Introduction to Intelligence

UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO and Artificial Intelligence

INTELLIGENCE AND ARTIFICIAL

INTELLIGENCE
Structure Page Nos.

1.0 Introduction 5
1.1 Objectives 6
1.2 Some Simple Definition of A.I. 6
1.3 Definition by Eliane Rich 6
1.4 Definition by Buchanin and Shortliffe 8
1.5 Another Definition by Elaine Rich 12
1.6 Definition by Barr and Feigenbaum 13
1.7 Definition by Shalkoff 18
1.8 Summary 19
1.9 Further Readings/References 20

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In this unit, we discuss intelligence, both machine and human. However, as our
subject matter in the course is machine intelligence, or artificial intelligence, our
discussion of the subject matter is mainly from the point of view of machine
intelligence. Machine intelligence is popularly known as Artificial Intelligence and is
generally referred to by its abbreviation viz. AI. We also shall use the name AI for
the discipline throughout. The style of discussion in this unit is to start with a
definition of AI by some pioneer in the field, and then elaborate the ideas involved in
the definition. Further, while elaborating the ideas involved in the definition, we
introduce a number of relevant new ideas, concepts and definitions to be used later. In
this process, we have introduced and/or explained the following:

i) Artificial Intelligence & Human Intelligence

ii) When a problem necessarily requires parallel processing for its solution
iii) Symbol vs. number issue
iv) Numeric vs. symbolic processing
v) Algorithm vs. non-algorithmic method and limitation of algorithmic approach
vi) Limitations of computational abilities of logical devices
vii) Heuristics – an important A.I technique
viii) Time/space complexities of programs and problems, exponential time vs.
polynomial time, hard problems
ix) Role of search and knowledge in solving hard problems; search as an important
AI technique
x) Enumeration of issues about knowledge
xi) Information: one of the four fundamental properties of nature
xii) Organisation; relations between information and organisation and between
information and intelligence
xiii) A principle of intelligence
AI as a science and as an engineering discipline
xiv) Controversial issue about the possibility of machine intelligence at least
equating or surpassing human intelligence.
xv) Brief history of AI … the name and as a subject

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Introduction to A.I
1.1 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you should be able to:

• discuss the concepts of ‘intelligence’ and artificial intelligence’ as visualised by
a number of leading experts in the field;
• enumerate the fields in which human beings are still better than computers;
• tell the difference between the concepts of:
(i) Symbol and number
(ii) Algorithmic and non-algorithmic methods
(iii) Information and knowledge
(iv) Polynomial time and exponential time complexities
• tell the relation of information to organisation and to intelligence.

1.2 SOME SIMPLE DEFINITIONS OF A.I.

Before looking at what A.I. is in the expert’s opinions that involve technical terms
needing some explanation, we state below three simple definitions from completely
non-specialists’ point of view:

1. A.I. is the study of making computers smart.

2. A.I. is the study of making computer models of human intelligence; and finally

3. A.I. is the study concerned with building machines that simulate human
behaviour.

The first one of the above definitions is based on behaviour-oriented approach to

A.I. According to this approach, AI is concerned with programming computers to
behave intelligently. The next definition is more from a psychologists point of view,
where the purpose is to use computer as a tool to understand better the mechanisms of
the human mind, and the final definition, which we may call robotic approach to
A.I., includes under the domain of A.I., not only writing of computer programs but
building also the whole of an intelligent system or machine including its mechanical,
electronic, optical components and other components.

In order to have still better and concrete opinion about what is AI and its subject-
matter, we consider definitions suggested by leading writers and pioneer contributors
to the development of A.I. We supplement these definitions with comments to
facilitate the understanding of the underlying ideas and of the technical terms involved
in the definitions.

1.3 DEFINITION BY ELIANE RICH

Definition 1: The first definition we consider is by Elaine Rich, the author of the
book entitled ‘Artificial Intelligence’[1]. It states: Artificial Intelligence is the
study of how to make computers do things, at which, at the moment, people are
better.

Comment 1, Definition 1: Implicit in the Rich’s definition is the idea that there are
mental tasks that computers can do better than human beings and vice-versa, there are
tasks which at the moment human beings can do better than computers. It is well-
known that computers are better than human beings in the matter of
6 • numerical computation,
• information storage, and Introduction to Intelligence
• repetitive tasks. and Artificial Intelligence

On the other hand, at the moment, human beings are much better than machine in
the matter of
• understanding including the capability of explaining,
• predicting the behaviour and structure of a system,
• in the matter of common-sense reasoning,
• in drawing conclusions when available information is either incomplete,
inconsistent or even both, and
• also, in visual understanding and speech understanding, which require
simultaneous availability (availability in parallel) of large amount of information.

In essence, it is found that computers are better than human beings in tasks
requiring sequential but fast computations, where human beings are better than
computers in tasks, requiring essentially parallel processing. In order to clarify
what it is for a problem to essentially require parallel processing for its solution, we
consider the following problem:

Figure 1.1

We are given a paper with some letter, say, C written on it and a card-board with a
pin-hole in it. The card board is placed on the paper in such a manner that the letter is
fully covered by the card board as shown in Figure 1.1. We are allowed to look at the
paper only through the pin-hole in the card-board. The problem is to tell correctly the
letter written on the paper by just looking through the pin-hole. As the information
about the black and white pixels is not available simultaneously, it is not possible to
figure out the letter written on the paper. The figuring out the letter on the paper
requires, simultaneous availability of the whole of the grey-level information of all the
points constituting the letter and its surrounding on the paper. The gray-level
information of the surrounding of the letter provides the context in which to interpret
the letter.
We consider another example that shows the significance of contextual information or
knowledge and its simultaneous availability for visual understanding. From the
following picture, we can conclude that one of the curved lines represents a river and
other curved lines represent sides of the hills only on the basis of the simultaneous
availability of information of the pixels.

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Introduction to A.I

Contextual information plays a very important role not only in the visual
understanding but also in the language and speech understanding. In case of speech
understanding, consider the following example, in which the word ‘with’ has a
number of meanings (or connotations) each being determined by the context.

• Mohan saw the boy in the park with a telescope.

• Mohan saw the boy in the park with a dog.
• Mohan saw the boy in the park with a statue.

Further, the phrase ‘for a long time’ may stand for a few hours to millions of years,
but again determined by the context, as explained below.

For a long time…..

• He waited in the doctor’s room for a long time.
• It has not rained for a long time.
• Dinosaurs ruled the earth for a long time.

Comment 2, Definition 1: In addition to the advantage that human beings have in

the matter of parallel processing as explained above, Boden [12] says: humans have
two psychological strengths which are yet to be approached by computer systems:
a teeming richness of conceptual sources and the ability to evaluate new ideas in
many different ways. The first of these is difficult enough for AI to emulate, the
second is even more problematic.

Comment 3, Definition 1: The definition is rather weak in the sense that it fails to
include some areas of potentially large importance viz, problems that can be solved at
present neither by human beings nor by computers. Also, it may be noted that, by
and by, if computer systems become so powerful that there is no problem left, which
human beings can solve better than computers, then nothing is left of AI according to
this definition.

1.4 DEFINITION BY BUCHANIN AND

SHORTLIFFE

Next, we consider a definition obtained by rephrasing and combining the two

definitions, viz., the first by Bruce G. Buchanin as given in ‘Encycolopedia
Britanica’ and the second by BUCHANIN & SHORTLIFFE as given in Rule-Based
Expert Systems [2]. It states:

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Definition 2 AI is the branch of computer science that deals with symbolic rather Introduction to Intelligence
than numeric processing and non-algorithmic methods including the rules of and Artificial Intelligence
thumb or heuristics instead of algorithms as techniques for solving problems.

Comments/Explanations 1, Definition 2: Symbolic processing vs numberic

processing: We generally think and use 128 as a number which has a definite relation
with the number say 105 (that of greater than), also with 64 (that of being double of)
and again with 2 (that of being a multiple of). Also, 128 can be multiplied, through
built-in mechanisms, with any number say 3 to get 384. However, if the numbers
mentioned above including 128 denote the route numbers of buses or house numbers
a residential colony then none of the relations or operations mentioned above, may
hold. Rather, in this context, these relations of 128 w.r.t. 105, etc. and the operations
like multiplication even do not make any sense. We cannot tell what is meant by
saying ‘House Number 128 is greater than House Number 105’ in a normally
acceptable way.

On the other hand, even a non-digital character sequence say ‘ABC’ may represent a
number, for example, in hexadecimal number system. Also, words of English (or any
other) language when considered lexicographically ordered, acquire some numeric
attributes.

The conclusion we draw from the above discussion, is that a word as a sequence of
characters (including digits) may denote a number or a symbol (henceforth, a symbol
stands for non-numeric symbol) depending upon the context in which it is used.
And the context is determined by the nature of the problem under consideration. If
the problem can be solved using only numerical aspects of the objects in the domain
and environment of the problem, then we have the advantage of having built-in
relations (like less than, equal to etc.) and the built-in operations (like +, -, * etc.) that
can be readily used without having to define these relations and operations explicitly.

