Feline : A Case Study in the Design and Implementation of a Co-operating Expert System

There has recently been considerable international interest in the possibility of building second
generation expert systems as groups of co-operating problem solvers. In this paper we relate our experiences
with such a system. FELINE is a co-operating expert system composed of five autonomous
intelligent agents. These agents co-operate through communication to identify the causes of
anaemia in cats. The paper addresses three key issues: development methodologies for building
co-operating expert systems, making expert systems co-operative, and inter-agent problem solving
techniques. We propose a tentative development methodology for co-operating expert systems and
describe how it was applied in FELINE. We also present a detailed, domain independent account
of the inter-agent problem solving paradigm devised for use in FELINE. We conclude with a brief
critical assessment of our work.