Expert Systems: the User Interface

DARN is a plan-based knowledge system designed to aid an inexperienced technician in a diagnosis and repair task. Our approach to building this knowledge system is contrasted with theory-based systems such as Sophie, or a classification-based system such as MDX, using a characterization of the tasks, and the leverage for the different approaches. DARN provides a compact and convenient representation for capturing knowledge available in the community of experts for this task. Graphic interfaces are used to guide rookie technicians in the repair task. DARN also provides an “expert’s interface” that allows members of the community to extend and modify the knowledge base without intervention of “knowledge engineers.”