Expert System in Prolog

Lecture 3
 Expert Systems (ES)
● Expert systems are knowledge based programs which
provide expert quality solutions to the problems in
specific domain of applications.
● The core components of expert system are
− knowledge base and
− navigational capability (inference engine)
● Generally its knowledge is extracted from human
experts in the domain of application by knowledge
Engineer.
− Often based on useful thumb rules and experience rather
than absolute certainties.
● A process of gathering knowledge from domain expert
and codifying it according to the formalism is called
knowledge engineering.
 Expert System Architecture
Expert System
Inference Engine
Special Interfaces
Inference & Control

Human Case History

Expert Knowledge Acquisition
& Learning Module
Knowledge Base

Static database
User User Interface

Dynamic database
(working memory)

Explanation Module

Fig: Architecture of Expert System

 Knowledge Base (KB)
• KB consists of knowledge about problem domain in the
form of static and dynamic databases.
• Static knowledge consists of
− rules and facts which is complied as a part of the system and
does not change during execution of the system.
• Dynamic knowledge consists of facts related to a
particular consultation of the system.
− At the beginning of the consultation, the dynamic knowledge
base often called working memory is empty.
− As a consultation progresses, dynamic knowledge base grows
and is used along with static knowledge in decision making.
• Working memory is deleted at the end of consultation
of the system.
 Inference Engine
• It consists of inference mechanism and control strategy.
• Inference means search through knowledge base and
derive new knowledge.
• It involve formal reasoning involving matching and
unification similar to the one performed by human
expert to solve problems in a specific area of
knowledge.
• Inference operates by using modus ponen rule.
• Control strategy determines the order in which rules are
applied.
• There are mainly two types of control mechanism viz.,
forward chaining and backward chaining.
Knowledge Acquisition
● Knowledge acquisition module allows system to
acquire knowledge about the problem domain.
● Sources of Knowledge for ES
− text books, reports, case studies,
− empirical data and
− domain expert experience.
● Updation of Knowledge can be done using
knowledge acquisition module of the system.
− insertion,
− deletion and
− updation of existing knowledge
Case History
● Case History stores the file created by inference
engine using the dynamic database created at the
time of consultation.
● Useful for learning module to enrich its knowledge
base.
● Different cases with solutions are stored in Case
Base system.
● These cases are used for solving problem using
Case Base Reasoning (CBR).
Explanation module
● Most expert systems have explanation facilities that
allow the user to ask the system why it asked some
question, and how it reached to conclusion.
● It contains 'How' and 'Why' modules attached to it.
− The sub-module ‘How’ tells the user about the process
through which system has reached to a particular solution
− ‘Why' sub-module tells that why is that particular solution
offered.
● It explains user about the reasoning behind any
particular problem solution.
● Questions are answered by referring to the system
goals, the rules being used, and any existing problem
data.
Explanation Modules Responses
User Why module
System Do you have running nose?
User Yes.
System I am trying to prove that you have cold. Do you have headache?
User Yes
System Do you have sore throat?
User No
System Then you do not have cold. Do you have fever?
User Yes
System Now I am looking at the possibility of measles. Do you have cough?
User Yes
System I can infer measles using rule “If symptoms are fever, cough,
running_nose, then patient has measles” measles is concluded.
User How Module
System Since you have fever, running_nose and cough and there is a rule “If
symptoms are fever, cough, running_nose, then patient has measles”.
So measles is concluded for you.
 User Interfaces
● Allows user to communicate with system in interactive
mode and helps system to create working knowledge
for the problem to be solved.
Dialogue Module (User Interface)

System Do you have fever?

