A multi-functional knowledge based system to learn, apply and consult procedures

摘要

One of the main challenges facing systems developers is to design systems with the flexibility and adaptability required to satisfy a professional user's needs. This paper presents a novel architecture and a knowledge representation scheme for a multi-functional adaptive system that support professional engineers that work with established procedures. The system achieves its multi-functionality by using a single knowledge representation scheme based on a set of modular networks. The developed representation is exploited by three operators that enable a user to learn, consult different procedures and solve problems. The representation also facilitates the automatic generation of problems and the identification of user errors. The integration of functionalities through a single representation produces a synergy that results in extra-functionality, flexibility and reduces the amount of development effort required. The system adapts to a user by using simple but efficient user modelling techniques that tailor the tutoring information. A rule-based mechanism is used to propose an agenda and a novel rule simplification algorithm is developed to help an expert to develop the rules for proposing the agenda. A prototype was developed and three civil engineering procedures were implemented to evaluate the architecture through scenarios and an empirical evaluation with real engineers.