A Prototype Expert System

During the past year, a prototype expert system for tactical data fusion has been under development This compute1 program combines various messages concerning electronic intelligence (ELINT) to aid in decision making concerning enemy actions and intentions The prototype system is written in Prolog, a language that has proved to be very powerful and easy to use for problem/rule development The resulting prototype system (called EXPRS - Expert PRolog System) uses English-like rule constructs of Prolog code This approach enables the system to generate answers automatically to "why" a rule fired, and "how" that rule fired In addition, a rule clause construct is provided which allows direct access to Prolog code routines This paper describes the structure of the rules used and provides typical useI interactions IN THE MODERN MILITARY ENVIRONMENT, Multiple sensor inputs need to be interpreted in a timely manner to assess developing battlefield conditions. The high volume of data from such sensor systems, as well as their high rate of data transfer, make this timely interpretation difficult and very demanding of human resources. THE AI MAGAZINE Summer 1984 37 is inherently probabilistic as well as time varying and nonmonotonic. The fusion process can also require numerical analysis to be done on the raw sensor data. This "number crunching" analysis is best done (and is currently being done) with languages such as This form of representation is very general, offering good future growth potential for the system.