A decision support system for wool classification

This paper presents the concepts and development of an intelligent system that integrates both a decision support system (DSS) and an expert system (ES) to provide guidance to the decision-maker during the wool grading and classification process. Although uniformity of wool grading can be achieved easily on the basis of quantifiable characteristics such as fibre diameter, staple length and strength, and vegetable matter and content by using an expert system, some other characteristics which are not quantifiable such as the type of vegetable matter, the weathering of the fibre, crimp definition, matting of the fibre and the appearance of the wool have to be judged through the eyes of the human expert. It is for this reason that the intelligent system incorporates the additional component of a decision support system to enable the human component to come into play.