The design of the Dipmeter Advisor system

The Dipmeter Advisor system [11] attempts to emulate human expert performance in an important and specialized oil well-log interpretation task. The system is currently being used in a small number of Schlumberger Field Log Interpretation Centers as an aid to human dipmeter interpreters. In this paper, we describe the problem just enough to establish the vocabulary for discussing the program and the characteristics of the domain. We then present the internal structure of the program and attempt to put it in perspective with respect to first-generation expert systems. We discuss ways in which characteristics of the task domain impose constraints on the design or" signal interpretation programs, and attempt to extract knowledge useful to future expert system developers.