Center for Commercial Development of Space:Real-Time Satellite Mapping. Remote Sensing-Based Agricultural Information Expert System.

摘要

The research project results in a powerful yet user friendly CROPCAST expert system for use by a client to determine the crop yield production of a certain crop field. The study is based on the facts that heuristic assessment and decision making in agriculture are significant and dominate much of agribusiness. Transfer of the expert knowledge concerning remote sensing based crop yield production into a specific expert system is the key program in this study. A knowledge base consisting of a root frame, CROP-YIELD-FORECAST, and four subframes, namely, SATELLITE, PLANT-PHYSIOLOGY, GROUND, and MODEL were developed to accomodate the production rules obtained from the domain expert. The expert system shell Personal Consultant Plus version 4.0. was used for this purpose. An external geographic program was integrated to the system. This project is the first part of a completely built expert system. The study reveals that much effort was given to the development of the rules. Such effort is inevitable if workable, efficient, and accurate rules are desired. Furthermore, abundant help statements and graphics were included. Internal and external display routines add to the visual capability of the system. The work results in a useful tool for the client for making decisions on crop yield production.