Developing Rule-Case-Based Shell Expert System

Abstract — this paper presents framework for developing shell expert system as new environment development for expert systems. The framework is based on the integration of two different knowledge representation formats. The integration consists of the Rule-base and the Case-based formats using the Blackboard. This scheme uses both procedural and declarative knowledge representation formalisms through the application of relational data base. So the rule base and case base formats have been converted into tables. In this paper all the algorithms, for creating, indexing, and checking the availability of a rule and a case, are present. The scheme facilitates combination of forward and backward chaining reasoning, using many problem solving methodologies, and different searching techniques. This view is based on the philosophy of human memory organization and utilization. Also individual uses the common sense, deduction and analogical reasoning activities in order to be more efficient for solving problems. Therefore, the proposed scheme facilitates the common sense, deduction and analogical reasoning activities in the inference engine, because rule base provides the deduction, case base provides the analogical reasoning, and the blackboard provides the common sense. The scheme makes the proposed Rule-Casebased shell expert system more flexible, efficient, and more powerful for the development of the expert systems in future.