Expert Systems CSCI 222

Course Syllabus

The required book is An Introduction to Expert Systems, Third Edition, Peter Jackson, Addison-Wesley, 1999, ISBN: 0-201-87686-8

• You can get An Introduction to Expert Systems here.
• The books support webpage

Course notes for Anne Keuneke's CSCI 222 class : for word versions

   Center for Regional and Continuing Education,
   California State University, Chico
   Chico, California  95929-4020
   (530) 898-6105 
    or email:  Rena Marino 

Information

• Tape contents and dates of presentations
• the handout and
• what to discuss in a presentation
  A colleague of mine provides questions that constitute a profile of an Expert System. He writes, "A "profile" consists of a set of logically grouped questions that if asked of an expert system would reveal enough information about it to allow it to be compared with all other expert systems." You may find the page useful...especially since I might ask many of these questions during your presentation!

"Why the future doesn't need us." Wired article by Bill Joy

CLIPS stuff

Lab Deliverables: How to turn in your labs.

• Please submit finished labs through this page

• Local due date for lab 1 (rule-based architecture; open domain) is March 14 noon. For tape students this would be about half way through the course.

Generic Tasks Software

Lab 2 Deliverables

• Local due date lab 2 (task-specific architecture; open domain) is May 4.

Information about the SUN lab machine names

AAAI Expert System page

Of OPS5 origins:

• OPS5 in LISP
• CLIPS the C Language Integrated Production System: the OPS5 Expert System tool in C. Another source although some say this one is not as good.
  • CMU AI Repository with CLIPs example Expert Systems and bug fixes for CLIPs
  • Nice CLIPS tutorials for starting out and explaining some key things in CLIPS, such as facts, rules and getting user data. A link to CLIPS User's Guide and a very nice guide and tutorial in pdf

  • Useful chapters and pages from our text: Chapter 5, Appendix A
    page 87 and 265 have particular notes about conflict resolution and CLIPS and page 329 has some info about adding additional function possibilities.

• AND now featuring JESS: the Java version see how it works though
  A version exists (and is available) on the SUNs - e.g., on tiglon.ecst.csuchico.edu at /opt/jess. Here are the docs (/opt/jess/docs/index.html). This directory also has a jess.jar file that you can download. (If you download from a PC, use the .zip version for download)
  
  Older version: This had been downloaded and compiled on Expert (expert.ecst.csuchico.edu) in the directory /opt/java/jess. Its README page
  If you want to run it on your PC or Mac, you will need to download it (and Java) yourself.
  download Java JDK
  my java page

• AND Fuzzy clips!

Hopefully, by the time we get to the second lab we will have the Generic Tasks in Java finished.
Well, it didn't happen. I will demo the Structured Matcher tool, but that is all that is available right now...and you will need more that just a SM. SO,

VisualWorks and Smalltalk access We will use some packages that require this environment.

• Information on the Michigan's Generic Tasks implementation was here but they must have been removed.
• Using machines at Chico
• A tutorial that I made
  Given many links have disappeared from other sources, this page may be very useful!
  The download site on the page uses our ftp server ... doesn't seem to be working. Use this site for downloads
• examples from past labs

Some example classifiers and structured matchers (in LISP) at /usr/ai/hp/testcases/csrl and /usr/ai/hp/testcases/ra. One example there is an automech example. Another version is at this location

• Also, I sent an email about linking these agents with this tool

The LISP classification problem-solver: CSRL as shown in class

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Additional Sources

NeOpus a Smalltalk expert system shell (and publications)

Knowledge Pro from Knowledge Garden a demo tool with rule-based capabilities

PROLOG and LISP available compiler/interpreters for Macs and PCs

CMU Artificial Intelligence Repository FILLED with free software and materials of general interest to AIers

I also have a very old version of emycin for PCs available via ftp (ftp.ecst.csuchico.edu) in the directory in users/amk/csci222/Emycin. This zip file was created on UNIX using zip, so unzip the file. Call me or send me mail and I can fax you how to get the code started and provide a very small example. You might want to check Stanford for a copy of the Emycin Manual. I tried to get a copy on the net since the Report Number is STAN-CS-81-885, but the reports available skip from 883 to 887. Bummer

Available at CSUC

Hopefully, by the time we get to the second lab we will have the Generic Tasks in Java finished

VisualWorks and Smalltalk access You might use some packages that require this environment. Information on the Michigan's Generic Tasks implementation has disappeared... new page. Old stuff was here. Using machines at Chico

Some example classifiers and structured matchers (in LISP) at /usr/ai/hp/testcases/csrl and /usr/ai/hp/testcases/ra. One example there is an automech example. Another version is at this location

• Also, I sent an email about linking these agents with this tool

The LISP classification problem-solver: CSRL as shown in class

PAIL "Portable Artificial Intelligence Lab" access here at CSUC (I cannot find where the original site has moved...)

• some info

• a bit more on PAIL

• and a partial module overview (can't find this either...sigh)

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Examples of past work

Here at CSUC

LandRover AI CSCI 223 Project which used CLIPS

Expert Systems used in Mechanical Engineering: "An Expert System eases rotor design"

Automated reasoning expert system for diagnosis and prognosis of the 12-Foot Pressure Wind Tunnel (PWT) Make-Up Air (MUA) compressor system.

Some example Rule-based Systems for the first lab

• Restaurants

• Gardening

• Star Gazing

• Computer Purchase

Some example smalltalk labs (lab 2). I can only get these to run on my HP machine ( if I download them using ftp (ftp.ecst.csuchico.edu)) but they run fine on my PC

• images subdirectory

• Some of the above only work on Windows 95 VisualWorks...see the README. I believe the problem is
  (1) bad transfer via html
  The best path to past examples is to ftp from users/amk/smalltalk/GTimages using binary (and using anonymous ftp)
  (2) windows 98 or NT use a different addressing scheme than the one designed in the systems.
  some examples from most recent course which may have been built with 98 or NT seem to work *if* renamed as .txt OR downloaded as a zip file. The ones at demos.html denoted with ** I have been able to run this way

Some from students taking the course remotely

• John Monson

• John Kimpel

• Jonathan Fox project One and project Two

• Lab 1 and Lab 2 Andrew Tree (also his location)

• Joseph Tappero's Lab 1 using jess Wine Tasting, for Dinner, with Cheese, etc.
  Superb documentation!

Work from off the web

a link to AI agents and an Executing Expert System on WWW.

A Nuclear Reactor simulation using CLIPS and JAVA for the interface. The applet is driven by a CLIPS program that is a simulator server. The applet (user-interface) client calls this server to get the initial state of the plant and to get the subsequent states. This file contains the ontology (class hierarchy) of the plant components, the component objects including their initial values, rules for displaying changed values, rules for keeping the plant state consistent, and functions for computing the next step.

Here is a simple CLIPS example which diagnoses some simple problems with a car and a sample interaction with it.

The Haley Company which markets commercial software based on production systems and rule-based technology. Look at their note on Answers to Common Questions about AI for a useful overview biased, of course, toward their products.

One student's response to the "What I Learned" question