KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION AND REASONING

Harold R. Lucero, MIT

July 15, 2018
 What is knowledge?

“The fact or condition of knowing

something with familiarity gained
through experience or
association.”

(Webster’s Dictionary, 1988)

(Knowing something via seeing,
hearing, touching, feeling, and
tasting.)

KNOWLEDGE AND ITS MEANING

 What is knowledge?

• Knowledge is an useful term to

judge the understanding of an
individual on a given subject.

• In intelligent systems, domain is

the main focused subject area.
So, the system specifically
focuses on acquiring the domain
knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE AND ITS MEANING

 Types of Knowledge

• Declarative

 The knowledge which is based on concepts, facts

and objects, is termed as 'Declarative Knowledge'.

 It provides all the necessary information about the

problem in terms of simple statements, either true or
false.

KNOWLEDGE AND ITS MEANING

 Types of Knowledge

• Procedural Knowledge

 Procedural knowledge derives the information on

the basis of rules, strategies, agendas and procedure.

 It describes how a problem can be solved.

 Procedural knowledge directs the steps on how to

perform something.

KNOWLEDGE AND ITS MEANING

 Types of Knowledge

• Heuristic knowledge

 Heuristic knowledge is based on thumb rule.

 It provides the information based on a thumb rule,

which is useful in guiding the reasoning process.

 In this type, the knowledge representation is based

on the strategies to solve the problems through the
experience of past problems, compiled by an expert.
Hence, it is also known as Shallow knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE AND ITS MEANING

 Types of Knowledge

• Meta-knowledge

 This type gives an idea about the other types of

knowledge that are suitable for solving problem.

 Meta-knowledge is helpful in enhancing the

efficiency of problem solving through proper
reasoning process.

KNOWLEDGE AND ITS MEANING

 Types of Knowledge

• Structural knowledge

 Structural knowledge is associated with the

information based on rules, sets, concepts and
relationships.

 It provides the information necessary for

developing the knowledge structures and overall
mental model of the problem.

KNOWLEDGE AND ITS MEANING

 Fundamentals of Knowledge

KNOWLEDGE AND ITS MEANING

 What is KR?

Representations of knowledge
and how it can be use in making
intelligent artifacts

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 What is KR?

• Artificial intelligence is a system that is concerned with

the study of understanding, designing and
implementing the ways, associated with knowledge
representation to computers.
• In any intelligent system, representing the knowledge is
supposed to be an important technique to encode the
knowledge.
• The main objective of AI system is to design the
programs that provide information to the computer,
which can be helpful to interact with humans and solve
problems in various fields which require human
intelligence.
KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING
 Issues in KR?

The main objective of KR is to draw the conclusions from

the knowledge, but there are many issues associated
with the use of knowledge representation techniques.

1. Important attributes
2. Relationship among attributes
3. Choosing the granularity of representation
4. Representing sets of objects.
5. Finding the right structure as needed

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 KR Methods

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

Facts are the general statements

that may be either True or False.
Thus, logic can be used to
represent such simple facts.

• Propositional Logic
• First Oder Logic

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

Propositional Logic

• Propositional logic is a study of propositions.

• Each proposition has either a true or a false value but

not both at a time.

• Propositions is represented by variables.

For example: Symbols 'p' and 'q' can be used to
represent propositions.

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

Propositional Logic Operators

Operator Symbol Meaning

Negation ˜ NOT
Conjunction ^ AND
Disjunction V OR
Conditional → IF..THEN
Biconditional ↔ IF and Only IF

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

Propositional Logic Operators

Example:

P= I Cheat R=I write an exam

Q= I will get caught S= I will fail

(R^P) → (Q^S)

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

Propositional Logic Operators

Example:

P= I Cheat R=I write an exam

Q= I will get caught S= I will fail

(R^P) → (Q^S)

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

Translate into Propositional Logic

If James does not die then Mary will not get any money
and Jame’s Family will be happy

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

Translate into Propositional Logic

If James does not die then Mary will not get any money
and Jame’s Family will be happy

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

First Order Logic (FOL)

• The prepositional logic only deals with the facts, that

may be true or false.

• The first order logic assumes that the world contains

objects, relations and functions.

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

Syntax for First Order Logic (FOL)

• In prepositional logic, every expression is a sentence

that represents a fact.

• First order logic includes the sentences along with terms

which can represent the objects.

• Constant symbols, variables and function symbols are

used to build terms, while quantifiers and predicate
symbols are used to build the sentences.

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

Syntax for First Order Logic (FOL)

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

First Order Logic (FOL) Examples

Consider the sentence “Elephants are big”.

There are many ways to represent this sentence.