But, unfortunately, most of the problems, we encounter for our day to day survival or
even for our intellectual pursuits, involve not only quantitative, but qualitative aspects
also of the objects of the problem domain. In order to solve these problems, we use
common sense reasoning, exploit our capability for visual and linguistic
understanding, try to get meaning out of incomplete and even inconsistent information
that is available, in addition to a number of other known and unknown mechanism.
Qualitative aspects, their ideal representations, defining relations and operations
involving these aspects, are generally different for different types of problems.
Hence, it is impossible to capture in general relevant relations and operations for all
types of problems, and then defining these as built-in operations of the machine,
because there are potentially infinite types of problems that we encounter and try to
solve.

This discussion explains the basic difference between numeric processing and
(non-numeric) symbolic processing. Summarizing, numeric processing involves
only a small number of well-defined relations and operations having universally
accepted meanings, and hence, these relations and operations can be incorporated as a
part of a computer system. On the other hand, in symbolic processing the relations
and operations required to solve a problem depend upon the problem under
consideration, and hence, have to be defined explicitly along-with or as a part of
programs constituting the solutions of the problems.

The weakness of numeric processing, however, is that it can be used in solving a

small fraction of the set of problems we want to or need to solve. The numeric
processing can be used in solving only those problems, the solutions of which involve
only numeric aspects of the objects involved in the domain and environment of the
problem under consideration. For the solution of other solvable problems, we need to
9
Introduction to A.I use symbolic processing. It is not out of place to mention that not all problems
which even can be stated precisely or formally, are amenable to computer
solutions using even symbolic processing. More discussion in this respect follows
next, under Comments/Explanations 2 for Definition 2.

Comments/Explanation 2, Definition 2 : Algorithmic method vs non-algorithmic

method, heuristics : We recall that an Algorithm is a step-by-step procedure with
well-defined starting and ending points, which is guaranteed to reach a solution to a
specific problem. A solution to a problem which can be expressed as an algorithm is
called an algorithmic solution. An algorithmic solution may involve only numeric
processing or may involve symbolic processing with/without numeric processing. For
the purpose of further discussion, ‘symbolic processing’ includes/subsumes numeric
processing. Algorithmic approach even when using symbolic processing has
limitations. During 1930’s, a number of logicians and mathematicians including
Gödel, Church, Post, Turing and Kleene suggested a number of mathematical
models of a computer, and through these models tried to explain the nature of
computation, established a number of useful results about computation and also
found the limits of computational power.

They proved that even through a problem may be expressed precisely or formally (i.e.,
in terms of mathematical entities like sets, relations functions etc.), yet it need not
yield to an algorithmic solution. A problem which has at least one algorithmic
solution is called a solvable problem. They further proved that out of even solvable
problems, only a small fraction can be solved if only feasible amount of resources
like, time and space are used. Informally, feasible amount of resources means that
the requirement for resources does not increase too rapidly with the increase in size of
the problem. The notion of the size of a problem will be defined formally later on
(under comment 1 on Definition 3). However, an intuitive idea about the concept of
the size of a problem and its role in estimating the resource requirement for solving
the problem can be had through the simple problem of calculating income tax for each
of the tax-payers. The requirement of resources like, time and computing equipment
for 1000 tax-payers would be much less, as compared to the requirement of resources
for computing income-tax for one million tax payers. In this problem, n, the number of
tax-payers for whom the income-tax is to be calculated, may be taken as size of the
problem.

This limitation and other difficulties with algorithmic solutions has given impetus to
efforts for finding non-algorithmic solutions of problems. Neural Network
approach to solving many difficult problems, is a well-known alternative to
algorithmic methods of solving problems. In AI, there are mainly two approaches to
solve problems, which generally difficult to solve with algorithmic methods. One
approach is Neural approach, mentioned just above. The other approach is called
symbolic approach. The symbolic approach cannot be said to be non-algorithmic. The
main difference between symbolic approach of AI and algorithmic approach is that
symbolic approach of AI emphasizes exploitation of the knowledge of the domain and
the environment of the problem under consideration. Some of this knowledge is in the
form rules of thumb, generally, called heuristics in AI.

In order to realise the limitations of algorithmic approach to solving problems, we

need not refer to highly theoretical work by the earlier mentioned
logicians/mathematicians. The limitation of the approach may be appreciated through
the following simple example.

Consider the problem of crossing from one side over to the other side of a busy road
on which a number of vehicles are moving at different velocities. A step-by-step (i.e.,
algorithmic) method of solving this problem may consist of:

10
(i) Knowing (exactly) the distances of various vehicles from the path to be Introduction to Intelligence
followed to cross over. and Artificial Intelligence
(ii) Knowing the velocities and accelerations of the various vehicles moving on the
road within a distance of, say, one kilometer.
1 2
(iii) Using Newton’s Laws of motion and their derivatives like s = ut + at , and
2
calculating the times that would be taken by each of the various vehicles to
reach the path intended to be followed to cross over.
(iv) Adjusting dynamically our speeds on the path so that no collision takes place
with any of the vehicle moving on the road.

The above is a systematic step-by-step method, i.e., an algorithm, of crossing the road
that may ensure no collision with any vehicle. But, how many of us can follow it?
Hardly anybody! First of all, it is practically impossible to measure distances,
velocities and accelerations of various vehicles on the road, even within a radius of
one kilometer. Secondly, even if we assume theoretically that it is possible to measure
distances, velocities and accelerations of various vehicles and to calculate safe timings
to cross the road, we would not like or care to follow the above-mentioned algorithm,
because our past experience, our sense of survival and other built-in mechanisms have
allowed us, in the past, to cross over safely without following any systematic method.
All of us just guess the distances of the vehicles, safe enough to cross over, and then
actually cross over at an appropriate time. Not even one in 1000, on an average gets
hurt when crossing a road using only guesses, in a crowded city like, Delhi, where
movement of vehicles is one of the most chaotic and unruly in the whole world.
However, this is not to deny that once in a while, the guess is incorrect and someone
or other gets hurt or even is killed almost every day.

Each one of us every day, comes across hundreds of problems similar to the one of
crossing of a road. And, for each such problem one uses a good guess and one
generally is able to solve the problem satisfactorily each time, though the solutions
may not be the best possible ones. And, or once in a while, we even fail to get any
solution using the guess. However, if we insist on only following a systematic step-
by-stop method that guarantees best possible solution for solving each problem, then
we would hardly be able to make any progress in our day to day business of even
mere survival.

The essence of the above discussion is that while attempting solutions of many of the
problems, it is not only desirable but almost essential that for each of such problems
we follow some good guess instead of following a step-by-step systematic method
that guarantees the best solution. In A.I, these guesses are called heuristics. In later
chapters, we discuss heuristics in detail. However, for the time being, we state that
heuristics are good guesses, possibly based on past experience, judgement, intuition
or hunches, which lead us most of the time to reasonably good solutions, though these
guesses do not guarantee the best solutions or even any solution for every instance of
the problem under consideration.

The advantage of using heuristics is that we do not have to rethink completely

everytime we are faced with a problem of the type of which another problem has
already been solved satisfactorily. If we have a handy rule of thumb that may apply to
the current problem, it may suggest to us how to proceed.

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Introduction to A.I
1.5 ANOTHER DEFINITION BY ELAINE RICH

The next definition, again by Elaine Rich [1] is more technical and involves some
concepts from Theory of Computation. It sates:
Definition 3: Artificial Intelligence is the study of techniques for solving
exponentially hard problems in polynomial time exploiting knowledge about the
problem domain.

Comments/Explanations 1, Definition 3: For deeper understanding of the concepts

like hard, solvable and unsolvable problems, any one of the books by Brady [3], by
Lewis and Papadimiriou [4] or by Hopcroft and Ullman [5] may be consulted.
However, for our purpose of appreciating Definition 3 of A.I., we briefly discuss only
the required essentials from Theory of Computation (TOC). In the comments on
Definition 2, we have already talked about the mathematical models of computation
and also about the limitations of algorithmic solutions.

As computer study is partly engineering in nature, in the sense that we design and
implement or produce computer solutions for different types of problems and hence
these products, i.e., solutions, need to be evaluated vis-a-vis problem specifications
and other measures like, efficiency in respect of time and space requirements of the
solutions. In order to measure the efficiency of a suggested computer solution of a
problem, the earlier mentioned logicians/mathematicians suggested the concepts of
time complexity and space complexity for the solutions and even for the problems.
The basic idea behind these complexity measures is that all the operations that a
computer (present or future generations) can execute, may be thought of as composed
of a small number of basic operations. These basic operations can be easily compared
for their relative requirements for time and space. For the basic operation say O1,
which is expected to take minimum time (or space) among all the basic operations, the
time (or space) complexity is assigned the number one. For any other basic operation,
complexity is a positive number depending upon the expected relative requirement for
time (or space) for the operation as compared to that for the operation O1. For other
computer operations, time/space complexity may be computed from those for the
basic operations. Also from these complexities, we can compute the complexities of
the programs using the size of the input data as an additional parameter. For example,
to multiply two n x n matrices we require n3 multiplications and (n3 ─ n2) additions.

