Components of an Expert System (1)

Knowledge base

Stores all relevant information, data, rules, cases, and relationships used by the expert system Rule

A conditional statement that links given conditions to actions or outcomes. (IF-THEN) Example

Assembling Human Expert

Assembling

the knowledge of multiple human experts.

Case

For developing a solution to a current problem or situation

Finding cases store in the knowledge base that ate similar to 4/21/12 the problem or situation at hand.

Components of an Expert System (2)

Working storage/memory

contains the problem facts that are discovered during session

Inference engine

Seeks information and relationships from the knowledge base and provides answers, predictions, and suggestions in the way a human expert would. (simple rule-based systems) Forward4/21/12 chaining

Explanati on facility

Inference engine

Knowledge base

Knowledg e base acquisitio n facility Experts

User interface

User

Other Diagram
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User Interface

The code that controls the dialog between the user and the system

Explanation

facility

A part of the expert system that allows a user or decision maker to understand how the expert system arrived at certain conclusions or results
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Knowledge Acquisition Facility

Knowledge acquisition facility

Provides

a convenient and efficient means of capturing and storing all components of the knowledge base Knowledge acquisition facility Joe Expert
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Knowledge base

Major Roles of Individuals

Domain expert currently experts solving the problems the system is intended to solve Knowledge engineer - encodes the expert's knowledge in a declarative form that can be used by the expert system User - will be consulting with the system to get advice which would have been provided by the expert Systems built with custom developed shells for particular applications:
System engineer - the individual who builds the user interface, designs the declarative format of the 4/21/12 knowledge base, and implements the

Notes on Components

Shell - a piece of software which contains:

The user interface A format for declarative knowledge in the knowledge base An inference engine

Major advantage of a customized shell: the format of the knowledge base can be designed to facilitate the knowledge engineering process engineer and the system engineer might be the same person

Knowledge

Depending on the size of the project

One

of the major bottlenecks - knowledge engineering process: The coding of the expertise into the declarative rule format 4/21/12 a difficult and tedious task can be

END..

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Backward chaining
This is a lazy kind of inference. It does no work until absolutely necessary, in distinction to forward chaining, where the system eagerly awaits new facts and tries applying conditions as soon as they arrive. So, if we had this knowledge base again

1 If someone is a third year, then they need a job. 2 If someone is a third year, then they live in. 3 If someone needs a job, they will apply to be an accountant.

and we were to add

John is a third year

the system would do nothing at all.

4/21/12 But if we were then to ask the question

Forward Chaining
To see how forward chaining works, consider a system with three rules:

1 If someone is a third year, then they need a job. If someone is a third year, then they live in. If someone needs a job, they will become an accountant.
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2 3

Suppose we put the following fact:

Rules for a Credit Applicatio

Mortgage application for a loan for $100,000 to $200,000 If there are no previous credits problems, and If month net income is greater than 4x monthly loan payment, and If down payment is 15% of total value of property, and If net income of borrower is > $25,000, and If employment is > 3 years at same company Then accept the applications Else check other credit rules

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Knowledge base contains the

domain knowledge: knowledge pertains to specific problem. Back

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Components and Human Interfaces

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 Inference

engine - the code at the core of the system

Derives recommendations from the knowledge base and problem-specific data in working storage: Reasoning Processor in an expert system that matches the facts contained in the working memory with the domain knowledge contained in knowledge base, to draw conclusions about the problem
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