Professional Documents
Culture Documents
7.1 Components of an
expert system
User interface
The user interface is the way that a user interacts with
the expert system. This could include using a keyboard
to enter criteria into text query boxes, or choosing
options by pressing offered choices on a touch screen.
Figure 7.1: Thinking about decisions. The user interface will guide the user about what data
they need to input into the expert system and will then
An expert system consists of several components. display any output from the expert system.
These components include: Without the presence of a user interface, a user would
• a user interface need to know how to program each of the interactions
they want to make with the expert system. The quality
• a knowledge base of the design of a user interface is very important.
• an inference engine
• a knowledge base editor
• an explanation system
• method of output, e.g. screen.
A simple example of a rule could be:
IF a > b AND a > c THEN highest = a
KEY WORDS
7.2 Are expert systems
backward chaining: breaking a goal down
into sub-goals that allow the system to work
backward from the goal
useful?
There are several advantages that can be gained from
forward chaining: a system that moves using an expert system.
forward from rule to rule until it reaches a
Expert systems:
possible outcome
• can provide answers to questions that are outside
goal driven: a system that is dependent on a the knowledge that you currently have
finding a desired goal • can aid professional people by prompting them and
data driven: a system dependent on the data guiding them to look at areas of knowledge they
that it is provided with may not have considered or remembered
• are consistent in the responses they produce as they
are arrived at in a logical way
A simple diagram that represents the process of forward • can be used at any time, so you do not need
chaining would be: to contact another person who may have the
knowledge at an unsuitable time
Data Rules Outcome
• can sometimes arrive at a solution to a problem
Figure 7.5: Forward chaining. quicker than a human would.
There are clear advantages to using an expert system,
however there are also disadvantages to using
them as well.
Expert systems: and then provides possible conditions that match the
• do not have the intuition that humans have. This symptoms. It lists the possible conditions in order,
means that their response can only be a logical one starting with the one it finds to be the closest match.
and may not be useful.
• are only as good as the rules and data they are
provided with. If there are errors in the data or
rules, then this will produce incorrect results.
• are expensive to create. Many experts need to be
consulted and a high level of skill is required to
build the component parts.
• cannot adapt a great deal to their environment and
may require the knowledge base to be edited in
order to do this.
Question
7.3 How are expert 5 What could be the benefits and the disadvantages
of people using online self-diagnosis systems?
systems used?
Expert systems are used by many individuals and Car engine fault diagnosis
organisations for a variety of different reasons. Most modern cars have an abundance of technology
These include: built into them. Car mechanics will often be very
• medical diagnosis knowledgeable about the mechanical parts of the car,
• car engine fault diagnosis but they may not have as much knowledge about the
modern technology.
• a digital opponent in games such as chess
• providing financial planning and investment advice The cars often have a system of symbols on their
dashboard that light up when an issue is detected in the
• providing insurance planning advice
car, such as a problem with the engine. The driver of the
• plant and animal identification car sees the engine symbol light up and this shows that
• planning and scheduling routes for delivery vehicles the car may need to be taken to a garage.
• mineral prospecting. When the driver takes the car to a garage, the mechanic
plugs the expert system into the car engine. The expert
system then interrogates the engine management system
Medical symptoms to discover all the information available about the fault,
The organisation WebMD have a website that offers a so that it can provide a diagnosis. The expert system
medical expert system called ‘symptom checker’. It asks provides a list of possible diagnoses to the mechanic,
the user a series of questions about the user’s symptoms who can then use their knowledge to fix the car.
PRACTICAL ACTIVITY 7.02
Insurance planning
Many insurance company websites use an online expert
system so that users can quickly see if the company has
a policy that would be suitable for them. The system
will ask a user for their circumstances and it will then
provide a result to say whether the insurance company
would be willing to give the user an insurance policy.
If the expert system is able to match their data to a