This thesis discusses aspects of design, implementation and theory of expert systems, which have been constructed in a novel way using techniques derived from several existing areas of Artificial Intelligence research. In particular, it examines the philosophical and technical aspects of combining techniques derived from the traditional rule-based methods for knowledge representation, with others taken from connectionist (more commonly described as Artificial Neural Network) approaches, into one homogenous architecture. Several issues of viability have been addressed, in particular why an increase in system complexity should be warranted. The kind of gain that can be achieved by such hybrid systems in terms of their applicability to general problem solving and ability to continue working in the presence of noise, are discussed. The first aim of this work has been to assess the potential benefits of building systems from modular components, each of which is constructed using different internal architectures. The objective has been to progress the state of knowledge of the operational capabilities of a specific system. A hybrid architecture containing multiple neural nets and a rule-based system has been designed, implemented and analysed. In the course of, and as an aid to the development of the system, an extensive simulation work-bench has been constructed. The overall system, despite its increased internal complexity provides many benefits including ease of construction and improved noise tolerance, combined with explanation facilities. In terms of undesirable features inherited from the parent techniques the losses are low. The project has proved successful in its stated aims and has succeeded in contributing a working hybrid system model and experimental results derived from the comparison of this new approach with the two, primary, existing techniques.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:296622 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Melvin, David G. |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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