Expert system apparatus and methods
First Claim
1. A digital computer system operable as an expert system, said computer system comprising:
- storage means to store a knowledge base including hierarchically-defined terms and their definitions, the corresponding definition of each term defining its respective term using the value of one or more terms, each of whose definitions is at a lower level of the hierarchy, and/or using one or more external values external to the knowledge base; and
processing means for receiving commands from a user of the system, for producing inference commands in response to said user commands, for interrogating said storage means in response to said commands to obtain the definition of a given term, and for computing the value of said given term from its corresponding definition by obtaining the value of any term and any external value in the corresponding definition,said system employing said computed value to produce an expert response to said user.
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Abstract
An expert system shell and expert systems created thereby. The expert system shell creates a knowledge base consisting of terms and their definitions, the definitions making up a hierarchy of definitions in which each definition depends only on definitions at lower levels in the hierarchy or on values obtained from sources external to the knowledge base. The expert system shell creates the knowledge base by asking the expert to define a given term and then asking him to define all undefined terms which appear in the definition of the given term. Because the hierarchy is created in this fashion, the definitions are guaranteed to be complete and non-contradictory. Expert systems created using the expert system shell employ an inferencing engine which determines the value of a given term by evaluating its definition. In the course of the evaluation, the definitions of terms required to define the given term are evaluated and external values required for the evaluation of the definitions are obtained. Users of the expert system may inquire of the system why it is seeking a given external value and how it obtained the results it did.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A digital computer system operable as an expert system, said computer system comprising:
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storage means to store a knowledge base including hierarchically-defined terms and their definitions, the corresponding definition of each term defining its respective term using the value of one or more terms, each of whose definitions is at a lower level of the hierarchy, and/or using one or more external values external to the knowledge base; and processing means for receiving commands from a user of the system, for producing inference commands in response to said user commands, for interrogating said storage means in response to said commands to obtain the definition of a given term, and for computing the value of said given term from its corresponding definition by obtaining the value of any term and any external value in the corresponding definition, said system employing said computed value to produce an expert response to said user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A digital computer system operable to define a given term for an expert system by creating a hierarchical definition of the given term for storage with the term in a knowledge base employed in the expert system comprising:
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storage means for storing the knowledge base; interactive input/output means for providing output information to and receiving input information from a user of the digital computer system who is the source of the definition; and processing means coupled to the storage means and to the interactive input/output means for receiving the input information and providing the output information and receiving previously-defined terms and definitions and providing the given term and the definition created therefor and for responding to the given term received in the input information by providing output information requesting a description of the given term from the user, receiving input information containing the description from the user, analyzing the description to determine whether there is any term therein which does not have a definition in the knowledge base, and if there is not, ending the analysis, forming the definition for the given term from the description and the definitions of the previously-defined terms used therein, and storing the given term and the definition in the knowledge base, and if there is, providing output information requesting a description of the undefined term from the user and proceeding as for the given term, and continuing thus until no undefined term remains in the description of the given term or in any descriptions requested in the course of defining the given term. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification