Reasoning with imprecise knowledge to enhance intelligent decision support

Decisionmakers often have to deal with knowledge that is both unstructured and imprecise in nature. Lack of structure forces the use of heuristic programming and artificial intelligence methods in automated decision support systems for such problems. At the same time, the knowledge representation and manipulation methods used should be able to include imprecise knowledge, where imprecision may be caused by uncertainty and/or fuzziness. The authors use their previously developed methodology (see Decision Support Syst. vol.2, no.3, 1986 and vol.2, no.4, 1986) for using imprecise reasoning in decision support systems to describe a prototype system based on this methodology. The system´s behavior is examined using a set of sample problems. The knowledge representation mechanisms used are shown to have significant expressive power and facilitate the knowledge of engineering process through greater flexibility in the representation and use of imprecise knowledge. The system is able to provide additional information to the user that cannot readily be provided in systems limited to precise reasoning