Knowledge-Based Expert System

The Knowledge-Based Expert System (KBES) is the first realisation of research in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in the form of a software technology. This chapter presents the technology of KBES, its architecture, the description of its components, problem-solving methodologies with illustration and application development. KBESs are computer programs designed to act as an expert to solve a problem in particular domain. The program uses the knowledge of the domain coded in it and a specified control strategy to arrive at solutions. A knowledge base and an inference engine consisting of one or more inference mechanisms form the major components of an expert system. The knowledge base and the inference engine are the most important components in a KBES. The knowledge engineer should have a clear idea of different knowledge representation schemes and the suitability of each under different circumstances. The most common methods of knowledge representation are predicate logic, production rules, frames and semantic networks, and conventional programs.