Artificial Intelligence

Heuristic Knowledge Domain Knowledge

The sub-field of computer science concerned with understanding the concepts and methods of human reasoning, and the application of this understanding to the development of computer programs that exhibit intelligent behavior.

Judgmental knowledge underlying expertise often consisting of rules-of-thumb acquired through personal experience.

The term domain refers to the specific area of application, such as chemical analysis. Domain knowledge is that knowledge which is specific to the domain, rather than general knowledge, or common sense knowledge.

Knowledge Base

That part of the program in which the knowledge is stored, using some method of representation, such as rules.

Inference Mechanism

Also known as the Inference Engine, this controls the reasoning operations of the expert system. This is the part of the program that deals with making assertions, hypotheses, and conclusions. It is through the inference mechanism that the reasoning strategy (or method of solution) is controlled.

EXPERT SYSTEM
An expert system is a computer program that simulates the thought process of a human expert to solve complex decision problems in a specific domain

An expert system operates as an interactive system that responds to questions, asks for clarification, makes recommendations, and generally aids the decisionmaking process.
Expert systems provide expert advice and guidance in a wide variety of activities, from computer diagnosis to delicate medical surgery.

An expert system may be viewed as a computer simulation of a human expert

DOMAIN SPECIFICITY
Expert systems are typically very domain specific. For example, a diagnostic expert system for troubleshooting computers must actually perform all the necessary data manipulation as a human expert would. The developer of such a system must limit his or her scope of the system to just what is needed to solve the target problem. Special tools or programming languages are often needed to accomplish the specific objectives of the system.

SPECIAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

Expert systems are typically written in special programming languages. The use of languages like LISP and PROLOG in the development of an expert system simplifies the coding process. The major advantage of these languages, as compared to conventional programming languages, is the simplicity of the addition, elimination, or substitution of new rules and memory management capabilities.

GENERAL

STRUCTURE

OF EXPERT

SYSTEM

EXTERNAL DATA AQUISITION

KNOWLEDGE BASE

INFERENCE MECHANISM

EXTERNAL APPLICATION PROGRAM

USER INTERFACE

USER

The external data acquisition systems, which provide the input data for the specific application. These systems may be manual (that is, data must be collected and entered by hand) or automated (for example, remote sensing); 2. the knowledge base, which is a collection of domain specific knowledge usually represented as rules based on IF-THEN logic; 3. external application programs, with which the system exchanges information and data. For example,computer simulation models may provide quantitative estimates of air and water quality parameters or GIS may provide spatial data on the location and characteristics of key environmental components.Reports from expert systems may be exported to common wordprocessing or database software programs; 4. the user, who controls the system, inputs information, selects options, and generates reports; 5. the user interface, which is the means by which the user communicates with other components. Most user interfaces are menu driven and have a number of display and reporting features; and 6. the inference engine, which is the reasoning mechanism that manipulates the rules in the knowledge base to provide conclusions. These specific conclusions depend on the information supplied by the user, external data acquisition systems, and external programs.

 Knowledge bases in expert systems are based on collections of rules.These rules are often represented in the following form:
IF <a set of conditions is true>

THEN <certain conclusions can be drawn>

EXAMPLE
IF there is a discharge of a pollutant and the loading of the pollutant is a relatively large volume and the discharge is into a water body THEN the water bodys water quality will significantly decline and IF the water bodys ambient water quality is within environmental standards THEN ambient water quality will decline below environmental standards.

NEED FOR EXPERT SYSTEMS

1.Human expertise is very scarce.
2. Humans get tired from physical or mental workload. 3. Humans forget crucial details of a problem. 4. Humans are inconsistent in their day-to-day decisions. 5. Humans have limited working memory.

NEED FOR EXPERT SYSTEMS

6. Humans are subject to deliberate or inadvertent bias in their actions.

7. Humans can deliberately avoid decision responsibilities.

8. Humans lie, hide, and die.

BENEFITS OF EXPERT SYSTEMS

1. Increase the probability, frequency, and consistency of making good decisions. 2. Help distribute human expertise.

3. Facilitate real-time, low-cost expert-level decisions by the nonexpert.

4. Enhance the utilization of most of the available data. 5. Permit objectivity by weighing evidence without bias and without regard for the users personal and emotional reactions.

BENEFITS OF EXPERT SYSTEMS

6. Permit dynamism through modularity of structure. 7. Free up the mind and time of the human expert to enable him or her to concentrate on more creative activities. 8. Encourage investigations into the subtle areas of a problem.

HEURISTIC REASONING

It allows the expert to arrive at a good solution quickly and efficiently. Expert systems base their reasoning process on symbolic manipulation and heuristic inference procedures that closely match the human thinking process.

Search Control Methods

All expert systems are search intensive. Many techniques have been employed to make these intensive searches more efficient. Branch and bound, pruning, depth-first search, and breadth-first search are some of the search techniques that have been explored.

Forward Chaining
This method involves checking the condition part of a rule to determine whether it is true or false. If the condition is true, then the action part of the rule is also true. This procedure continues until a solution is found or a dead end is reached.

Backward Chaining
Backward chaining is the reverse of forward chaining. It is used to backtrack from a goal to the paths that lead to the goal.

USER INTERFACE

A consideration of the needs of the end user is very important in designing the contents and user interface of expert systems.

