Bridging the generation gap: Expert systems as part of large scale computer systems

Abstract

Using expert system technology in industrial applications often involves the construction of programs of which the knowledge base is only a part and which have to be integrated into existing hardware and software environments. At Shell Research at Thornton it has been found that even within well explored areas such as fault diagnosis there is a need to incorporate non-expert tools within a knowledge system in order to perform tasks such as database management, screen handling and substantial numerical calculation. This is not always easy. A system to determine diesel engine condition from an analysis of the used oil has been developed using the SAGE package and subsequently redeveloped in Prolog to over-come such integration problems. An interesting side effect has been the discovery of the usefulness of Prolog in solving long standing problems concerning user access to complex relational databases.