A simple expert system for identifying plants in a local area

Abstract Over the last five years educationalists have recognized the potential of expert systems for instructing students. They can explain and tutor students, they can allow exploration of alterations and, to a lesser extent, they can offer a natural dialogue with the student. In this paper, we describe the adaption of a simple expert system to the task of identifying the eucalypt species present in a small Nature Reserve used by teachers for instructions. The knowledge base consists of nine hypotheses (species), 22 rules and 28 explanatory items (including drawings). The system operates on a cheap, handheld computer designed for fieldwork. Preliminary tests showed that, except for its slowness, it was suited for the task. The speed limitation is likely to be overcome with the next generation of handheld computers. This work has shown that is now becoming possible to use this technology for simple education purposes.