ACCESS: A COMMUNICATING AND COOPERATING EXPERT SYSTEMS SYSTEM

THE INTENT OF THIS PROJECT IS TO PROVIDE A SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT WHICH WILL ALLOW IMMEDIATE IMPLEMENTATION OF A VARIETY OF COOPERATING EXPERT SYSTEM PARADIGMS. THE ENVIRONMENT, REFERRED TO AS ACCESS, WILL BE DESIGNED TO BE EXPERT SYSTEM REPRESENTATION INDEPENDENT, BE PORTABLE TO ANY HARDWARE WHICH SUPPORTS COMMON LISP, PROVIDE A FLEXIBLE MESSAGE PASSING PROTOCOL AND ALLOW THE USER TO ARRANGE EXPERT SYSTEMS IN ANY TOPOLOGY. ONE IMMEDIATE USE FOR THIS SYSTEM WOULD BE EXPERIMENTAL USING PREVIOUSLY DEVELOPED EXPERT SYSTEMS AS THE KNOWLEDGE SOURCES FOR COOPERATING AGENTS. ALTERNATIVELY, KNOWLEDGE SOURCES CAN BE DEVELOPED WITHIN THE ACCESS ARCHITECTURE WITH THE INTENTION OF CREATING AN ORGANIZATION OF COOPERATING EXPERTS. THE EXISTENCE OF A CONSISTENT, COMPREHENSIVE AND EFFICIENT ENVIRONMENT FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COOPERATING EXPERT SYSTEM PARADIGMS WOULD BE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE FIELD OF DISTRIBUTED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.