
2. The knowledge engineer codes the knowledge
explicitly in the knowledge base.
3. The expert evaluates the expert system and
gives a critique to the knowledge engineer.

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Development of an Expert System

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 The Role of AI
• An algorithm is an ideal solution guaranteed to
yield a solution in a finite amount of time.
• When an algorithm is not available or is
insufficient, we rely on artificial intelligence
(AI).
• Expert system relies on inference – we accept a
“reasonable solution.”

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 Uncertainty
• Both human experts and expert systems must be
able to deal with uncertainty.
• It is easier to program expert systems with
shallow knowledge than with deep knowledge.
• Shallow knowledge – based on empirical and
heuristic knowledge.
• Deep knowledge – based on basic structure,
function, and behavior of objects.

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Limitations of Expert Systems
• Typical expert systems cannot generalize through
analogy to reason about new situations in the way
people can.

• A knowledge acquisition bottleneck results from

the time-consuming and labor intensive task of
building an expert system.

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 Early Expert Systems
• DENDRAL – used in chemical mass
spectroscopy to identify chemical constituents
• MYCIN – medical diagnosis of illness
• DIPMETER – geological data analysis for oil
• PROSPECTOR – geological data analysis for
minerals
• XCON/R1 – configuring computer systems

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 Considerations for Building
Expert Systems
• Can the problem be solved effectively by
conventional programming?
• Is there a need and a desire for an expert system?
• Is there at least one human expert who is willing
to cooperate?
• Can the expert explain the knowledge to the
knowledge engineer can understand it.
• Is the problem-solving knowledge mainly
heuristic and uncertain?
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Elements of an Expert System
• User interface – mechanism by which user and
system communicate.
• Exploration facility – explains reasoning of
expert system to user.
• Working memory – global database of facts used
by rules.
• Inference engine – makes inferences deciding
which rules are satisfied and prioritizing.

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 Elements Continued
• Agenda – a prioritized list of rules created by the
inference engine, whose patterns are satisfied by
facts or objects in working memory.
• Knowledge acquisition facility – automatic way
for the user to enter knowledge in the system
bypassing the explicit coding by knowledge
engineer.
• Knowledge Base – includes the rules of the
expert system

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 Production Rules
• Knowledge base is also called production
memory.

• Production rules can be expressed in IF-THEN

pseudocode format.

• In rule-based systems, the inference engine

determines which rule antecedents are satisfied
by the facts.
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 Figure 1.6 Structure of a
Rule-Based Expert System

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Rule-Based ES

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Example Rules

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Inference Engine Cycle

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 Production Systems
• Rule-based expert systems – most popular type
today.
• Knowledge is represented as multiple rules that
specify what should/not be concluded from
different situations.
• Forward chaining – start w/facts and use rules do
draw conclusions/take actions.
• Backward chaining – start w/hypothesis and look
for rules that allow hypothesis to be proven true.

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 What are Expert Systems?

Can be considered declarative languages:

• Programmer does not specify how to achieve a

goal at the algorithm level.

• Induction-based programming – the program

learns by generalizing from a sample.

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 Artificial Neural Systems

In the 1980s, a new development in programming

paradigms appeared called artificial neural
systems (ANS).
• Based on the way the brain processes
information.
• Models solutions by training simulated neurons
connected in a network.
• ANS are found in face recognition, medical
diagnosis, games, and speech recognition.

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 ANS Characteristics
• A complex pattern recognition problem –
computing the shortest route through a given list of
cities.
• ANS is similar to an analog computer using simple
processing elements connected in a highly parallel
manner.
• Processing elements perform Boolean / arithmetic
functions in the inputs
• Key feature is associating weights w/each element.

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Table 1.13 Traveling
Salesman Problem

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 Advantages of ANS
• Storage is fault tolerant
• Quality of stored image degrades gracefully in
proportion to the amount of net removed.
• Nets can extrapolate (extend) and interpolate
(insert/estimate) from their stored information.
• Nets have plasticity.
• Excellent when functionality is needed long-term
w/o repair in hostile environment – low
maintenance.
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 Disadvantage of ANS
• ANS are not well suited for number crunching or
problems requiring optimum solution.

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Figure 1.10 Neuron
Processing Element

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Sigmoid Function

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 Figure 1.11 A
Back-Propagation Net

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Figure 1.12 Hopfield
Artificial Neural Net

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 MACIE
• An inference engine called MACIE (Matrix
Controlled Inference Engine) uses ANS
knowledge base.
• Designed to classify disease from symptoms into
one of the known diseases the system has been
trained on.
• MACIE uses forward chaining to make
inferences and backward chaining to query user
for additional data to reach conclusions.

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 Summary
• During the 20th Century various definitions of AI
were proposed.
• In the 1960s, a special type of AI called expert
systems dealt with complex problems in a narrow
domain, e.g., medical disease diagnosis.
• Today, expert systems are used in a variety of
fields.
• Expert systems solve problems for which there
are no known algorithms.

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 Summary Continued
• Expert systems are knowledge-based – effective
for solving real-world problems.
• Expert systems are not suited for all applications.
• Future advances in expert systems will hinge on
the new quantum computers and those with
massive computational abilities in conjunction
with computers on the Internet.

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