P-Expert: A prototype expert advisory system in the management and control of parthenium weed in Central Queensland

This paper discusses the problem of Parthenium weed infestation in Queensland and describes P-Expert, and expert advisory system designed to provide expert knowledge in control and management strategies of Parthenium weed. P-Expert is fundamentally a hybrid fuzzy expert system incorporating technologies from fuzzy logic, relational database and multimedia systems. The primary topic of this paper will be a description of the framework of P-Expert, focussing on three main areas: (1) Layered component architecture - each component of the expert advisory system is designed as modules to facilitate maintenance, adaptability and flexibility, (2) Discourse semantics (explanatory capabilities) - provision for explanation and justifying outputs given by the expert advisory system, and (3) Meta-consequent - mapping final aggregated output from a fuzzy If-Then rule onto a finite database.