Thus, complexity of the straight-forward method of multiplication of two n x n

matrices is n3 . β + (n3 – n2) α, where α and β are complexities of, respectively, the
operations of addition and that of multiplication of two numbers. The time/space
complexity of a problem may be defined as the time/space complexity of the program
which has the least complexity among all the known programs that solve the problem.
Further, a problem is said to be polynomial time problem, if the time complexity of
the problem is some polynomial a0 nk + a1 nk-1 + … + ai nk-i + … + ak, where n is the
size of the data. Similarly, exponentially hard problem is one for which time
complexity is of the form an, with a > 1. For large n, the value of an exponential
function increases at a much faster rate than the increase in the value of any given
polymial functions in n. For a given polynomial function f(n) and an exponential
function g(n), it is always possible to find a positive integer k such that g(n) > f(n) for
all intergers n ≥ k. Thus, the problems requiring exponential time are considered
harder than the problems requiring polynomial time. ‘Polynomial time’ is
considered as reasonable amount of time, and on the other hand, ‘exponential time’
is considered as impractical or infeasible amount of time from computational
point of view. This is why, the problems requiring exponential time are considered as
hard problems. Also, using the fact that the complexity of a problem is the least of
the complexities of its known algorithms, we can not solve an exponential time
12 problem in polynomial time.
Comment 2, Definition 3: Role of knowledge in solving hard problems: Introduction to Intelligence
and Artificial Intelligence
In view of the previous comments, no polynomical time algorithmic solution can exist
for any (exponentially) hard problem. However, there are mechanisms/techniques
which when used in a solution of a hard problem, though divest the solution of its
step-by-step or algorithmic characteristic, yet may make it a polynomial time solution.
Use of appropriate knowledge of the problem domain has been found useful in
techniques that when used, solve hard problems in polynomial time. Definition 3
declares the scope of (or the subject-matter) AI as the study of techniques that
exploit appropriate knowledge to solve hard problems in polynomial time. The
role of appropriate knowledge in reducing time complexity of a solution cannot be
overemphasized. The following simple example supports this claim abundantly:
Ms X is to meet Ms Y at her residence. Initially, let us assume that Ms X knows only
that Ms Y lives in Delhi and knows nothing else about Ms Y’s residence. A step-by-
step or algorithmic solution to the problem may be to search the residential places, one
by one, in some order, in Delhi and to stop when Ms. Y’s place is located. The
complexity of the algorithm, on the average, is undoubtedly very large. However, if
X further knows that Y lives in some particular colony say Hauz Khas in Delhi, then
search is substantially reduced by searching residential places only within Hauz Khas.

Further, if Ms X also knows the house number in Hauz Khas, then there is hardly any
search required and X can directly reach Y’s residence. Next, consider just opposite
situation so far as availability of knowledge is concerned. Let us X even do not know
that Y lives in Delhi. We can easily guess the plight of X when she, if follows a step-
by-step method, is required to search, possibly all over the world, for the residence of
Y.

The importance of (relevant) knowledge in solving difficult problems was recognised

by the pioneers in the very early stages in the development of A.I. As we shall find
subsequently, major portion of A.I. is constituted of discussion of various issues
about knowledge: methods for acquisition of knowledge, for representation of
knowledge, for organisation of knowledge, for manipulation of knowledge, for
maintenance of knowledge and for restricting search of the problem domain by
exploiting the knowledge of the domain.

1.6 DEFINITION BY BARR AND FEIGENBAUM

Next, we come to another definition of A.I. which involves human intelligence – a

phenomenon only partially understood yet. Rather, computers and some A.I.
techniques are being used in helping the psychologists in establishing their theories
about intelligence and other mental processes. But this definition provides another
angle to look at A.I. as the study of attempts at incorporating intelligence, whatever
we understand of it yet, in machine. This definition, in a way, would also justify the
inclusion of the word ‘intelligence’ in the name ‘Artificial Intelligence’ for the
subject-matter of our study. The definition, by Barr and Feigenbaum in ‘The
Handbook of Artificial Intelligence’ [6], is as given below.

Definition 4: Artificial Intelligence is the part of computer science concerned

with designing intelligent computer systems, i.e., systems that exhibit the
characteristics we associate with intelligence in human behaviour.

Discussion/Comments 2. Definition 4: What is intelligence or intelligent behaviour

in humans? In order to have good grasp on the intent of this definition of A.I., we
attempt to enumerate some known characteristics of Intelligence. There must be some
basic mechanisms behind intelligent behaviour and some important
attributes/characterises of intelligence which have defined human recognition or 13
Introduction to A.I understanding, because of which we are not able to describe the phenomenon of
intelligence in its totality. Capturing the total essence of the phenomenon of
intelligence in humans through a definition is almost impossible, as is noted by one of
the leaders of A.I viz. Patrick Winston [7] of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), when he states “defining intelligence usually takes a semester-long
struggle, and even after that I am not sure we ever get a definition really nailed
down”. However, there are some characteristics of intelligence which are readily
acceptable, some others acceptable after some thinking and still others that may be
controversial. We enumerate the characteristics as considered by some A.I. writers
and contributors and others. Enumeration of these characteristics here is essential
because as A.I. technologists, we would study various techniques that help us in
incorporating these characteristics, through computer programs, into machines, which
we attempt to make intelligent according to Definition 4 of Artificial Intelligence. We
give below the attributes verbatim from the respective sources.

Douglous R. Holstadter in his book: ‘Gödel Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden

Braid’ [8], which won him Pulitzer Prize and was a best-seller mentions on Page
26 of the book, the following as essential abilities for intelligence:

• to respond to situations very flexibly;

• to take advantage of fortuitous circumstances;
• to make sense out of ambiguous or contradictory messages; to recognize the
relative importance of different elements of situation;
• to find similarities between situations despite differences which may separate
them;
• to draw distinctions between situations despite similarities which may link
them;
• to synthesize new concepts by taking old concepts and putting them together in
new ways;
• to come up with ideas which are novel.

Fisher and Firschein in their book ‘Intelligence: The Eye, the Brain and the
Computer’ [9] on Page 4 state that they expect an intelligent agent to be able to:

• Have mental attitudes (beliefs, desires and intentions)

• Learn (ability to acquire new knowledge)
• Solve problems, including the ability to break complex problems into simpler
parts.
• Understand, including the ability to make sense out of ambiguous or
contradictory information.
• Plan and predict the consequence of contemplated actions, including the ability
to compare and evaluate alternatives.
• Know the limits of its (own) knowledge and abilities.
• Draw distinctions between situations despite similarities.
• Be original, synthesize new concepts and ideas, and acquire and employ
analogies.
• Generalize (find a common underlying pattern in superficially distinct
situations)
• Perceive and model the external world
• Understand and use language and related symbolic tools.

They further state that there are a number of human attributes that are related
to the concept of intelligence, but are normally considered distinct from it:

• Awareness (consciousness)
• Aesthetic appreciation (art, music)
• Emotion (anger, sorrow, pain, pleasure, love, hate)
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• Sensory acuteness Introduction to Intelligence
• Muscular coordination (motor skills) and Artificial Intelligence

Next, we discuss ‘intelligence’ from more fundamental level. The ideas explained
below are based on the Information Transfer Model of scientific phenomena due to
Norbert Wiener (1894-1964). Norbert Wiener, an intellectual prodigy and author of
the famous book entitled Cybernetics [14], suggested the Transfer of Information
model to be a better model than the prevailing model based on Transfer of Energy for
explanation of a number of scientific phenomena. Through the Wiener’s theory, a new
discipline was born, also, called Cybernetics

However, our discussion is mainly based on ideas explained in the book ‘Beyond
Information’ by Tom Stonier [10]: According to the ideas explained in Stonier,
there are four fundamental properties of the universe viz. energy, matter,
information and evolution (or change). The cardinality of information in the
universal scheme of things can be judged from the following argument: All the
entities from down to nucleons to the whole of the universe, each is known to us as an
organised system of simpler objects, e.g., fundamental particles organise into
nucleolus, nucleolus organise to form atomic nuclei, which alongwith electrons and
protons organise into atoms and so on. Molecules, polymers, membranes, organs,
living beings, societies, planets, planetary systems, galaxies … and finally the whole
universe, each is known as an organised system of some simpler objects. An
organisation builds upon pre-existing organisations. Thus an organised system is
recursively obtained (or defined) as an interdependent assembly of elements
and/or organised systems. And it is ‘information’ what is exchanged between
components of an organised system to effect their interdependence and to maintain
the integrity of the system as long as the system survives against the fourth
fundamental property of the universe, i.e., evolution or change. Gravitational pull,
now an established entity, is just an information processing activity. Thus
‘information’ is no more or no less an abstract concept than ‘energy’ or ‘matter’.
What mass is to matter and the heat is to energy, so is organisation to
information. Each of the former is a visible and measurable form of the
corresponding latter. More the mass, more the matter in a system; more the heat,
more the capacity to do work, i.e., energy in the system; similarly higher the degree
(or more the complexity) of the organization (in terms of underlying organizations of
the components and their components and so on, and in terms of the number and
levels of interactions and relations between components at a particular level) higher is
the information content of the system.