USER INTERFACE
NATURAL LANGUAGES The programming languages used for expert systems tend to operate in a manner similar to ordinary conversation. We usually state the premise of a problem in the form of a question, with actions being stated much as when we verbally answer the question, that is, in a natural language format. Explanations Facility in Expert Systems With this capability, an expert system can explain how it arrives at its conclusions. The user can ask questions dealing with the what, how, and why aspects of a problem. The expert system will then provide the user with a trace of the consultation process, pointing out the key reasoning paths followed during the consultation. Data Uncertainties Expert systems are capable of working with inexact data. An expert system allows the user to assign probabilities, certainty factors, or confidence levels to any or all input data

USER INTERFACE
APPLICATION ROADMAP
The symbolic processing capabilities of AI technology lead to many potential applications in engineering and manufacturing. With the increasing sophistication of AI techniques, analysts are now able to use innovative methods to provide viable solutions to complex problems in everyday applications.

SYMBOLIC PROCESSING
Expert systems can manipulate objects symbolically to arrive at reasonable conclusions to a problem scenario

Diagnosis and Troubleshooting of Devices and Systems of All Kinds This class comprises systems that deduce faults and suggest corrective actions for a malfunctioning device or process. There are probably more diagnostic applications of ES than any other type. Planning and Scheduling Systems that fall into this class analyze a set of one or more potentially complex and interacting goals in order to determine a set of actions to achieve those goals, and/or provide a detailed temporal ordering of those actions, taking into account personnel, materiel, and other constraints.
Configuration of Manufactured Objects from Subassemblies Configuration applications were pioneered by computer companies as a means of facilitating the manufacture of semi-custom minicomputers The technique has found its way into use in many different industries, for example, modular home building, manufacturing, and other problems involving complex engineering design and manufacturing.

Financial Decision Making

The financial services industry has been a vigorous user of expert system techniques. Advisory programs have been created to assist bankers in determining whether to make loans to businesses and individuals. Insurance companies have used expert systems to assess the risk presented by the customer and to determine a price for the insurance. A typical application in the financial markets is in foreign exchange trading.

Knowledge Publishing
The two most widely distributed expert systems in the world are in this category. The first is an advisor which counsels a user on appropriate grammatical usage in a text. The second is a tax advisor that accompanies a tax preparation program and advises the user on tax strategy, tactics, and individual tax policy.

Process Monitoring and Control

Systems falling in this class analyze real-time data from physical devices with the goal of noticing anomalies, predicting trends, and controlling for both optimality and failure correction. Examples of real-time systems that actively monitor processes can be found in the steel making and oil refining industries.

EXAMPLE
SCREENER is a computer assisted environmental expert system that screens projects for potential environmental impacts. The user selects from a menu of options both the proposed activity and the environmental features where the activity will take place. The program receives this information and refers to its knowledge and rule bases to assign a code that describes the potential impact of the activity in the environment designated by the user

SCREENER

5SIGNIFICANT IMPACT)

1 - NO IMPACT

4UNKNOWN IMPACTS

2INSIGNIFICANT IMPACTS

3 - MITIGABLE IMPACTS

CALYX

ESSA Software Ltd. (ESSA), through its Calyx group of products (Calyx), provides a suite of decision support software tools. The Calyx group of products are PC-based, with applications that allow decision makers (usually project managers) the ability to assess likely environmental and socio-economic impacts of their activities before they happen. With Calyx, users can devise several different scenarios for projects, compare their environmental impacts and recommended mitigations, and reach a conclusion about the most acceptable solution .From entering the characteristics of the project site and the project activities, to printing the final reports, Calyx takes users step-by-step through the process.

FINEVA

The complete methodology for knowledge acquisition and representation in the field of financial analysis is implemented in the system called FINEVA (FINancial EVAluation).The FINEVA system is a multicriteria knowledge-based decision support system for the assessment of corporate performance and viability. In the development of FINEVA, the knowledge from the international literature has been used and further knowledge acquisition has been conducted through a series of interviews with the financial experts from a bank in Greece. D

 The output that FINEVA produces is a specific ranking of the firms considered, according to a class of risk.

Corporate finance and viability

Evaluation of financial status Qualitative evaluation

ES FOR AGRICULTURE

Cuptex: An Expert System for Cucumber Crop Production Citex: An Expert System for Orange Production Neper Wheat: An Expert System for Irrigated Wheat Management Tomatex: An Expert System for Tomatoes Limex: A Multimedia Expert System for Lime Production

Expert systems in real estate practice

The preparation of real estate documentation such as leases, contracts and forms. Expert systems can help the user prepare better documents by guiding them through the process and brining attention to issues that might other wise have been missed, as well as improving phrasing and structure. The costing of buildings and development projects. This requires a combination of data mining and rule based methods (or case based reasoning) to bring together the expert knowledge of quantity surveying, engineering and construction with current cost estimates. Property and facilities management problems where the ES can be used by both clients and property Managers to streamline the solution to some problems

SeDeM

The SeDeM expert system is a methodology which is applied in preformulation and formulation studies of medicines specifically in solid dosage forms. This system informs on the physical profile of powdered substances (APIs and excipients) used to formulate drugs By determining whether powders (API or excipient) are suitable for direct compression, the SeDeM profile will inform about the advantages and gaps of those powdered substance to be used in direct compression, so the system informs on whether the direct compression method is appropriate