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Introduction
During this past year, I was given the task of
putting together an introductory course in the application of
artificial intelligence/expert systems in petroleum engineering.
The course focused on computational tools, programming languages
and the construction of expert systems. Petroleum engineering
applications were a constant search process, and at the
completion of the course, we found no shortage of problems that
could be solved quite adequately with artificial intelligence
methodso
The syllabus for the course included the topics:
Computational Tools for Inference
Programming Languages
Building Expert Systems
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Petroleum Applications
In terms of prerequisites for this course, they are not quite the
expected. A strong background in procedural computer languages
such as Fortran, Basic, Pascal was of no help in
understanding the declarative languages of AI, and even served to
make the learning experience more difficult. The only
requirement that became clear to me was that the student must
have a good understanding of a broad range of topics in petroleum
engineering.
In terms of constructing an expert system, the students who had
worked in a specific area, such as log analysis or drilling,
found that putting together an expert system was not as difficult
as they thought. The students with work experience seemed to
benefit more from the class than the ones who had purely-an
academic background. In some cases, the students who had almost
no computer experience did better than the ones who were
proficient in Pascal or Fortrane The development of expert
systems requires a high level of engineering maturity and
creativity, making it a graduate level class.
A ROCK IS HARD
SAND IS NOT HARD
IS_HARD(ROCK) True
IS_HARD(SAND) False
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3
Posterior Probability
of a result, given the =
( sample outcome
J'ane is tall
.Jane is smart
The fuzzy set approach does ·not degrade the result. One can
easily see a problem in the classical logic as more variables are
introduced, and the final product 'is reduced. The fuzzy set
approach preserves the magnitude of the original statements
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better, and thus more accurately provides a truthful meaning of
the two statements.
Programming Languages
Turbo Prolog
XLISP
ESIE (An expert system shell)
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only requires an editor to prepare the rules. This particular
expert system shell can facilitate 400 rules:, 1 goal, and up to
50 variables for legal answers. Within only a few hours,
a student can learn how to use this system, test his set of
rules, and rapidly gain confidence in using an expert system
shell. The one severe limitation of this particular shell is its
inability to perform any computations or arithmetic. It is
solely a rule-based expert system.
1. Identify
Participants, problem characteristics, resources
and goals
2.· Conceptualization
What kinds of data are available, what variables
or parameters are known, which will be inferred,
what procedures and constraints are involved.
3. Formalization
Data quality and quantity, time dependency of the
problem, data consistency
4. Implementation
Begin programming, possibly introduce a new language
5. Testing
Run examples, determine weaknesses in the solution,
verify inference metbods
Steps 3-5 are iterative, so that as the example set gets larger
and more complex,-the program expands to facilitate problems once
handled only by the expert. Hayes-Roth et al provides pages of
rules for the knowledge engineer to use when dealing with the
expert, and almost provides a code of work ethics for an engineer
working with an expert. Some of these rules are:
1. Obtain a commitment from an articulate expert.
2. Insulate the expert, and the user from programming
technical problems.
3. Be careful about feeling "expert".
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and all one has to do.is to add the rules and run. The program
can be extended, and has a separation between the knowledge base
(input via a data file) and the inference rules of the Prolog
program. One student extended this simple program to provide a
well kick analyzer, employing the rules and computations of the
"Practical Pressure Control 11 manual by Swaco-Dresser.
Petroleum Applications
Lithology-Density
Natural Gamma Ray
NGS Computations playback log (Displaying
Thorium, Uranium and Potassium)
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7
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AI provides a computational tool to solve problems once thought
to be not well suited for classical programming. Log analysis,
well-kick advice, intelligent pre-processors for large programs,
plant diagnostics, and reservoir DBMS are just a few of the
many examples of AI possibilities in petroleum engineering. The
students who have taken the course benefit in that they are given
computational tools to solve problems in a way that is totally
different from conventional, procedural programming.
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References
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