Expert Systems

Expert systems are computer softwares that try to emulate human problem solving capabilities in various domains. The primary goal of expert system research has been to make expertise available to decision makers and technicians who need answers quickly and cannot find enough expertise around easily. Expert systems have been built, the world over, in a variety of domains from medical diagnosis to investment planning.
After a relatively dormant phase, it is now gaining impetus as automation in countries like India is moving to more advanced tasks in all the walks of life including health and finance. The source of power of an expert system is its knowledge base. An expert system shell provides a framework for building such a knowledge base effectively, without having to bother about the inference engine, explanation, user interface, and so on.

Expert systems research has been an area of focus in the KBCS division at C-DAC Mumbai for over 2 decades. Identifying the then need of expert systems and shells, C-DAC Mumbai took the initiative to come up with the first indigenous answer to this need with an expert system shell - Vidwan . Vidwan, from its inception, follows a very simple rule-based knowledge representation and a backward chaining inference mechanism. It is primarily meant to be a vehicle to study about expert systems. After the previous versions of Vidwan running on DOS and Unix platforms, we have now taken a step forward and made it available on the web. We are currently also working towards expanding its capabilities and in making it more rich.

'Rule based Expert Systems - A practical Introduction', a book by Narosa Publishers, India, includes some case studies of expert systems developed using Vidwan, and provides a good overview of the field of expert systems including guidelines on how to develop your own expert system. You will find it very useful in trying to learn and understand developing expert systems. You can access Vidwan here and start off the learning experience right away. The book is also available online at the same site (from 1st March 2009).

Staff members associated with project Vidwan: Dr. M. Sasikumar, Sarvesh Nikumbh, Ankit Dangi, Akanksha Joshi