The relation between information and organisation and the characteristic

difference between the two is exactly what is the relation and characteristic
difference between a number and a numeral. A number is an abstract concept,
wheras a numeral is its physical manifestation or representation. A number may have
many representations and even may use many mediums for representations or
manifestations. In the form of, writing on the paper, as patterns of ink dots on a
piece of paper, the same number may be represented as 7 in decimal, 111 in binary,
and even 4 + 2 + 1 again in decimal. In computer’s memory, the same number is
represented with the help of electronic components, a different medium, and not as
shapes composed of ink-dots. In human brain the same number is represented,
possibly, as some neural net.

Summarising, a number is a concept which needs a medium for its manifestation

or physical representation for the purpose of conveying, or transformation. This
representation is called a numeral. But it should be clear that when we say that ‘I
need two books’, the word ‘two’ is not just the sequence of three letters viz ‘t’, ‘w’
and ‘o’ i.e., the representation, which is intended to be conveyed but just it is the
abstract number which is intended to be conveyed. Because of the tangibility or
15
Introduction to A.I perceptual ‘visibility’ of the representation, we always use the representation for
various purposes like ‘applying some operations’ or for conveying, but it is not the
representations, but the instances of the idea or concept (of number) which are
intended to be transformed or conveyed.

Similarly, information is a concept and an organisation is its representation, i.e.,

physical manifestation. For the purpose of applying operations (like refining
information, adding information etc) or for conveying information we use
organisation (as patterns of ink dots on paper or as neural net in brain etc). Then, we
manipulate the organisation or representation for applying operations on information
(operations again are abstract, whereas manipulations are their physical realizations).
Also, we communicate the organization for conveying information (communication is
physical realisation of conveying). As in the case of number, information’s
representation may be through various organisations on various type of media such as
patterns of ink dots on paper, neural nets in brain, or on flip-flops in electronic
memory. For example, the information content of the organisation in the form of
pattern of inkdots in the sentence ‘Heat is a form of energy’ is stored in the brain as an
organization in the form of a Neural Network etc.

Remark 1: We have already mentioned that an atom is an organsied system and so

are organ’s in the human body and so are the galaxies in the universe. Also every
organized system contains information. Hence, as we say ‘God gave the numbers’ so
we can say ‘God created information’ and information is not just a product of
human mental activities.

Remark 2: Information organises not only matter and energy but itself as well.
Evolution leads to discontinuities, i.e., to something which is qualitatively different
from the earlier existing entities. And intelligence is the phenomenon which has
evolved out of information but which is qualitatively different from information.

Remark 3: Intelligence, being an outcome of evolution from information over a

period spanning back almost upto the Big Bang, must be a spectrum of phenomena
and can not be an all or nothing affair. Further, intelligence can not be a single-
dimensional phenomenon. The veracity of this claim can be judged by analogy with
evolution of matter and energy into myriad forms differing from each other in almost
innumerable ways.

However, in order to draw a sort of fuzzy boundary between intelligent organisations

or systems and the other systems, let us consider the case of living matter. Matter
evolved from subatomic particles to atoms, molecules and so in potentially infinite
number of different material objects. Out of these materials, there is a large number
of types of objects (for example, human beings) for which we can say with surety that
these are living matter and again for a large number of types of material objects (for
example soil), we can say with surety that these are not living matters. Of course,
there may still be large number of objects which may not be distinctly characterised as
either. How we decide living or non-living is based on a finite collection of attributes
of matter and degree of each such attribute.

In the similar manner, we consider a finite set of attributes and degrees for each
attribute for organizations, i.e., information processing systems, which allow us to
categorise systems as intelligent or otherwise in such a way that the systems which are
generally considered as intelligent are categorised as intelligent and further whatever
systems are generally considered as non-intelligent are categorized as non-intelligent.
As evolution has taken over billions of years, hence divergence among information
processing systems intelligence-wise must be potentially infinite. Thus any
categorization based on only finite number of attributes would always be incomplete

16
and leave large number of cases ‘uncategorisable’. To begin with, we start with a Introduction to Intelligence
working definition of intelligence and then later expand on it: and Artificial Intelligence

Intelligence is a property of advanced information processing systems, which not

only engage in information processing, but are able to analyse their dynamically
changing environment and to respond to it in such a way that:

i) survivability of the system is enhanced

ii) its reproducibility is enhanced (reproducibility is sort of self propagation
through another system)
iii) if the system is goal-oriented, then achievability of goal is enhanced.

In stead of attempting to categorize most of the information processing systems as

either intelligent or non-intelligent, if we are interested in their relative merit as
intelligent systems, then the following principle of intelligence may be useful. The
principle quoted in Stonier [10] states: The intelligence exhibited by a system
may, at least in theory, be measured as a ratio, or quotient, of the ability of a
system to control its environment, versus the tendency of the system to be
controlled by the environment.

The above principle fits best, at least, in the limiting cases: At one extreme is a cube
of sugar dissolving in a cup of tea. Although highly organised, the cube is totally
controlled by environmental elements and hence, according to the above principle, it
has zero intelligence. This is exactly what we also feel. On the other extreme is
technologically advanced human society which can divert the waters of rivers to
irrigate plains to provide an assured supply of food to its population. Thus
intelligence measure of a technologically advanced society as a whole is, according to
the above principle, quite high. This conclusion of the above principle is in
consonance with what we also feel.

Below we include some more attributes and/or definitions of intelligence by leading

computer scientists and A.I. researchers. The purpose is to be aware of as many facts
as possible of yet-to-be completely understood phenomena of intelligence. Only then,
it may be possible to design and develop really intelligent programs to solve those
hard problems which are so far not amenable to computer solutions. Also, in this
process, we are providing a list of attributes, against which an A.I. engineer can test
their products for the quality of their product as intelligent one.

Hofstadter [8] on Page 37 says: It is an inherent property of intelligence that it can

jump out of the task which it is performing and survey what it has done. Self-
evaluation and self-criticism are part of intelligent behaviour.

Fishler and Firschein [9] on Page 4 state: Intelligence involves learning capability
and goal-oriented behaviour. Additional attributes of intelligence include reasoning,
common-sense, planning, perception, creativity, memory retention & recall.

Shanks [11] on Page 49 observes: The simplest and perhaps safest definition of
intelligence is the ability to react to something new in a non-programmed way. The
ability to be surprised or to think for oneself is really what we mean by intelligence.

In order to explain the concept of A.I. through ‘Definition 4’, we discussed the
concept of intelligence itself as a phenomenon. Next, we quote another definition of
A.I. again based on the concept of intelligence and given but from engineering point
of view by another pioneer in the field, viz Shalkoff, a Professor of Electrical
Engineering.

17
Introduction to A.I
1.7 DEFINITION BY SHALKOFF

Definition 5: Shalkoff [13] says: ‘Perhaps broadest definition is that AI is a field

of study that seeks to explain and emulate intelligent behaviour in terms of
computational processes’.

Comments 1, Definition 5: According to the above definition, AI is partly scientific

in nature because it seeks to ‘explain’ the phenomena of intelligence, and partly
engineering because it seeks to ‘emulate’ intelligent behaviour through computational
processes, i.e., by generating representations (of knowledge) and development of
programs that automatically (autonomously) solve problems, so far solved by only
intelligent humans beings.

In view of the fact that A.I. is partly an engineering discipline according to the above
definition, let us recall what is meant by the concept engineering.

Engineering may be thought of as the application of science and mathematics by

which properties of matter and sources of energy in nature are made useful (meeting
some requirements and according to some specifications) to man in structures,
machines, products, systems and processes etc.

Again, in the light of the definition of Engineering given above, a part of the
definition by Shalkoff may be paraphrased as ‘…through application of A.I., products
are obtained that exhibit intelligent behaviour….’ This paraphrased part of the
definition by Shalkoff raises another issue: How to judge/evaluate whether a product
obtained through an application of A.I., is actually intelligent.

The issue of testing an A.I. product as intelligent product was considered by the
pioneers themselves including Alan Turing, the most well known name among the
pioneers. In honour of Turing, the most prestigious award for contributions to the field
of computer science, has been instituted and is given annually.

Turing suggested a test, which is well known as Turing Test, for testing whether a
product has intelligence. An outline of the Turing test is given below.

For the purpose of the test, there are three rooms. In one of the rooms is a computer
system claimed to have imbedded intelligence. In the other two rooms, two persons
are sitting, one in each room. The role of one of the persons, let us call A, is to put
questions to the computer and to the other person to be called B, without knowing to
whom a particular question is being directed, and, of course, with the specific purpose
of identifying the computer. On the other hand, the computer would answer in such a
way that its identity is not revealed to A.

