CASE-BASED REASONING SYSTEM

A case-based reasoning system which is smoothly integrated into a rule-based reasoning system, thus coordinating case-based reasoning techniques and rule-based reasoning techniques in a unified automated reasoning system, in which an automated processor may proceed by inferential reasoning on the facts of the problem and the cases by means of rule-based reasoning techniques or based on procedural directives supplied by a human programmer, and may select the case which is the best match for the problem, but may act differently from the precise action prescribed for that case. A technique for dynamically adapting the case base to the problems which the automated reasoning system encounters, in which the processor may create additional cases which may exemplify the problem or which may be useful for future problems, or may remove cases from the case base which it determines from experience are poor or obsolete. A technique in which the processor may be set to work with a limited case base, and may solicit human advice for treatment of new problems which are not already well-treated by the case base.