Thinking, decision making and problem solving

The stat-of-the-art in the development of intelligent systems has come a long way over the 30 year history of artificial intelligence. Techniques have evolved from the development of more general purpose problem solvers to the recognition that human problem solving which is highly dependent on lots of specific knowledge. Thus, approximating human problem solving capabilities requires the acquisition and input of a large amount of knowledge specific to the particular problem solving task. To develop such systems requires techniques, either manual or automatic, to acquire, represent/store, and utilize the knowledge needed to perform a selected problem solving task in a computer software program. These challenges are being addressed in a variety of ways from both an applications and a research perspective. Several example approaches developed and/or utilized at Southwest Research Institute have beers summarized.<<ETX>>