Expert Systems: Basic Concepts and Structure

Question 1

What sort of knowledge can be categorised as a sequence of instructions or commands?

Answer 1

Procedural knowledge

Question 2

What sort of knowledge can be categorised as a set of conditions or rules?

Answer 2

Declarative knowledge

Question 3

What is the name of the process of extracting the knowledge from experts to build an expert system?

Answer 3

Knowledge elicitation

Question 4

Which part of an expert system applies the facts of a particular case to the domain specific knowledge-base?

Answer 4

Inference engine

Question 5

What is a consequent?

Answer 5

A consequent is the second half of a hypothetical proposition (THEN). It can have multiple clauses

Question 6

What is a rule?

Answer 6

A rule can have multiple antecedents either a conjunction and/or a disjunction

Question 7

What is an antecedent?

Answer 7

The statement contained in the if statement of a conditional proposition

Question 8

What is a conjunction?

Answer 8

A conjunction implies that both statements are true (AND)

Question 9

What is a disjunction?

Answer 9

A disjunction implies that at least one statement is true (OR)

Question 10

Knowledge is a _________ or________ understanding of a subject or a domain

Answer 10

theoretical, practical

Question 11

Knowledge is the ______ of what is currently known

Answer 11

sum

Question 12

A rule ______ when its condition part is ______ and its action part is _______

Answer 12

fires, satisfied, executed

Question 13

What do rules represent?

Answer 13

Relations, recommendations, directive, strategies, heuristics

Question 14

What are the 3 main tasks of designing an expert system?

Answer 14

Obtain the required knowledge from an expert. Express knowledge as a collection of rules in the form of logical implications. Extract conclusions.

Question 15

Comparison between humans and computers

Answer 15

Humans have recognition and reasoning. Computers have computation.

Question 16

Who can be called an expert?

Answer 16

Those who possess deep knowledge and have strong practical experience

Question 17

Difference between procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge

Answer 17

Procedural knowledge is about how to. Declarative knowledge is about what is. They are difficult to use for reasoning.

Question 18

What are expert systems?

Answer 18

Software packages designed to assist humans in situations in which an expert in a specific area is required

Question 19

3 stages of expert systems

Answer 19

Knowledge base, inference engine, user interface

Question 20

What’s the concept of the knowledge base system?

Answer 20

Aims to capture human expert knowledge to support decision-making and problem-solving

Question 21

Concept of inference engine

Answer 21

Carries out the reasoning from the knowledge base to reach a solution. It links the rules given in the knowledge base with the facts provided in the database

Question 22

Concept of reasoning

Answer 22

A mechanism for selecting relevant facts and extracting conclusions in a logical and rational way

Question 23

Main players of expert systems

Answer 23

Knowledge Engineer, End-user, Project Manager, Programmer, Domain expert

Question 24

Advantages of expert systems

Answer 24

reduce the no. of errors, combine various human expert intelligence, more efficient by reducing time needed to solve, can hold huge amounts of data

Question 25

Disadvantages of expert systems

Answer 25

not error free, no adaptability, not capable of explaining the logic behind a decision, lacks common sense, high maintainability cost