The communication among the three is only through computer terminals so that
identity of the computer or the person B can be known only on the basis of quality of
responses as intelligent or otherwise, and not just on the basis of other human or
machine characteristics. If A is not able to know the identity of the computer, then
computer is intelligent. More appropriately, if the computer is able to conceal its
identity from A, then the computer is intelligent.

We may note here that, in order to be called intelligent, the computer should be clever
enough not to give answer too quickly, at least not within a fraction of a second, even
if it can, say, to a question involving finding of the product of two numbers each of
more than 20 digits.

18
Objections to Turing Test: There have been a number of objections to the Turing Introduction to Intelligence
test as a test of intelligence of a machine. One of the most well known objections is and Artificial Intelligence
called Chinese Room Test proposed by John Searle. The essence of the Chinese
Room Test, that we are going to explain below, is that convincing successfully by a
system, say A , of possessing qualities of another system, say B, does not imply that
the system A actually possesses the qualities of B. For example, the capability of
convincing others by a male human of being a woman, does not give the male the
quality of bearing a child like a woman.

The scenario for the Chinese Room Test consists of a single room with two windows.
In the room a scholar on Shakespeare, knowing English, but not knowing Chinese, is
sitting with a sort of encyclopedia on Shakespeare. The encyclopedia is printed in
such a way that for each pair of facing pages, one page is written in Chinese
characters and the other page is translation in English of the contents of the facing
page in Chinese. Through one of the windows questions on Shakespeare’s literature in
Chinese characters are sent to the person sitting inside. The person looks through the
encyclopedia and on finding in the encyclopedia the exact copy of the sequence of
characters sent in, reads its translation in English, thinks of its answer and writes the
answer in English for his/her own understanding, finds the corresponding sequence of
Chinese characters in the encyclopedia, and sends the sequence of Chinese characters
through the other window. Now, Searle says that, though the scholar successfully
behaves as if s/he knows Chinese, but, as per assumption it is not so. Just from the fact
that a system is able to simulate a quality, it can not be inferred that the system
possesses the quality.

1.8 SUMMARY
This is an introductory unit to the course. The unit gives a bird’s eye view of the
whole of the course of Artificial Intelligence. The approach, in the unit, is to start with
a definition by some pioneer in A.I. In the process of discussion of the definition, a
number of relevant new concepts are gradually built up and discussed.

In Section 0.3, we discuss definition of A.I., as given by Eliane Rich . It states:

Artificial Intelligence is the study of how to make computers do things, at which,
at the moment, people are better.
.
In this context, it was discussed that human beings are still better than computers in
the problem areas, which require parallel processing and simultaneous availability of
information.

According to the next definition of A.I., as given by Buchamin & Shortliffe:

AI is the branch of computer Science that deals with symbolic rather than
numeric processing and non-algorithmic methods including the rules of thumb or
heuristics in stead of algorithms as techniques for solving problems.

In Section 0.4, we discuss the differences (i) between number and symbol, (ii)
between algorithmic and non-algorithmic methods of solving problems.

In the Section 0.5, another definition by Eliane Rich, as given below, is discussed:
Artificial Intelligence is the study of techniques for solving exponentially hard
problems in polynomial time exploiting knowledge about the problem domain.

In context of this definition, we discuss the difference between ‘exponentially hard

problems’ versus ‘polynomial time’ problem.

In section 0.6, we discuss the following definition of A.I. by Barr & Feigenbaum:
Artificial Intelligence is the part of computer science concerned with designing 19
Introduction to A.I intelligent computer systems, i.e., systems that exhibit the characteristics we
associate with intelligence in human behaviour.

In context of this definition, we discuss various characteristics of human intelligence.

In the process, we discuss, relation between information and organisation and relation
between information and intelligence.

Finally, in Section 0.7, we discuss a definition of A.I by Shalkoff, an engineer.

According to this definition, A.I. is partly an engineering and partly a scientific
discipline. As an engineering discipline A.I. is the study of designing and developing
intelligent machines. In context of testing whether a machine is intelligent, we discuss
Turing test and its criticism.

1.9 FURTHER READINGS/REFERENCES

1. Rich E. & Knight K. (1991). Artificial Intelligence.

Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited
2. Buchanan B.G. & Shortlife E.H. eds. (1984), Rule-Based Expert Systems.
Addison-Wesley
3. Brady J.M. (1977). The Theory of Computer Science. Chapman and Hall.
4. Lewis H.R. & Papdimitriou C.H. (1981). Elements of Theory of Computation
Prentice-Hall International Editions.
5. Hoperoft J.E. & Ullman J.D. (1987). Introduction to Automata Theory,
Languages and Computation. Narosa Publishing House
6. Barr A. & Feigenbaum E.A. (1981-82): The Handbook of Artificial
Intelligence Vol.1, Kaufman
7. Winston P.H. & Prendergast K.A (1984): “Perspective in the AI Business”,
eds. MIT Press
8. Hofstadter D.R. (1979): Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Penguin Books.
9. Fischler M.A. & Firschein O. (1987). Intelligence: The Eye, the Brain, and the
Computer: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
10. Stonier T. (1992). Beyond Information. Springer-Verleg.
11. Schank R.C. with Childers P.G. (1984). The Cognitive Computer on Language
Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
12. Boden M. (1998). The Computer can act as a Brain stormer, The Times of
India, New Delhi dated March 06, 1998.
13. Schalkoff R.J. (1990). Artificial Intelligence: An Engineering Approach
McGraw-Hill International.
14. Wiener N. (1948). Cybernatics. Wiley, New York.
15. Boden M. (1990). The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Oxford University
Press.

20
 The Propositional
UNIT 2 THE PROPOSITIONAL LOGIC Logic

Structure Page Nos.

2.0 Introduction 21
2.1 Objectives 23
2.2 Logical Study of Valid and Sound Arguments 23
2.3 Non-Logical Operators 25
2.4 Syntax of Propositional Logic 26
2.5 Semantics/Meaning in Propositional Logic 27
2.6 Interpretations of Formulas 29
2.7 Validity and Inconsistency of Propositions 30
2.8 Equivalent forms in the Prepositional Logic (PL) 32
2.9 Normal Forms 33
2.10 Logical Deduction 35
2.11 Applications 37
2.12 Summary 38
2.13 Solutions/Answers 38
2.14 Further/Readings 43

2.0 INTRODUCTION

Symbolic logic may be thought of as a formal language for representing facts about
objects and relationships between objects of a problem domain alongwith a precise
inferencing mechanism for reasoning and deduction. An inferencing mechanism
derives the knowledge, which is not explicitly/directly available in the knowledge
base, but can be logically inferred from what is given in the knowledge base.

The reason why the subject-matter of the study is called Symbolic Logic is that
symbols are used to denote facts about objects of the domain and relationships
between these objects. Then the symbolic representations and not the original facts
and relationships are manipulated in order to make conclusions or to solve problems.

Also, we mentioned that a Symbolic Logic, apart from having other characteristics, is
a formal language. As a formal language, there must be clearly stated unambiguous
rules for defining various constituents or constructs, viz. alphabet set, words, phrases,
sentences etc. of the language and also for associating meaning to each of these
constituents.

The study of Symbolic Logic is significant, specially, for academic pursuits, in view
of the fact that it is not only descriptive (i.e., it tells how the human beings reason)
but it is also normative (i.e., it tells how the human beings should reason).

In this unit, we shall first study the simplest form of symbolic logic, viz, the
Propositional Logic (PL). In the next unit, we consider a more general form of logic
called the First-Order Predicate Logic (FOPL). Subsequently, we shall consider other
symbolic systems including Fuzzy systems and some Non-monotonic systems.

In the propositional logic, we are interested in declarative sentences, i.e., sentences

that can be either true or false, but not both. Any such declarative sentence is called a
proposition or a statement. For example

(i) The proposition: “The sun rises in the west,” is False,

(ii) The proposition: “Sugar is sweet,” is True, and
21
Introduction to A.I (iii) The truth of the proposition: “Ram has a Ph. D degree.” depends upon whether
Ram is actually a Ph. D or not.
Though, at present, it may not be known whether the statement is True or False,
yet it is sure that the sentence is either True or False and not both True and False
simultaneously.

For a given declarative sentence, its being ‘True’ or ‘False’ is called its Truth-value.
Thus, truth-value of (i) above is False and that of (ii) is True.

On the other hand, none of the following sentences can be assigned a truth-value, and
hence none of these, is a statement or a proposition:

(i) Who was the first Prime Minister of India? (Interrogative sentence)
(ii) Please, give me that book. (Imperative sentence)
(iii) Ram must exercise regularly. (Imperative, rather Deontic)
(iv) Hurrah! We have won the trophy. (Exclamatory sentence)

In propositional logic, as mentioned earlier also, symbols are used to denote

propositions. For instance, we may denote the propositions discussed above as
follows:

P : The sun rises in the west,

Q : Sugar is sweet,
R : Ram has a Ph.D. degree.

The symbols, such as P, Q, and R, that are used to denote propositions, are called
atomic formulas, or atoms. As discussed earlier, in this case, the truth-value of P is
False, the truth-value of Q is True and the truth-value of R, though not known yet, is
exactly one of ‘True’ or ‘False’, depending on whether Ram is actually a Ph. D or
not.

