PROSPECTOR expert system

Rl accomplishes this task correctiy in a fraction of the time it would take for human technicians. The savings in this case are in terms of the number of orders processed, which ultimately translates to doUars. As a final example, consider Prospector, another classic expert system built in the 1970s (4). This computer program, designed to detect commercially viable ore deposits based on geological data, correctiy identified a molybdenum ore deposit worth about 100 million. 

It is widely accepted that probabilistic approach was first developed and applied in expert systems MYCIN and PROSPECTOR. In these expert systems the likelihood estimates are calculated for several competitive hypothesis H on the basis of available evidences E. In the expert system MYCIN each hypothesis was estimated by a confidence factor CF(H Ei,E2. . . ) as a difference of estimates for the measure of belief MB P[ Ei,E2,. .) and the measure of distrust MD P[ Ei,E2,...) ... 

PROSPECTOR is an expert system for exploration of ore deposits based on geological environment, strnctnral controls, and the types of minerals present or suspected. 

Fault trees work backwards from a single undesired event to its causes (Figure 7). Fault trees are commonly used in risk assessment to help infer the chance of an accident occurring (Hammer 1993 Gertman and Blackman 1994). Inference trees relate a set of hypotheses at the top level of the tree to evidence depicted at the lower levels. This latter approach has been used by expert systems, such as PROSPECTOR (Duda et al. 1979). PROSPECTOR applies a Bayesian approach to infer the presence of a mineral deposit from uncertain evidence. 

Practically, there are many expert systems, and the most well-known and often used are Dendral, Prospector, Mycin, XCON and many others (Shim, et al. 1999 Chromiec, Strzemieczna, 1994 Hayes-Roth et al. 1983), and the basic language used to record and perform logic operations is the one used in Prolog (Bubnicki, 1993 Bratko, 2001 Puppe, 1993). 

Duda, R., J.G. Gasching and P.E. Hart, "Model Design in the Prospector Consultant System for Mineral Exploration," in Expert Systems in the Microeiectronic Age, pp.153-167, Edinburgh University Press, 1980. 

---