Auxiliary Tools for Rule-Based Systems

Abstract

Many successful expert systems like MYCIN, R1 etc took considerable man-years for their development mainly because there was a paucity of tools to help the expert and the knowledge engineer. The only tools available then normally consisted of the knowledge-base editor and the inference engine. This paper describes a few more tools: a tool which allows one to browse through the knowledgement corresponding to a knowledge-base; a tool which extracts rules from natural language text; a tool to convert decision-tables into rules; a tool which checks for certain types of inconsistencies within a knowledge-base and finally a tool which tutors/trains novices by presenting the knowledge and setting up quizzes.

Indexing terms:

• Artificial intelligence
• Expert systems
• Knowledge-based systems
• Knowledge acquisition