SEARCH TIME REDUCTION IN EXPERT SYSTEMS

A method is described for accelerating the operation of expert systems with large knowledge bases by preliminary planning of the entire search process. Planning time reduction is achieved by a structural analysis of the knowledge base and identification of special structures called states. The results of this structural analysis may be applied to separate a part of the knowledge base rules which may be potentially useful in the derivation process from other rules which are a priori known to be usefuless for derivation. This technique may prove helpful when the knowledge base volume exceeds the available computer memory.