Term project by John C. Norton, Dec. 1994

Expert systems, a basic form of artificial intelligence, go beyond simple yes and no questions. An expert system makes decisions that are equivalent to those of an experienced human. An expert system can be developed by interviewing an experienced person and then creating rules that are based on the information obtained.

One of the most important parts of an expert system is the inference engine. The inference engine is responsible for resolving the many IF-THEN statements that are found in all expert systems. These IF-THEN statements, which are often rather complicated and interdependant, form the basis for the rules which an expert system follows. An expert system cannot function with out an inference engine.

Common Expert Systems

  • Expert System for Activated Sludge Process
  • Student Term Paper about Rules
  • Forward Chaining
  • Backward Chaining
  • Searching
  • Libraries

    Sample Program

    WHOPAYS.BAS a BASIC program of an expert system that decides who will pay for dinner has been replaced by a JavaScript version. It has slightly different rules from the old program that bases its outcome on three criteria:

    1) Whether or not it's the person's first time
    2) Who the person is that hasn't paid in the longest time.
    3) Who the person is that has the greatest outstanding balance

    WHOPAYS.BAS has been modified to provide output so that it is possible to see the results of a sample run of the program. The modified program is called WHOPAYS2.BAS.

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