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Expert Systems (Chapter 6.8)

Expert systems are computer programs that replicate the expertise of human specialists to solve problems in various fields such as medical diagnosis and delivery route planning. They offer advantages like accuracy and speed but also have disadvantages including high costs and potential bias in responses. Key components of expert systems include a user interface, inference engine, knowledge base, rules base, and explanation system, which work together to provide solutions based on expert knowledge.

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4 views3 pages

Expert Systems (Chapter 6.8)

Expert systems are computer programs that replicate the expertise of human specialists to solve problems in various fields such as medical diagnosis and delivery route planning. They offer advantages like accuracy and speed but also have disadvantages including high costs and potential bias in responses. Key components of expert systems include a user interface, inference engine, knowledge base, rules base, and explanation system, which work together to provide solutions based on expert knowledge.

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Expert Systems (Chapter 6.

8)
Expert systems are computer programs that use knowledge from human specialists to solve problems like
a human expert. They “mimic the expertise and knowledge of an expert in a particular field” 1 .
Common examples include systems for medical diagnosis, oil exploration, fault finding in machines, playing
strategy games (like chess), tax planning, and planning delivery routes 2 3 .

Advantages and Disadvantages


• Advantages: Expert systems are very accurate and provide consistent answers. They can store vast
amounts of facts and details. They respond very quickly (much faster than a human) and give
unbiased results. They can handle multiple types of expertise and even tell the user how likely a
suggested solution is to be correct 4 .
• Disadvantages: They can be expensive to build and maintain, and users need training to use them
correctly. Their answers can seem “cold” or impersonal (which may be a problem in some areas like
healthcare). Also, they are only as good as the information in them – if the knowledge base has
errors or missing facts, the system’s answers will too. Finally, users sometimes wrongly assume the
system is infallible 5 .

How They Work (Components)


Expert systems have several key parts:

• User Interface: This is how the user interacts with the system. Typically the system asks a series of
questions (often yes/no or multiple choice), and the user answers. For example, a medical expert
system might ask about symptoms one by one 6 7 .
• Inference Engine: This is the "brain" of the system. It processes the user’s answers by searching
through the knowledge base using the rules base. It applies logical rules to infer conclusions. In
other words, it matches the answers against known facts and rules to find the solution 8 7 .
• Knowledge Base: This is a database of facts, figures and data about the problem domain. It contains
information gathered from human experts or books (for example, symptoms and diseases for a
medical system). It’s essentially a collection of objects and their attributes (like “dog” – mammal, fur,
four legs; “whale” – mammal, water, no legs, etc.) 9 .
• Rules Base: This holds the logic rules (usually “IF…THEN…” statements) the system uses to reason.
For example: “IF continent = South America AND language = Portuguese THEN country = Brazil.” These
inference rules let the engine draw conclusions in a human-like way 10 .
• Explanation System: This part explains the reasoning to the user. After giving an answer or
suggestion, the system can tell the user why it came to that conclusion (e.g. why it thinks a patient
has a certain disease) 11 7 .

1
Setting Up an Expert System
Building an expert system involves:
- Gathering information from human experts or reliable sources to learn the subject area.
- Populating the knowledge base with this information (creating the database of facts and objects).
- Creating the rules base of IF/THEN logic rules based on experts’ reasoning.
- Developing the inference engine so it can apply these rules to the knowledge base.
- Designing the user interface so users can answer questions and get results.
- Testing the system by running it on cases with known answers to make sure it works correctly 12 .

Examples of Use
• Medical diagnosis: The system asks about a patient’s symptoms, uses its knowledge base to find
matching conditions, and then suggests a likely illness and treatment. It can also give a probability
of being correct and explain its reasoning 7 .
• Oil prospecting: Geologists input data (like rock types and locations). The expert system uses its
geological knowledge and rules to predict the chance of finding oil and how deep it might be 13 .
• Delivery route planning: The system takes inputs (drop-off locations, distances, vehicle type, etc.)
and calculates the fastest and cheapest delivery routes. It can also recommend the number of
vehicles needed 3 .

These systems help organizations make better decisions quickly by using expert knowledge inside a
computer program.

Practice Questions
1. Multiple choice: Which of the following is an advantage of expert systems?
A. They provide emotional support.
B. They respond very quickly.
C. They never make errors.
D. They work without any data.

2. Multiple choice: Which part of an expert system stores the facts and information about a problem
area?
A. User interface
B. Knowledge base
C. Inference engine
D. Explanation system

3. Multiple choice: Which of these is a disadvantage of expert systems?


A. Low setup cost
B. They are biased in analysis
C. They may give impersonal answers
D. They cannot handle large amounts of data

4. Short answer: Give one example of a real-world use for an expert system (e.g. a field or task).

2
5. Short answer: Name one advantage and one disadvantage of expert systems.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Cambridge_IGCSE_information_and_communication_technology_2023.pdf
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