Objective The ESCA project aimed to replicate a specific area of human expertise in chromatography and chemistry by artificial intelligence systems. There were two main areas of research: the formalisation of the knowledge base in this area, and the selection of the most suitable expert system shells and tools to represent this type of knowledge base. The first work-package was to select a suitable specific area of chromatography application to pharmaceutical analysis, where the knowledge is sufficiently established to provide a valid test of an artificial intelligence system. The second work-package was to formalise the knowledge of this specific area by a set of logical rules and facts suitable for expression as an expert system. It was planned to select about eight candidate shells and tool sets and to evaluate their suitability for representing this type of knowledge. The next step was make a selection of three of these candidates for the implementation task. The application of AI to chemometrics, ie the use of mathematical techniques for setting up experiments and for analysing the results, was to be examined. The final product was to be a comparison of the performance of these three expert systems (using different characteristics, but with identical knowledge) for real chemical analyses. The project aimed to replicate a specific area of human expertize in chromatography and chemistry by artificial intelligence systems. There were 2 main areas of research: the formalization of the knowledge base in this area, and the selection of the most suitable expert system shells and tools to represent this type of knowledge base. The first work package was to select a suitable specific area of chromatography application to pharmaceutical analysis, where the knowledge is sufficiently established to provide a valid test of an artificial intelligence system. The second work package was to formalize the knowledge of this specific area by a set of logical rules and facts suitable for expression as an expert system. The application of artificial intelligence (AI) to chemometrics, ie, the use of mathematical techniques for setting up experiments and for analysing the results, was examined. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was chosen as the area of application. Three expert system developement tools were selected from the 8 evaluated. The acquisition of knowledge from each of the application domains, which together cover the entire area of method development in HPLC, was completed. its representation in the form of several expert systems was carried out, and integration into one system (from the chemist's point of view) was achieved.High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was chosen as the area of application. Three expert system development tools were selected from the eight evaluated. The acquisition of knowledge from each of the application domains, which together cover the entire area of method development in HPLC, was completed. Its representation in the form of several expert systems was carried out, and integration into one system (from the chemist's point of view) was achieved. The presentation of the results at international symposia has increased awareness of the field and heightened debate about the issues involved. Exploitation Chromatography is a major analytical tool in pharmaceutical research. However, its use requires the selection of a suitable chromatographic method and the optimisation of parameters for each analysis. At present these actions are dependent on the skills of an expert chromatographer. The ESCA project aimed to alleviate this situation by developing the application of expert systems to a real-life analytical problem: method development for the analysis of novel compounds in the pharmaceutical industry. The experience and knowledge gained through the prototypes developed and the comparison studies carried out will accelerate the introduction of expert systems in real-life industrial applications related to chemical domains. Fields of science medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsnatural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligenceexpert systems Programme(s) FP1-ESPRIT 1 - European programme (EEC) for research and development in information technologies (ESPRIT), 1984-1988 Topic(s) Data not available Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme Data not available Coordinator PHILIPS SCIENTIFIC EU contribution No data Address YORK STREET CB1 2PX CAMBRIDGE United Kingdom See on map Total cost No data Participants (3) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT NIJMEGEN Netherlands EU contribution No data Address TOERNOOIVELD 1 6525 ED NIJMEGEN See on map Total cost No data ORGANON INTERNATIONAL BV Netherlands EU contribution No data Address Postbus 20 5340 BH OSS See on map Total cost No data VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL Belgium EU contribution No data Address LAARBEEKLAAN 1090 BRUSSELS See on map Total cost No data