At this stage, it may be noted that once symbols are used in place of given statements
in, say, English, then the propositional system, and, in general, a symbolic system is
aware only of symbolic representations, and the associated truth values. The system
operate only on these representations. And, except for possible final translation, is not
aware of the original statements, generally given in some natural language, say,
English.

We can build, from atoms, more complex propositions, sometimes called compound
propositions, by using logical connectives.

Examples of such propositions are:

(i) Sun rises in the east and the sky is clear, and
(ii) If it is hot then it shall rain.

The logical connectives in the above two propositions are “and” and “if…then”. In the
propositional logic, five logical operators or connectives, viz., ~ (not), ∧ (and), ∨
(or), → (if… then), and ↔ (if and only if), are used. These five logical connectives can
be used to build compound propositions from given atomic formulas. More generally,
they can be used to construct more complicated compound propositions from
compound propositions by applying the connectives repeatedly. For example, if each
of the letters P, Q, C is used as a symbol for the corresponding statement, as follows:

P: The wind speed is high.

Q: Temperature is low.
C: One feels comfortable.
22
then the sentence: The Propositional
“If the wind speed is high and the temperature is low, then one does not feel Logic
comfortable”
may be represented by the formula (( P ∧ Q ) → (~ C)). Thus, a compound
proposition can express a complex idea. In the propositional logic, an expression that
represents a proposition, such as P, or a compound proposition, such as ((P ∧ Q) → (~
C)), is called a well-formed formula.

2.1 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you should be able to:

• tell about what is Logic, Symbolic Logic, and Propositional Logic (PL); further,
about why we study each of these; and about some detailed subject matter of
each of these;
• tell the difference between a Proposition/Statement, which forms the basis of PL,
and a sentence in a natural language;
• explain the difference between a logical operator and a non-logical operator; any
symbolic logic uses only logical operators;
• explain the concept of arguments in a logical system and further should be able to
explain mutual differences between a (i) valid argument (ii) sound argument
(iii) invalid argument, and (iv) unsound argument;
• differentiate between an expression that is a well-formed formula wff of PL and
an expression which is not a wff.;
• find the truth-value, or meaning, of a wff of PL and should be able to explain
how the truth value of a wff is obtained from the truth values of atomic wffs.
• explain the difference between various types of wffs, viz, valid wff; consistent
wff, invalid wff and inconsistent wff;
• explain about the various tools, like truth table, logical deduction and reduction
to normal forms that are used to establish validity/invalidity of arguments, and
further should be able to use these tools for the purpose, and
• use the tools and techniques of PL in solving problems that can be solved within
a PL system.

2.2 LOGICAL STUDY OF VALID AND SOUND

ARGUMENTS

Logic is the analysis and appraisal of arguments.

An argument is a set of statements consisting of a finite number of premises, i.e.,

assumed statements and a conclusion.

Valid Argument: A valid argument is one in which it would be contradictory for the
premises to be true but the conclusion false.

In logical studies we are interested in valid arguments.

Example of Valid Argument

(i) If you overslept, you will be late

(ii) You are not late.
∴you did not oversleep.
Example of Invalid argument
23
Introduction to A.I (i) If you overslept, you will be late
(ii) You did not oversleep
∴you are not late

(This argument is invalid, because despite not having overslept, one may be late
because of some other engagements or lazyness.)

Another Invalid Argument

(i) If we are close to the top of Mt. Everest then we have magnificent view.
(ii) We are having a magnificent view.
Therefore,
(iii) We are the near the top of Mt. Everest.

(This argument is invalid, because, we may have a magnificent view even if we are not
close to the top of Mt. Everest. The two given statements do not falsify this claim)

How to establish logical validity/invalidity of an argument

We have already discussed invalidity of some arguments, but invalidity above was
based on our intuition. However, intuition may also lead us to incorrect conclusion.
To be sure about the validity of our argument, we need some formal method. In
Section 1.5, we discuss how a Truth table (a formal tool) can be used to establish the
validity/invalidity of an argument.

Sound Argument

We may note that, in the case of a valid argument, it is not required that the
premises/axioms or assumed statements must be True. The assumptions may not be
True, and still the argument may be valid. For example, the following argument is
valid, but its premises and conclusion both are false:

Premise 1: If moon is made of green cheese

Then 2 + 2 = 5
Premise 2: Moon is made of green cheese
(False premise)
From Premise 1 and Premise 2, by applying Modus Ponens, we conclude through
valid argument that 2 + 2 = 5 (which is False).

However, in order to solve problems of everyday life, we need generally to restrict to

only true premises and valid arguments. Then such an argument is called sound
argument.

Sound Argument: is an argument that is valid and has true premises.

(i) If you are reading this, then

you are not illiterate
(ii) You are reading this (true premise)
You are not illiterate (sound conclusion)

Example of valid but not sound argument with correct conclusion.

(i) If moon is made of green cheese then 2 + 2 = 4

(ii) Moon is made of green cheese (False premise)
To conclude 2 + 2 = 4 (correct) makes the argument a Valid Argument

24
Example of Invalid Argument The Propositional
Logic
I (i) If you overslept, you are late.
(ii) you are late.
Therefore, you overslept.
II (i) If you are in Delhi, you are in India.
You are in India.
Therefore, you are in Delhi (invalid argument, though conclusion may be True)

2.3 NON-LOGICAL OPERATORS

One of reason why special symbols:

∧ ∨ ~ ↔ →
are used in symbolic logic in stead of the corresponding natural languages words:
and, or, not, if…. Then, if and only if, is that the words may have different
meaning in different contexts. For example, the use of the word and in one sentences
has different connotation or meaning from the use in others in the following:

(i) Ram and Mohan are good hockey players.

(the statement can be equivalently broken into two statements:

(i) Ram is a good hockey player (ii) Mohan is a good hockey player)

(ii) Ram and Mohan are good friends.

(though the word and joins two words Ram & Mohan, but can not be equivalently
broken into two statements viz. (i) Ram is a friend (ii) Mohan is a friend)

(iii) Mohan drove a car to reach home, met an accident and got slightly injured.

(Here, the use of the word ‘and’ is not in a logical sense, but, it is in temporal sense of
‘and then’ because statement (iii) has different sense from the statement given in (iv)
below)

(iv) Mohan met an accident, got slightly injured and drove a car to reach home.

Thus from the above statements, it can be seen that the natural language word and
may have many senses, both logical and non-logical. Similarly, the words since,
hence and because are frequently used in arguments to establish some facts. But as
shown from the following two arguments, their use in logical arguments is risky in
the sense that some of the arguments involving any of these words may lead to
incorrect conclusions:

Argument (1): Using the word because, we get correct conclusion from
True statements.
Let

P: Dr. Man Mohan Singh was Prime Minister of

India in the year 2006 (True statement)

Q: Congress party and its allies commanded majority in Indian Parliament in the year
2006 (True statement)

Then the following statement:

P because Q (True statement/conclusion)
25
Introduction to A.I Thus, by using the connective because we get a correct/True conclusion from two
True statements viz. P and Q.

Argument ( 2)

In the following using the word, because, we get incorrect/false conclusion from
True statements

Let

P: Dr. Man Mohan Singh was Prime Minister of

India in the year 2006 (True statement)

R: Chirapoonji, a town in north-east India, received maximum average rainfall in the

world during 1901-2000. (True statement)

However to say
P because R, i.e., to say
Dr. Man Mohan Singe was Prime Minster of India in 2006, because Chirapoonji, a
town in north-east India, received maximum average rainfall in the world during
1901-2000.
is at least incorrect, if not ludicrous.

Thus from two True statements, P and R and by using connective ‘because’, in this
case, the conclusion is incorrect.

Thus, by using connective because, in one argument we get a correct conclusion from
two True statements and, on the other hand, we get an incorrect conclusion from True
statements.

2.4 SYNTAX OF PROPOSITIONAL LOGIC

A Well-formed formula, or wff or formula in short, in the propositional logic is

defined recursively as follows:

1. An atom is a wff.
2. If A is a wff, then (~A) is a wff.
3. If A and B are wffs, then each of (A ∧ B), (A ∨ B), (A → B), and (A ↔ B) is a
wff.
4. Any wff is obtained only by applying the above rules.

From the above recursive definition of a wff it is not difficult to see that expression:
(( P → ( Q ∧ ( ~ R))) ↔ S) is a wff; because , to begin with, each of P, Q , ( ~ R) and
S, by definitions is a wff. Then, by recursive application, the expression: (Q ∧ ( ~ R))
is a wff. Again, by another recursive application, the expression: (P → (Q ∧ ( ~ R)))
is a wff. And, finally the expression given initially is a wff.

Further, it is easy to see that according to the recursive definition of a wff, each of the
expressions: (P → (Q ∧ )) and (P ( Q ∧ R )) is not a wff.

