Abstract: The presentation briefly introduces the basic principle of Expert System (ES) at first,then discusses the probability of it's application to the optimal design of survey control network. A survey Control Network Optimal Design Expert System (CONODES) is developed based on the General Adjustment Program (GAP) by using the expert system building tool-ART. The knowledge presentation and it's inference strategy are demonstrated in detail in this paper. At last,the comparison of it's advantage and disadvantage with the traditional approach for optimal design of survey control network is made.