VP-Expert

Last updated
VP-Expert
Developer(s) Paperback Software International
Initial release1987
Stable release
2.0 / 2002
Operating system MS-DOS
Type Expert System Development Tool
License Proprietary

VP-Expert is an artificial intelligence development tool that gained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Published by Paperback Software, VP-Expert was designed to facilitate the creation of rule-based expert systems, primarily for applications in business and industry. [1] [2] VP-Expert was created by Brian Sawyer. [3]

Contents

VP-Expert quickly gained market share in the expert system development tool sector, particularly in academic and small to medium-sized business environments. By 1990, it had become the best-selling expert system shell, with 120,000 copies sold worldwide [4] and site licenses at DuPont, Kodak, and the Wharton School of Business.

Background

VP-Expert emerged during a period of significant activity surrounding artificial intelligence, particularly expert systems. Expert systems aimed to capture and replicate human expertise in specific domains, enabling computers to solve problems, make decisions, and provide advice in a manner similar to human experts. This period saw the development of various expert system shells, software tools designed to facilitate the creation of expert systems without requiring extensive programming knowledge. [5]

The appeal of VP-Expert lay in its relative ease of use and affordability. It offered a user-friendly interface and a rule-based approach that was intuitive for many users, particularly those with a background in business or logic.

Features

VP-Expert incorporated several features that supported the development and deployment of expert systems: [6]

Applications

VP-Expert found applications across various domains, [7] [8] [9] including:

Engineering and Aviation:

Business and Finance: [13]

Healthcare:

Knowledge-Based Applications Developed with VP-Expert
ApplicationCreator / Published AtLink
Database Design AdvisorIEEE Database Design Aid
Voltage and VAr Control in Power TransmissionIEEE Voltage and VAr Control
DISPO Advisor for Psychiatric DispositionPubMed DISPO Advisor
Submarine Shipboard MaintenanceWikimedia Commons Shipboard Maintenance
Expert Systems and the ArtsIEEE Expert Systems and the Arts
Nursing Diagnosis Expert SystemE-HIR Nursing Diagnosis
Nephrolithiasis Medical Expert SystemSemantic Scholar Nephrolithiasis Diagnosis
Water Quality Expert SystemEPA Water Quality
Fishway Design Expert SystemSpringer Fishway Design
Soil Moisture Irrigation ControlAGRIS Soil Moisture Control
Airport Capacity Expert SystemTransportation Research Board Airport Capacity
Feng Shui Knowledge for DesignNewcastle University Feng Shui Design
Metal Powder SelectionResearchGate Metal Powder Selection
Asthma DiagnosisGitHub Asthma Diagnosis
Particulate Matter AnalysisResearchGate Particulate Matter Analysis
Diabetes in DogsGitHub Diabetes in Dogs
Water Quality ModelingScienceDirect Water Quality Modeling
PCB Plant DesignScienceDirect PCB Plant Design
Transfer Pricing Expert SystemScienceDirect Transfer Pricing
Energy Demand ForecastingScienceDirect Energy Forecasting
Industrial Roof Design OptimizationScienceDirect Roof Design Optimization
Flow Measurement Method SelectionScienceDirect Flow Measurement
Gravity Seawalls DesignScienceDirect Seawalls Design
Chromatographic Retention PredictionScienceDirect Chromatographic Retention
Emergency Alarm Analysis in Nuclear ReactorsScienceDirect Emergency Alarm Analysis
River Flow RoutingScienceDirect River Flow Routing
NASA Fault IsolationScienceDirect NASA Fault Isolation
Ball Bearing DesignScienceDirect Ball Bearing Design
Federal Sentencing AnalysisSanta Clara Law Federal Sentencing Analysis
Document Delivery Expert SystemTaylor & Francis Document Delivery
Aviation Squadron SchedulingCORE Squadron Scheduling
Injection Molding Expert SystemNJIT Injection Molding
Nuclear Safety Expert SystemIAEA Nuclear Safety
Microcytic Anemia DiagnosisPubMed Microcytic Anemia Diagnosis
Gastrointestinal Disease DiagnosisResearchGate GI Disease Diagnosis
Blood Cancer Treatment SuggestionIranian JHA Blood Cancer Treatment
Navy Stock Points ManagementNaval Postgraduate School Navy Stock Points Management
Neural network and genetic algorithm for the design optimization of industrial roofsScienceDirect Design of Industrial Roofs
Dessert Topping SelectionScienceDirect Dessert Topping Selection
Legal Decision MakingElsevier Legal Decision Making
Predicting the Performance of Concrete StructuresSpringer Evaluation Performance of Concrete Structures
Labor Progress EvaluationNJIT Labor Progress

Limitations

While VP-Expert offered certain advantages, it also had limitations:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expert system</span> Computer system emulating the decision-making ability of a human expert

In artificial intelligence (AI), an expert system is a computer system emulating the decision-making ability of a human expert. Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning through bodies of knowledge, represented mainly as if–then rules rather than through conventional procedural programming code. Expert systems were among the first truly successful forms of AI software. They were created in the 1970s and then proliferated in the 1980s, being then widely regarded as the future of AI — before the advent of successful artificial neural networks. An expert system is divided into two subsystems: 1) a knowledge base, which represents facts and rules; and 2) an inference engine, which applies the rules to the known facts to deduce new facts, and can include explaining and debugging abilities.

