Report Number: CS-TR-71-203
Institution: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science
Title: The Heuristic DENDRAL program for explaining empirical data
Author: Buchanan, Bruce G.
Author: Lederberg, Joshua
Date: February 1971
Abstract: The Heuristic DENDRAL program uses an information processing
model of scientific reasoning to explain experimental data in
organic chemistry. This report summarizes the organization
and results of the program for computer scientists. The
program is divided into three main parts: planning, structure
generation, and evaluation.
The planning phase infers constraints on the search space
from the empirical data input to the system. The structure
generation phase searches a tree whose termini are models of
chemical molecules using pruning heuristics of various kinds.
The evaluation phase tests the candidate structures against
the original data. Results of the program's analyses of some
test data are discussed.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/71/203/CS-TR-71-203.pdf