User Yes
System Do you have bad throat?
User No
System Do you have cough?
User Yes
System Are you suffering from running nose?
User Yes
System Are you suffering from headache?
User No
Special interfaces
● It may be used for specialized activities such as
handling uncertainty in knowledge.
● This is a major area of expert systems research that
involves methods for reasoning with uncertain data
and uncertain knowledge.
● Knowledge is generally incomplete and uncertain.
● To deal with uncertain knowledge, a rule may have
associated with it a confidence factor or a weight.
● The set of methods for using uncertain knowledge in
combination with uncertain data in the reasoning
process is called reasoning with uncertainty.
 Rule Based Expert Systems
● A rule based expert system is one in which knowledge
base is in the form of rules and facts.
− Knowledge in the form of rules and facts is most popular way in
designing expert systems.
● It is also called production system.
● Example: Suppose doctor gives a rule for measles as
follows:
"If symptoms are fever, cough, running_nose, rash and
conjunctivitis then patient probably has measles".
● Prolog is most suitable for implementing such systems.
hypothesis(measles) :- symptom(fever), symptom(cough),
symptom(running_nose), symptom(conjunctivitis),
symptom(rash).
 Simple Medical diagnostic system
with dynamic databases
● The system starts with consultation predicate, that
initiates dialog with user to get information about
various symptoms.
● Positive and negative symptoms are recorded in
dynamic database and 'hypothesis(Disease)' is
satisfied based on stored facts about symptoms.
● If the hypothesis goal is satisfied then the disease is
displayed otherwise display 'sorry not able to
diagnose'.
● Finally in both the situations, symptom database for a
particular user is cleared.
Query: ?-consultation.
 Medical Consultation System
consultation :- writeln(‘Welcome to MC System’),
writeln(‘Input your name),
readln(Name),
hypothesis(Dis), !,
writeln(Name, ‘probably has’, Dis),
clear_consult_facts.

consultation :- writeln(‘Sorry, not able to diagnose’),

clear_consult_facts.
Cont…
hypothesis(flu) :- symptom(fever),
symptom(headache),
symptom(body_ache),
symptom(sore_throat),
symptom(cough),
symptom(chills),
symptom(running_nose),
symptom(conjunctivitis).
hypothesis(cold) :- ----------.
hypothesis(measles):- ----------.
hypothesis(mumps):- ----------.
hypothesis(cough) :- ----------.
hypothesis(chicken_pox):- ----------.
Cont…
symptom(fever) :- positive_ symp(‘Do you have
fever(y/n) ?’, fever).
symptom(cough) :- positive_ symp(‘Do you have
cough (y/n) ?’, cough).
symptom(chills) :- positive_ symp(‘Do you have
chills (y/n) ?’, chills).
symptom(conjunctivitis):- -------.
symptom(headache):- -------.
symptom(sore_throat):- -------.

symptom(running_nose):- --------.
symptom(body_ache) :- --------.
 Cont…
positive_ symp(_, X) :- positive(X), !.
positive_ symp(Q, X) :- not(negative(X)),
query(Q, X, R), R = ‘y’.
query(Q, X, R) :- writeln(Q), readln(R),
store(X, R).
store(X, ‘y’) :- asserta(positive(X)).
store(X, ‘n’) :- asserta(negative(X)).
clear_consult_facts :- retractall(positive(_)).
clear_consult_facts :- retractall(negative(_)).
 Forward Chaining
● Prolog uses backward chaining as a control strategy,
but forward chaining can be implemented in Prolog.
● In forward chaining, the facts from static and dynamic
knowledge bases are taken and are used to test the
rules through the process of unification.
● The rule is said to be fired and the conclusion (head of
the rule) is added to the dynamic database when a
rule succeeds.
● Prolog rules are coded as facts with two arguments,
first argument be left side of rule and second is the list
of sub goals in the right side of the rule.
Cont…
● Represent prolog rule as a fact by rule_fact
predicate and simple facts by fact predicate.
● Consider the following Prolog rules and facts with
their corresponding new fact representations.
a :- b. ⇒ rule_fact(a, [b]).
c :- b, e, f. ⇒ rule_fact(c, [b, e, f]).
b. ⇒ fact(b).
e. ⇒ fact(e).
f. ⇒ fact(f).

− Here a, b, c, e, f are atoms (predicates with arguments, if

any).
− Newly generated facts are stored in database file ‘dfile’
which is consulted in the prolog program.
Prolog Program with Forward Chaining
consult (‘dfile’).
forward :- finished, !.
forward :- fact(F),doall(rule(F)),
assertz(used_facts(F)),
retract(fact(F)), forward.
rule(F) :- rule_fact(L, R), rule1(F, L, R).
rule1(F, L, R) :- member(F, R), delete(F, R, NR),
new_rule(L, NR).
new_rule(L, [ ]):- not(fact(L)), asserta(fact(L)).
new_rule(L, R):- not(R = []), asserta(rule_fact(L, R)).
finished :- not(fact(X)).
doall(P) :- not(alltried(P)).
alltried(P) :- call(P), fail.