Interpretation and Rule Packet in Expert Systems. Application to the SEPT Expert System

We have developed an expert system called SEPT which provides an assistance to the operator in his diagnosis of the equipment in French EHV (Extra High Voltage) substation. After a synthetic presentation of the final result, SEPT proposes various presentations of the diagnosis steps. To include an explicative dimension in SEPT, we have had to enrich the representational language which has been used, with the notion of interpretation. This notion permits the concept and the deep knowledge on which the concept is based to meet in a rule. This facilitates an explanation with various levels of details. In the new version of SEPT, it is possible to propose different possibilities on the representation of the reasoning: a synthetic result, a trace, details at a chosen step, different levels of details of explanations.