A blackboard model of reasoning in product liability claims evaluation

The SKADE 2 is a blackboard system that evaluates product liability claims and makes settlement decisions. The system has three knowledge sources, namely, Legal, Insurance Adjuster, and Manager. The combined expertise from each of these is required to analyze a product liability claim. A control component coordinates the communication between the various knowledge sources on the blackboard. Based on the latest changes to the data or in the hypotheses, it selects and executes the next knowledge source. The model described here reproduces the domain's decision makers' reasoning processes.The results of validation and analysis of a hypothetical case through a series of experiments with the system confirm that the blackboard is an appropriate model for development of expert systems in the product liability domain. The initial success with the SKADE 2 system suggests that further work needs to be done to see whether more complex models can be built to incorporate a broader range of determinants of product liability claims evaluation.