Some pairs of parentheses may be dropped, for simplification. For example,

A ∨ B and A → B respectively may be used in stead of the given wffs ( A ∨ B) and (A
→ B), respectively. We can omit the use of parentheses by assigning priorities in
increasing order to the connectives as follows:
26 ↔, →, ∨, ∨, ~.
Thus, ‘↔’ has least priority and ‘~’ has highest priority. Further, if in an expression, The Propositional
Logic
there are no parentheses and two connectives between three atomic formulas are used,
then the operator with higher priority will be applied first and the other operator will
be applied later.

For example: Let us be given the wff P → Q ∧ ~ R without parenthesis. Then among
the operators appearing in wff, the operator ‘~’ has highest priority. Therefore, ~ R is
replaced by (~R). The equivalent expression becomes P → Q ∧ (~ R). Next, out of the
two operators viz ‘→’ and ‘∧’, the operators ‘∧’ has higher priority. Therefore, by
applying parentheses appropriately, the new expression becomes P → (Q ∧ (~ R)).
Finally, only one operator is left. Hence the fully parenthesized expression becomes (P
→ (Q ∧ (~ R)))

2.5 SEMANTICS/MEANING IN PROPOSITIONAL

LOGIC

Next, we define the rules of finding the truth value or meaning of a wff, when truth
values of the atoms appearing in the wff are known or given.

1. The wff ~ A is True when A is False, and ~ A is False when A is true. The wff
~ A is called the negation of A.
2. The wff (A ∧ B) is True if A and B are both True; otherwise, the wff A ∧ B is
False. The wff (A ∧ B) is called the conjunction of A and B.
3. The wff (A ∨ B) is true if at least one of A and B is True; otherwise, (A ∨ B) is
False. (A ∨ B) is called the disjunction of A and B.
4. The wff (A → B) is False if A is True and B is False; otherwise, (A → B) is True.
The wff (A → B) is read as “If A, then B,” or “A implies B.” The symbol ‘→’ is
called implication.
5. The wff (A ↔ B) is True whenever A and B have the same truth values;
otherwise (A ↔ B) is False. The wff (A ↔ B) is read as “A if and only if B.”
Table 1.5
A B ~A (A ∧ B) (A ∨ B) (A → B) (A ↔ B)
(i) T T F T T T T
(ii) T F F F T F F
(iii) F T T F T T F
(iv) F F T F F T T

The above relations can be summarized by Table 1.5 given below.

The table may be read as follows:

Let the symbol T stand for True and the symbol F stand for False. Then, Row (i) is
interpreted as: if we assign T (i.e. True) to A and T to B then the truth values of (~ A),
(A ∧ B), (A ∨ B), (A → B) and (A ↔ B) are respectively F, T, T, T, T.
Further row (iii), for example, is interpreted as:, if we assign truth-value F (False) to
A and T (True) to B then truth values of (~ A), (A ∧ B), (A ∨ B), ( A → B) and ( A ↔
B) are respectively T, F, T, T, F.

This table, shall be used to evaluate the truth values of a wff in terms of the truth
values of the atoms occurring in the formula.

Now, we discuss the issue, raised in Section 1.2, of how to check validity/invalidity of
an argument through formal means.

27
Introduction to A.I Validity through Truth-Table.

(i) If I overslept, then I am late, i.e., symbolically

S→L
(ii) I am not late, i.e., symbolically
~ L
To conclude
(iii) I did not oversleep, i.e., symbolically
~S

To establish the validity/Invalidity of the argument, consider the Truth-Table

S L S→L ~L ~S
F F T T T
F T T F T
T F F T F
T T T F F

There is only one row, viz., first row, in which both the premises viz. S → L and ~ L
are True. But in this case the conclusion represented by ~ S is also True. Hence, the
conclusion is valid.

Invalidity through Truth-Table

(i) If I overslept, then I am late

S→L
(ii) I did not oversleep, i.e.,
~S
To conclude
(iii) I would not be late, i.e.,
~ L (invalid conclusion)

S L (S → L) ~ S ~L

F F T T T
F T T T F
T F F F T
T T T F F

The invalidity of the argument is established, because, for validity last column must
contain True in those rows for which all axioms/premises are True. But in the second
row both S → L and ~ S are True but ~ L is False

Ex. 1 Express the following statements in Propositional Logic.

a) If he campaigns hard, he will be elected.
b) If the humidity is high, it will rain either today or tomorrow.
c) Cancer will not be cured unless its cause is determined and a new drug for
cancer is found.
d) It requires courage and skills to climb a mountain.

Ex. 2: Let
P : He needs a doctor, Q : He needs a lawyer,
R : He has an accident, S : He is sick,
U : He is injured.

28
State the following formulas in English. The Propositional
Logic
a) (S → P) ∧ (R → Q) b) P → (S ∨ U)
c) (P ∧ Q) → R d) (P ∧ Q) ↔ (S ∧ U)

2.6 INTERPRETATIONS OF FORMULAS

In order to find the truth value of a given formula G, the truth values for the atoms of
the formula are either given or assumed. The set of initially given/assumed values of
all the atomic formulas occurring in a formula say G, is called an interpretation of
the formula G. Suppose that A and B are two atoms and that the truth values of A and
B are T and F respectively. Then, according to third row of Table 1.5, when A is F
and B is T we find that the truth values of (~A), (A ∧ B),
(A ∨ B), (A → B), and (A ↔ B) are T, F, T, T and F, respectively. By developing a
Truth-table of a(ny) formula, its truth value can be evaluated in terms of its
interpretation, i.e., in terms of the truth values associated with the constituent atoms.

Example

Consider the formula

G : ((A ∧ B) → (R ↔ (~ S))).

(Please note that the string, in this case G, before the symbol ‘:’, is the name of the
formula which is the name of the string of symbols after ‘:’. Thus, G is the name of the
formula ((A∧ B)→ (R ↔ (~ S))).

The atoms in this formula are A, B, R and S. Suppose the truth values of A, B, R, and
S are given as T, F, T and T, respectively. Then (in the following and elsewhere also,
if there is no possibility of confusion, we use T for ‘True’ and F for ‘False’.)
• (A ∧ B) is F since B is F;
• (~S) is F since S is T;
• (R ↔ (~ S)) is F since R is T and (~S) is F; and hence,
• (A ∧ B) → (R ↔ (~S)) is T since (A ∧ B) is F (and (R ↔ (~S)) is F, which
does not matter).
Note: In view of the fact that when ( A ∧ B) is F, the truth-value of
(A ∧ B) → Any Formula
must be T and, hence, we need not compute the value of (R ↔ (~ S)).
Therefore, the formula G is T if A, B, R, and S are assigned truth values T, F, T and T,
respectively.

The assignment of the truth values T, F, T, T to A, B, R, S, respectively, is called an

interpretation of the formula G. Since, each one of A, B, R, and S can be assigned
one of the two values, viz., either T or F, there are 24 = 16 possible interpretations of
the formula G. In Table 1.6, we give the truth values of the formula G under all these
16 interpretations.

The above procedure may be repeated to find truth value of any formula from any
interpretation, i.e., from any assignment to the atomic formulas occurring in the given
formula.

29
Introduction to A.I
Table 1.6 Truth Table of (A ∧ B → (R ↔ ( ~ S)

A B R S ~S (A ∧ B) (R ↔ (~S)) (A ∧ B) → (R
↔ ( ~ S)
T T T T F T F F
T T T F T T T T
T T F T F T T T
T T F F T T F F
T F T T F F F T
T F T F T F T T
T F F T F F T T
T F F F T F F T
F T T T F F F T
F T T F T F T T
F T F T F F T T
F T F F T F F T
F F T T F F F T
F F T F T F T T
F F F T F F T T
F F F F T F F T

A table, such as given above, that displays the truth values of a formula G for all
possible assignments of truth values to atoms occurring in G is called a Truth table
of G.

NOTATION: If A1,….An are all the atoms in a formula, it may be more convenient to
represent an interpretation by a set (m1,….mn), where mi is either Ai or ~Ai. mi is
written as Ai if T is assigned to Ai. But mi is written as ~ Ai if F is assigned to Ai.

For example, the set {A, ~B, ~R,S} represents an interpretation of a formula in which
A, B, R, and S are the only atoms and which are, respectively, assigned T, F, F, and T.
We will use the notation throughout.

Ex. 3: Construct a truth table for the formula.

P: (~ A ∨ B) ∧ (~ (A ∧ ~ B))

2.7 VALIDITY AND INCONSISTENCY OF

PROPOSITIONS

It may noted that in Section 1.2, we discussed the concept of valid Argument. Here,
we study formulas or propositions. Next, we shall consider wff that are true under
all possible interpretations and wff that are false under all possible interpretations.

Example

Let us consider the wff

G : (((A → B) ∧ A) → B).

The formula G has 22 = 4 possible interpretations in view of the fact it has two atoms
viz A and B. It can be easily seen from the following table that the wff G is True
under all its interpretations. Such as a wff which is True under all interpretation is
called a valid formula (or a tautology).

