MYCIN, an early expert system, or artificial intelligence (AI) program, for treating blood

infections. In 1972 work began on MYCIN at Stanford University in California. MYCIN would
attempt to diagnose patients based on reported symptoms and medical test results. The program
could request further information concerning the patient, as well as suggest additional laboratory
tests, to arrive at a probable diagnosis, after which it would recommend a course of treatment. If
requested, MYCIN would explain the reasoning that led to its diagnosis and recommendation.
Using about 500 production rules, MYCIN operated at roughly the same level of competence as
human specialists in blood infections and rather better than general practitioners.

DART – An Expert System

Diagnostic Assistance Reference Tool

DART is a joint project of the Stanford University and IBM that explores the application of
artificial intelligence techniques to the diagnosis of computer faults. It assists a technician in
finding the faults in a computer system. (hardware and software)

DART uses a device-independent language for describing devices and device-independent

inference procedure for diagnosis.

The primary goal of the DART Project is to develop programs that capture the special design
knowledge and diagnostic abilities of these experts and to make them available to field
engineers. The practical goal is the construction of an automated diagnostician capable of
pinpointing the functional units responsible for observed malfunctions in arbitrary system
configurations.
What is XOON Expert System in artificial intelligence?

It is a Expert system that finds the hardware and software that are currently used in a particular
company. It contains all the list of software and hardware configurations to be used and
implemented accordingly. Its the first expert system in use.

Expert System Shell

In expert systems, expert system shells are the software containing an interface, an inference engine,
and the formatted skeleton of a knowledge base. In essence, an expert system shell is an empty bowl to
be filled with the expert knowledge elements that the inference engine may process for users. Expert
systems are computer applications that provide problem-solving help for specific problems that a user
might need to access to solve, for example, a utility software difficulty in operation. A knowledge
engineer would use this shell to develop the knowledge base and customize it to meet the needs of its
particular client base of users. It would be customized to take a user’s input and interpret that
information to the data repository and, by comparison, locate matching information that might help
guide the user to a solution.

Along with the control information that is deposited into a knowledge base, are rules and
attributes definitions that govern the release of information to users. The knowledge base is
constructed of statements of expertise that mimic the analysis process of a human expert in
pursuit of enough knowledge to achieve a solution. Expert system shells must provide
capabilities to bolster the knowledge engineer’s job in the development of a knowledge base that
may operate as a real time expert system. In such an expert system, the base may be in constant
data change by deletions or additions of data because industrial systems, networks, hardware,
and software systems change over time. This constant change of data input from other
management systems must not falter the base’s ability to reason at the same expert level,
regardless of changes.

Expert systems shells provide the bare bones for imitation of human expert reasoning in rule
methods known as forward chaining and backward chaining. Forward chaining in these shells
enables taking data from a user and using inference engine rules to locate more data relative to
that information until there is enough information to form a conclusion. Because the initial data
received is what drives the seeking, this method is called a data driven method. An application
that illustrates this forward-chaining method might explore the possibilities of arrangement of
components within a computer to arrive at the best placement of the components.

Backward chaining gathers data only as it needs it when a knowledge base is being queried on a
consultation. It has the goal of finding a value for C and reasons backward to discover the value
of A and B that conclude the goal value of C. This method of reasoning from present data to
prior data that was the underpinning of present data is called goal-driven method. An application
illustrating expert system shells rules of inference might include a medical doctor inputting a
current set of symptoms for background information on the same or similar symptoms in
background information from a particular medical diagnosis expert system.

Inferred knowledge is gained by examination of existing facts to arrive at likely new

information. This is the reasoning process that inhabits the inference engine in expert system
shells. This process is what initiates the forward or backward chaining in rule-based expert
systems. Inference rules that build the inference engines in expert system shells are made up of
conditional “if” clauses and “then” clauses in ruling statements that facilitate guidance of steps.
These steps might be in fields of financial services, human resources, and mortgage loan
handling, among others, to try to discover rules of thumb as probable recommendations when a
definitive answer is not possible.