HasSize(Elephant, Big)
SizeOF(Elephant)= Big

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Logical Representation

First Order Logic (FOL) Examples

So lets represent that all Elephants are big.

So, we can find FOL statement as,

All things that are Elephants are big.

For all things x, for which x is a Elephant, x is big.
For all things x, if x is a Elephant, then x is big.

Finally the FOL will be written as.

∀x Elephant (x) ⇒ Big(x)

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Production Rule

• A form of procedural knowledge

that describe how to solve a
problem.
• The procedural and/or factual
knowledge is represented as rules,
called productions, in the form of
condition-action pairs.
• Are stated as follows:
•"IF this condition occurs, THEN do
this action; or this result (or
conclusion or consequence) will
occur
KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING
 Production Rule

Production Rule Example

IF flammable liquid was spilled,

THEN call the fire department.

IF the pH of the spill is less than 6,

THEN the spill material is an acid.

IF the spill material is an acid, and the spill smells like

vinegar,
THEN the spill material is acetic acid.

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Production Rule

Production Rule Example

IF flammable liquid was spilled,

THEN call the fire department.

IF the pH of the spill is less than 6,

THEN the spill material is an acid.

IF the spill material is an acid, and the spill smells like

vinegar,
THEN the spill material is acetic acid.

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Production Rule

• When the IF portion of a rule is satisfied by the facts, the

action specified by the THEN is performed.

• When this happens, the rule is said to "fire" or "execute".

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Type of Rule

Advantages of Rules

• Rules are easy to understand

•Inference and explanation are easy to derive

•Modifications and maintenance are relatively easy

•Uncertainty is easily combined with rules

•Each rule is usually independent of all others KR

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Type of Rule

Advantages of Rules

• Rules are easy to understand

•Inference and explanation are easy to derive

•Modifications and maintenance are relatively easy

•Uncertainty is easily combined with rules

•Each rule is usually independent of all others KR

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Semantic Network

• These represent knowledge in the form

of graphical networks

• Semantic networks are the most

general representation scheme

• Made up of a network of nodes and

arc. Nodes and arc- stored as
propositions

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Semantic Network

Node represent the OBJECTS,

CONCEPT, OR EVENTS

Name of the Arc

• CORRESPOND to name of
relationship
• INDICATE which concepts or
objects are linked by the
relations

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Semantic Network

Two common ARCs used are :

• IS-A used to show class RELATIONSHIP

• HAS-A used to identify the CHARACTERISTICS or

ATTRIBUTES of the object nodes

• other arcs are used for definitional purposes only

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Semantic Network Example

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Frames

• A frame is a data structure for

representing common concepts and
situations (stereotype knowledge).

• Like semantic nets, frames can be

organized in a hierarchy with general
concepts near the top and specific
concepts placed at the lower levels.

• General -top Specific -lower

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Frames

• Unlike semantic nets, each frame or node in this

hierarchy can be very rich in supplementary information.

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Frames

• Values that describe one object are grouped together

into single unit.

•Knowledge partition into slots.

•Each slot describes:

 declarative knowledge (colour of a car)
 procedural knowledge (activate a certain rule if
the value exceeds a certain value)

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Frames

• Frames describe an object in great detail. The detail in

form of slots that describe the various and characteristic
of the object or situation.

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Frames

Basic Frame Design

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Frames

Class Frames

• Represents general characteristics of some set of

common objects. For example Cars, Boats, and Birds.

• Defines those properties that are common to all the

objects within the class, and possibly default property
values.
static: describe an object feature whose value
doesn’t change
dynamic: is a feature whose value is likely to
change during operation of the system

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Frames

Class Frames

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Frames
Instance of Frame

• Describes a specific instance (sub-class or examples) of a

class frame.
• The instance inherits both properties and property values
from its frame class.
• The property values can be changed (recall:
static/dynamic) to tailor the object represented in the
instance.
• Many instances of the frame class can be created.
• The instances immediately inherit the frame’s properties.
•Can speed up system coding.

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Frames

Instance Frames

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 Reasoning

• PC can provide reasoning capability to intelligent

systems

• Reasoning requires the ability to infer conclusions from

available facts.

• One simple form of inference is modus ponens:

Based on the available facts below:
IF A is true X (man(X)
AND A→B is true mortal(X))
THEN B is true man(socrates)
We can infer a conclusion of mortal(socrates)
KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING
 Reasoning

father (david,john)
mother(jane,john)
father(x,john)^mother(y,john) → husband(x,y)

From the above facts and rule, we can infer some more
conclusions …

Who is X?
Who is Y?
Who is Y’s husband?

KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING

 THANK YOU
FOR LISTENING!
KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION & REASONING