XSHELL - A TOOL FOR BUILDING KNOWLEDGE BASED EXPERT SYSTEMS

Abstract

This thesis work explores the aspects that arise in the development of a tool for KBESs and provides an environment that would serve as a starting point for building rule-based expert systems. XSHELL, the consequent system, provides a flexible, user-friendly, menu-driven integrated environment for building expert systems in a short period of time. XSHELL is written in TURBO PROLOG and runs on IBM PC XT/AT series in MS-DOS. XSHELL system acquires and stores the expertise as a chain of production rules in O-A-V triplets format. Knowledge bases can be loaded, consulted, and updated at run time. XSHELL employs forward and backward chaining control strategies in its inference engine. XSHELL is designed to handle diagnosis and/or prescription type of consultation paradigms. For evaluating the capabilities of the system, XSHELL has been used to develop an ES for Crack Analysis and Repair in Building, and the performance of the system was found to be quite satisfactory. XSHELL is a valuable vehicle for learning about the principles, methodical formalisms, and tools for studying the process of building an expert system.