Explanation facilities for novice users based on deep knowledge

The explanation facility in the traditional expert system is only to reproduce faithfully the behavior of the system. Although it is useful to system designers who have specialized knowledge, it is not satisfactory for novice users. From such a viewpoint, this paper discusses the explanation facility from the standpoint of deep knowledge, so that the system can cope with four query types of the general user, as was pointed out by W. R. Swartout. In the constructed deep systematic knowledge, the task domain is restricted in the trouble diagnosis of the machine, but is more useful than the traditional deep knowledge, since the construction is easy and the task domain is partly generalized. Query example is considered for each type, and the following functions are shown to be useful in handling those queries. The simulation assumes a certain trouble and simulates the behavior of the machine, indicates the frequency of the trouble, and locates the origin of the trouble.