Expert systems designed for maintenance

摘要

Constraints for knowledge are proposed as a tool for constructing maintainable expert systems. A simple taxonomy of knowledge constraints is given. It is shown that a special class of knowledge constraints, coupled with the referential integrity constraint, together provide the necessary foundation for a mechanism to substantially automate the expert systems maintenance process provided that the knowledge has been normalised. The normalisation of knowledge is described and its inherent value to the maintenance process is illustrated. An experimental expert systems design and maintenance tool based on this approach has been built.