Knowledge representation and reasoning is a field of artificial intelligence (AI) dedicated to representing information about the world in a form that a computer system can use to solve complex tasks, such as diagnosing a medical condition or having a natural-language dialog. Knowledge representation incorporates findings from psychology about how humans solve problems and represent knowledge, in order to design formalisms that make complex systems easier to design and build. Knowledge representation and reasoning also incorporates findings from logic to automate various kinds of reasoning.

In computer science, a knowledge base (KB) is a set of sentences, each sentence given in a knowledge representation language, with interfaces to tell new sentences and to ask questions about what is known, where either of these interfaces might use inference. It is a technology used to store complex structured data used by a computer system. The initial use of the term was in connection with expert systems, which were the first knowledge-based systems.

Knowledge engineering (KE) refers to all aspects involved in knowledge-based systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decision support system</span> Information systems supporting business or organizational decision-making activities

A decision support system (DSS) is an information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations and planning levels of an organization and help people make decisions about problems that may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance—i.e., unstructured and semi-structured decision problems. Decision support systems can be either fully computerized or human-powered, or a combination of both.

Loom is a knowledge representation language developed by researchers in the artificial intelligence research group at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute. The leader of the Loom project and primary architect for Loom was Robert MacGregor. The research was primarily sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain of manufacturing design and production. The design process is inherently a knowledge-intensive activity, so a great deal of the emphasis for KBE is on the use of knowledge-based technology to support computer-aided design (CAD) however knowledge-based techniques can be applied to the entire product lifecycle.

Paperback Software International Ltd. was a software company founded in 1983 by Adam Osborne to manufacture discount software such as word processor Paperback Writer and related spell checker Paperback Speller, spreadsheet VP-Planner, database VP-Info, and the VP-Expert artificial intelligence software. VP-Expert was developed by Brian Sawyer The company was headquartered in Berkeley, California.

Configurators, also known as choice boards, design systems, toolkits, or co-design platforms, are responsible for guiding the user through the configuration process. Different variations are represented, visualized, assessed and priced which starts a learning-by-doing process for the user. While the term “configurator” or “configuration system” is quoted rather often in literature, it is used for the most part in a technical sense, addressing a software tool. The success of such an interaction system is, however, not only defined by its technological capabilities, but also by its integration in the whole sale environment, its ability to allow for learning by doing, to provide experience and process satisfaction, and its integration into the brand concept.

Frames are an artificial intelligence data structure used to divide knowledge into substructures by representing "stereotyped situations".

An expert system for mortgages is a computer program that contains the knowledge and analytical skills of human authorities, related to mortgage banking. Loan departments are interested in expert systems for mortgages because of the growing cost of labor which makes the handling and acceptance of relatively small loans less profitable. They also see in the application of expert systems a possibility for standardized, efficient handling of mortgage loans, and appreciate that for the acceptance of mortgages there are hard and fast rules which do not always exist with other types of loans.

Spacecraft Health Inference Engine (SHINE) is a software-development tool for knowledge-based systems, created by the Artificial intelligence Group, Information Systems Technology Section at NASA/JPL. The system is in use in basic and applied AI research at JPL. SHINE was designed to operate in a real-time environment. It is written in Common LISP, but able to be utilized by non-LISP applications written in conventional programming languages such as C and C++. These non-LISP applications can be running in a distributed computing environment on remote computers or on a computer that supports multiple programming languages. SHINE provides a variety of facilities for the development of software modules for the primary functions in knowledge-based reasoning engines. The system may be used to develop artificial intelligence applications as well as specialized tools for research efforts.

VP/MS is a family of software components developed by CSC that support product development and product lifecycle management. Insurance companies use VP/MS to manage the rules, clauses, formulas and calculations associated with savings and both life and non-life insurance products. With VP/MS all calculations and queries for purposes such as quotes and administration are supported by a central repository of product definitions.

Dr. Robert L. Simpson Jr. was a computer scientist whose primary research interest was applied artificial intelligence. He served as Chief Scientist at Applied Systems Intelligence, Inc. (ASI) working with Dr. Norman D. Geddes, CEO. Dr. Simpson was responsible for the creation of the ASI core technology PreAct. ASI has since changed its name to Veloxiti Inc.

