The ALFALFA entomology pest identification system
The ALFALFA Entomology Pest Identification System

Rule groups with preconditions, postconditions, and termination conditions were added to the ADVISE Meta-Expert System. Multiple, varying goals are also an attribute of the new rule groups. By treating the data collection process as separating from the rule inference engine, techniques for enhanced data acquisition were developed using semantic networks to describe relations among variables and to restructure value sets for variables dynamically. Having thus extended the ADVISE tools, an automated key to alfalfa field pest identification was selected as a test application and found to be particularly well suited by the new features. A need for disjunctive (“OR”) constructs in the right hand side of rules is discussed, and directions for future applications are given. This research was supported in part by a grant from the Education Ministry of the People’s Republic of China and also partly by the USA under grants from the National, Science Foundation (DCR 84-06801), the Office of Naval Research (N00014-82-K-0186) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (N00014-K-85-0878).