Artificial intelligence (AI) deals with efforts to make computers to think and do things
intelligently. According to Barr and Feigenbaum (1981), artificial intelligence is a part of
computer science that deals with designing intelligent computer systems, i.e., system that
exhibit the characteristics we associate with intelligence in human behaviour. Knowledge
based expert system is a branch of AI. According to Feigenbaum, expert system (ES) is an
intelligent computer program that uses knowledge and inference procedures to solve
problems that are difficult enough to require significant human expertise for their solution.
An expert system is a computer system that emulates the decision making of a human expert.
The expert knowledge is stored in the computer in an organized manner. This so called
knowledge base is used to provide advice. ES does the same reasoning process that a human
decision maker would go through to arrive at a decision.
