Expert systems & Number systems

Question 1

What is an expert system?

Answer 1

It mimics the expertise and knowledge of an expert in a particular field by drawing conclusions by reasoning logically from given information.

Question 2

Give examples of expert systems.

Answer 2

• prospecting for oil or minerals - diagnosing a person’s illness - diagnostics e.g. finding faults in a car engine, finding faults on a circuit board, etc.) - tax and financial calculations - complex “thinking” tasks such as chess - route scheduling for delivery vehicles - identification of plants, animals and chemical compounds

Question 3

How would you set up an expert system?

Answer 3

 information is gathered from experts in the field  the knowledge base is created  information gathered from experts is added to the knowledge base  the rule base is created  the inference engine is created  the user interface is designed

Question 4

The system, once set up, needs to be tested using ?

Answer 4

data with known outcomes to see if it functions correctly.

Question 5

The system uses a rule base and an inference engine together to simulate human reasoning when analysing a problem and arriving at a conclusion.

Answer 5

YES.

Question 6

What is needed to simulate human processes?

Answer 6

• a vast amount of information stored in the knowledge base - the reasoning set out as a set of rules in the rule base

Question 7

What do Inference Rules use?

Answer 7

Inference Rules use an if-statement and a then-statement

Question 8

Advantages?

Answer 8

• provides consistent answers - never “forgets” to ask a question in determining the logic - reduces the time taken to solve a problem - less skilled work force needed, therefore potentially can save money

Question 9

Disadvantages?

Answer 9

• lacks common sense in some of the decision making processes - errors in the knowledge base can lead to incorrect decisions being made - cannot adapt to changing environments unless the knowledge base is continually updated - expensive system to set up in the first place - needs considerable training to ensure system used correctly by operators

Question 10

What are ASCII tables?

Answer 10

Tables or lists that contain all the letters in the roman alphabet plus some additional characters

Question 11

What is Unicode?

Answer 11

Unicode provides a unique number for every character, no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the language.

Question 12

How does a basic expert system look. Hmm?

Answer 12