Expert shell

At the start of the development, it had been intended use an expert system shell to implement this tool, however, after careful consideration, it was concluded that this was not the optimum strategy. An examination procedure can be considered as consisting of two parts fixed documentary information and variable parameters. For the fixed documentary information, a hypertext-like browser can be incorporated to provide point-and-click navigation through the standard. For the variable parameters, such as probe scanning paths, the decisions involved are too complex to be easily specified in a set of rules. Therefore a software module was developed to perfonn calculations on 3D geometric models, created fi om templates scaled by the user. 

Heat exchangers used in gas production facilities are shell-and-tube, double-pipe, plate-and-frame, bath-type, forced-air, or direct-fired. In this chapter we will discuss the basic concepts for sizing and selecting heat exchangers. This is just a brief overview of this complex subject and is meant to provide the reader with a basis upon which to discuss specific sizing and selection details with heat exchange experts in engineering companies and with vendors. 

Case-based reasoning is very much dependent on the structure and content of its cases and their representation because case retrieval involves identifying those features in the problem that best match those in the case base. The dynamic addition of new cases means that CBR is intrinsically a learning methodology such that the performance of an expert system based on this approach will improve with time [9]. Systems may be developed with conventional computer languages or shells [7]. 

Taken together, all of these points suggest that it might be possible to prepare a toolkit consisting of the essential components of an ES, apart from the knowledge base, and then fill it with application-specific data. This is such a useful way to work that in all expert systems there is a clean separation between the information that the ES manipulates and the tools that are required to perform that manipulation. This division between the part of an ES that changes between applications and that which is constant has led to the development of the expert system shell. 

Shells greatly simplify the programming of an ES, but they do not directly diminish the effort required in knowledge acquisition, which is the key task in its development. During the knowledge acquisition process, the relevant information is collated so that it can be inserted into the ES. This process obviously requires a human expert and, in addition, frequently needs the... 

The remaining chapters cover the published literature on the common heterocycles systematically according to ring size and the heteroatoms present. We are delighted to welcome several new contributors to this volume and we thank all the authors for their expert coverage. We are also grateful to Adrian Shell of Elsevier Science for supervising the publication of the volume, and especially for his efforts to reduce the production time. 

Once one has built or acquired an expert system shell, an expert system is usable and useful at an early stage of development. Subsequent development consists of increasing and refining the knowledge, expanding the functionality and improving the efficiency of the system. 

General. We have studied the characterization of multicomponent materials by combining modem analytical instrumentation with a commercially available AI expert system development tool. Information generated from selected analytical databases may be accessed using TIMM, ( The Intelligent Machine Model, ) available from General Research Corp., McLean, VA. This Fortran expert system shell has enabled development of EXMAT, a heuristically-1inked network of expert systems for materials analysis. 

Additionally, use of a commercial AI shell for expert system development has been demonstrated without the need to learn computer programming languages (C, Pascal, LISP or any of its variations), nor to have an intermediary knowledge engineer. Although this development effort of 4-5 man months was on a minicomputer, adaptation of EXMAT to the microcomputer version of TIMM is anticipated. The completed implementation of EXMAT will support the belief that AI combined with intelligent instrumentation can have a major impact on future analytical problem-solving. 

No wonder the average citizen does not fully understand chemical warfare, when even the best-informed experts do not provide us with straightforward explanations. But perhaps they should not be too harshly criticized. Descriptions of the mechanisms and sequence of nerve gas effects are complex. Efforts to provide the details may produce confusion rather than enlightenment. The deadliness of mortar shells and Kalashnikovs may be familiar, but the complex effects of chemical weapons are not. 

At present, most of Shell s robots are self-correcting in that they can be programmed to respond to particular kinds of error. Newer robots will be more involved in making on-line decisions, and could ultimately evolve into expert systems. 

The development of expert systems need not be costly. There are several expert system shells commercially available, and an expert in artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer needed to program them. Simple IF-THEN rules can easily be programmed in more commonly used languages like FORTRAN and BASIC. In fact, the McDonnell Aircraft expert system referred to earilier was programmed in FORTRAN. Cost depends on the number of rules and... 

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