Over the past several years there have been many
implementations of expert systems using various tools and various hardware
platforms, from powerful LISP machine workstations to smaller personal
computers.
The technology has left the confines of the academic world
and has spread through many commercial institutions. People wanting to explore
the technology and experiment with it have a bewildering selection of tools from
which to choose. There continues to be a debate as to whether or not it is best
to write expert systems using a high-level shell, an AI language such as LISP or
Prolog, or a conventional language such as C.
This course is designed to teach you how to build expert
systems from the inside out. It presents the various features used in expert
systems, shows how to implement them in Prolog, and how to use them to solve
problems. This course is written with the assumption that the reader understands
Prolog programming.
The code presented in this course is a foundation from which
many types of expert systems can be built. It can be modified and tuned for
particular applications. It can be used for rapid prototyping. It can be used as
an educational laboratory for experimenting with expert system concepts.