Knowledge-based configuration, also referred to as product configuration or product customization, is an activity of customising a product to meet the needs of a particular customer. The product in question may consist of mechanical parts, services, and software. Knowledge-based configuration is a major application area for artificial intelligence (AI), and it is based on modelling of the configurations in a manner that allows the utilisation of AI techniques for searching for a valid configuration to meet the needs of a particular customer.

In information technology a reasoning system is a software system that generates conclusions from available knowledge using logical techniques such as deduction and induction. Reasoning systems play an important role in the implementation of artificial intelligence and knowledge-based systems.

The fields of marketing and artificial intelligence converge in systems which assist in areas such as market forecasting, and automation of processes and decision making, along with increased efficiency of tasks which would usually be performed by humans. The science behind these systems can be explained through neural networks and expert systems, computer programs that process input and provide valuable output for marketers.

A legal expert system is a domain-specific expert system that uses artificial intelligence to emulate the decision-making abilities of a human expert in the field of law. Legal expert systems employ a rule base or knowledge base and an inference engine to accumulate, reference and produce expert knowledge on specific subjects within the legal domain.

The Knowledge Based Software Assistant (KBSA) was a research program funded by the United States Air Force. The goal of the program was to apply concepts from artificial intelligence to the problem of designing and implementing computer software. Software would be described by models in very high level languages (essentially equivalent to first order logic) and then transformation rules would transform the specification into efficient code. The air force hoped to be able to generate the software to control weapons systems and other command and control systems using this method. As software was becoming ever more critical to USAF weapons systems it was realized that improving the quality and productivity of the software development process could have significant benefits for the military, as well as for information technology in other major US industries.

Artificial intelligence is used by many different businesses and organizations. It is widely used in the financial sector, especially by accounting firms, to help detect fraud.

References

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  2. "VP-Expert is Still One of the Best Shells". InfoWorld. 23 March 1992.
  3. Lytras, M. A.; Konstantinos, E. A.; Spanos, G. N. (2002). "A Knowledge Management Scenario to Support Knowledge Applications Development in Small and Medium Enterprises". Journal of Knowledge Management.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Durkin, John (1994). Expert Systems: Design and Development. Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 0-02-330510-0.
  5. Sawyer, Brian; Moose, Ann; Shafer, Dan (1987). VP-Expert: A Knowledge-Based System for Plant Troubleshooting. Paperback Software International. ISBN   978-0-87142-028-2.
  6. 1 2 3 Liebowitz, Jay (1990). Expert Systems: The User Interface. In Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Rocky Mountain Conference on Artificial Intelligence (RMCAI '90), pp. 161-169. Denver, CO.
  7. John B. O'Connor. "Expert systems in air traffic management". Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  8. Chu, Quentin (1991). "An expert system for aviation squadron flight scheduling" (PDF). CORE. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  9. Park, Sun (2013). "Developing an Ontology-Based Knowledge Management System to Support Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing". NOVA. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
  10. Oprea, Mihaela (2017). "Development of a knowledge based system for analyzing particulate matter air pollution effects on human health". Environmental Engineering and Management Journal. 16 (3): 669–676. doi:10.30638/eemj.2017.068.
  11. Bender, Michael J.; Katopodis, Chris; Simonovic, Slobodan P. (1992). "A prototype expert system for fishway design". Springer. 23 (1–3): 115–127. Bibcode:1992EMnAs..23..115B. doi:10.1007/BF00406956. PMID   24227094.
  12. "Use of a Knowledge-Based Expert System to Maximize Airport Capacity in Harmony with Noise-Mitigation Plans" (PDF). Transportation Research Record.
  13. Harmon, Paul; Sawyer, Brian (1990). Creating Expert Systems for Business and Industry. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   0471614963.
  14. Harmon, Paul; King, David (1985). "Expert Systems: Artificial Intelligence in Business". John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   0471815543.
  15. Hayes-Roth, Frederick; Waterman, Donald A.; Lenat, Douglas B. (1983). "Building Expert Systems". Addison-Wesley. ISBN   978-0201106862.
  16. Bigus, Joseph P. (1996). "Data Mining with Neural Networks: Solving Business Problems from Application Development to Decision Making". McGraw-Hill.
  17. Buchanan, Bruce G.; Shortliffe, Edward H. (1984). "Rule-Based Expert Systems: The MYCIN Experiments of the Stanford Heuristic Programming Project". Addison-Wesley. ISBN   978-0201101737.
  18. Graves, Judith R.; Corcoran, Sheila (1992). "The Study of Nursing Informatics". Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship. 24 (4): 227–233. doi:10.1111/j.1547-5069.1992.tb00689.x (inactive 15 December 2024).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of December 2024 (link)