Utilisation d'un système expert pour la détermination de quelques graminées au stade herbacé

Expert systems are specialized software that are supposed to be able to reproduce the reasonnings of an human expert. These new techniques can be bought to be utilized for an easier determination of plants, an operation often necessary in the course of grassland investigations. As a consequence, a programme was developped for the determination of a number of grasses in the vegetative stages, thanks to an expert system generated by a commercial programmer working on a micro-computer.
The heart of this software called SERGE is constituted by a basis of 76 rules determining 43 species. The programme asks the user on the plant’s descriptive features until a rule is found that applies, or until the whole basis is explored. Several rules may lead to the same species. Moreover, a conclusion may be arrived at even though a number of answers are missing.
The utilization of SERGE shows it to be efficient, rapid and easy to handle by non-specialists. The main limitations of the programme are linked to the use of the supporting software, found to be rather constraining as regards its conception as well as its utilization and maintenance.