30
 Truth Table of (((A→ B) ∧ A) → B) The Propositional
A B (A→ B) (A→ B) ∧ A ((A → B) ∧ A) → B Logic
T T T T T
T F F F T
F T T F T
F F T F T

Consider another formula

G : ((A → B) ∧ (A ∧ ~ B))

The truth table of the formula G given below shows that G is False under all its
interpretations. Such a formula which is False under all interpretations is called an
inconsistent formula (or a contradiction).

Truth Table of (A→ B) ∧ (A ∧ ~ B)

A B ~B (A→ B) (A ∧ ~ B) ((A→ B) ∧ (A ∧ ~ B)
T T F T F F
T F T F T F
F T F T F F
F F T T F F

Next, we formally define the concepts discussed above.

Definition: A formula is said to be valid if and only if it is true under all its
interpretations. A formula is said to be invalid if and only if it is not true under at
least one interpretation. A valid formula is also called a Tautology. A formula is
invalid if there is at least one interpretation for which the formula has a truth value
False.

Definition: A formula is said to be inconsistent (or unsatisfiable) if and only if it is

False under all its interpretations. A formula is said to be consistent or satisfiable if
and only if it is not inconsistent. In other words, a formula is consistent if there is at
least one interpretation for which the formula has a truth value true.

From the definitions given above, it is easily seen that

(i) A formula is valid if and only if its negation is inconsistent.

(ii) A formula is invalid if and only if there is at least one interpretation under
which the formula is false.
(iii) A formula is consistent if and only if there is at least one interpretation under
which the formula is true.
(iv) If a formula is valid, then it is consistent, but not vice versa. (example given
below)
(v) If a formula is inconsistent, then it is invalid, but not vice versa. (example given
below)

Definition: If a formula P is True under an interpretation I, then we say that I

satisfied P, or P is satisfied by I. If a formula P is False under an interpretation I,
then we say that I falsifies P or P is falsified by I.

As for an example, the formula (A ∧ (~B)) is satisfied by the interpretation {A, ~ B}

i.e, by taking A as T and B as F, but is falsified by the interpretation {A, B} i.e., when
A is taken as T and B is taken as T. An interpretation I that satisfies a formula P, is
called a model of the formula F.

31
Introduction to A.I Examples:
(i) A Valid Formula:

(a) Even True is a wff which is always True and, hence, True is a valid formula.
(b) G1: A ∨ (~A) is True for all its interpretations. As G1 has only one atom viz. A,
terefore, it has only two interpretations. Let one interpretation of G1 be : A is
True. But then G1 assumes the value (True ∨ (~ True)) = True. The other
interpretation of G1 is : A is False. Then G1 assumes the value (False ∨ ~ False) =
True.

(ii) Consistent (True for at least one interpretation) but not valid Formula (i.e. is
invalid, i.e., False for at least one interpretation):

(a) The simplest example of such a formula is the formula G2: A. Then, for the
assignment A as True, G2 is True. Therefore G2 is consistent. On the other
hand, the interpretation of G2 with A as False, makes G2 false. Therefore, G2:
A is not valid.

(b) Both G3 : A ∨ B and G4 : A ∧ B are consistent but not valid. Both G3 and G4
are True under the assignment A as True and B as True. On the other hand,
both are False under the interpretation A as False and B as False.

(iii) Invalid (False for at least one interpretation) but not inconsistent (not False
for all interpretations): Any one of the examples in (ii) above

(iv) Inconsistent formula (i.e., which is false for all interpretations)

(a) Even ‘False’ is a wff; which is always False, and hence is inconsistent.
(b) G5 : A ∧ (~A) is False, for all interpretations of G5. Actually, there are only
two interpretations of G5. One is : A is True. The other is : A is False. In both
cases G5 is False.

It will be shown later that the proof of the validity or inconsistency of a formula is a
very important problem. In the propositional logic, since the number of interpretations
of a formula is finite, one can always decide whether or not a formula in the
propositional logic is valid (inconsistent) by exhaustively examining all of its possible
interpretations.

Ex. 4: For each of the following formulas, determine whether it is valid, inconsistent,
consistent or some combination of these.

(i) E: ~ (~A) → B
(ii) G: (A → B) → (~ B → ~ A)
(iii) H: (A ∨ ~ A) → (A ∧ B ) ∧ ( ~ A)
(iv) J: (A ∧ B) ∧ (~ A) → ( B ∨ ~ B)

2.8 EQUIVALENT FORMS IN THE

PROPOSITIONAL LOGIC (PL)

Definition: Logically Equivalent Formulas: Two formulas G1 and G2 are said to be

(logically) equivalent if for each interpretation i.e., truth assignment to all the atoms
that occur in either G1 or G2; the truth values of G1 and G2 are identical. In other
words, for each interpretation, G1 is True if and only if G2 is True. And, for each
interpretation, G1 is False if and only if G2 is False.
32
As will be clear later, it is often necessary to transform a formula from one form to The Propositional
another, especially to a normal form. This is accomplished by replacing a formula in Logic
the given formula by a formula equivalent to it and repeating this process until the
desired form is obtained.

Example

We can verify that the formula E: ~ (A → B) is equivalent the formula G: to A ∧ ~ B

by examining the following truth table. The corresponding values in the last two
columns are identical.

Table Joint Truth table of ~ (A → B) and (A ∧ ~ B)

A B ~B (A → B) ~(A → B) A∧~B
T T F T F F
T F T F T T
F T F T F F
F F T T F F

Solutions of problems using symbolic logic can be simplified, if we can simplify

involved formulas by some equivalent simpler formulas given in table below. These
equivalences can be verified by using truth tables.

Table of Equivalences of PL
(1.1) E ↔ G = (E → G) ∧ (G → E)
(1.2) E→G=~E∨G
(1.3)(a) E ∨ G = G ∨ E; (b) E ∧ G = G ∧ E
(1.4)(a) (E ∨ G) ∨ H = E ∨ (G ∨ H); (b) (E ∧ G) ∧ H = E ∧ (G ∧ H)
(1.5)(a) E ∨ (G ∧ H) = (E ∨ G) ∧ (E ∨ H); (b) E ∧ (G ∨ H) = (E ∧ G) ∨ (E ∧ H)
(1.6)(a) E ∨ False = E; (b) E ∧ True = E
(1.7)(a) E ∨ True = True (b) E ∧ False = False
(1.8)(a) E ∨ ~ E = True; (b) E ∧ E = E
(1.9) ~ (~ E) = E
(1.10)(a) ~ (E ∨ G) = ~ E ∧ ~ G; (b) ~ (E ∧ G) = ~ E ∨ ~ G

In the table given above, True denotes the fact that the wff is True under all
interpretations and False denotes the wff that is False under all interpretations.

Laws (1.3a), (1.3b) are often, called commutative laws; (1.4a), (1.4b) associative
laws; (1.5a), (1.5b), distributive laws: and (1.10a), (1.10b), De Morgan’s laws.

2.9 NORMAL FORMS

Some Definitions: A clause is a disjunction of literals. For example, (E ∨ ~ F ∨ ~ G)

is a clause. But (E ∨ ~ F ∧ ~ G) is not a clause. A literal is either an atom, say A, or
its negation, say ~ A.

Definition: A formula E is said to be in a Conjunctive Normal Form (CNF) if and

only if E has the form E : E1 ∧ ….∧ En, n ≥ 1, where each of E1,…., En is a
disjunction of literals.

Definition: A formula E is said to be in Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) if and only

if E has the form E: E1 ∨ E2 ∨….En, where each Ei is a conjunction of literals.

Examples: Let A, B and C be atoms. Then F: ( ~ A ∧ B ) ∨ (A ∧ ~ B ∧ ~ C) is a

formula in a disjunctive normal form. 33
Introduction to A.I Example: Again G: (~ A ∨ B) ∧ (A ∨ ~ B ∨ ~ C) is a formula in Conjunctive Normal
Form, because it is a conjunction of the two disjunctions of literals viz of (~ A ∨ B)
and (A ∨ ~ B ∨ ~ C)

Example: Each of the following is neither in CNF nor in DNF

(i) (~ A ∨ B) ∨ (A ∧ ~ B ∨ C)
(ii) ( A → B) ∧ ( ~ B ∧ ~ A)

Using table of equivalent formulas given above, any valid Propositional Logic
formula can be transformed into CNF as well as DNF.

The steps for conversion to DNF are as follows

Step 1: Use the equivalences to remove the logical operators ‘↔’ and ‘→’:

(i) E ↔ G = (E → g) ∧ (G → E)
(ii) E → G = ~ E ∨ G

Step 2 Remove ~’s, if occur consecutively more than once, using

(iii) ~ (~E) = E

(iv) Use De Morgan’s laws to take ‘~’ nearest to atoms

(v) ~(E ∨ G) = ~ E ∧ ~ G
(vi) ~(E ∧ G) = ~ E ∨ ~ G

Step 3 Use the distributive laws repeatedly

(vii) E ∨ (G ∧ H) = (E ∨ G) ∧ (E ∨ H)
(viii) E ∧ (G ∨ H) = (E ∧ G) ∨ (E ∧ H)

Example

Obtain a disjunctive normal form for the formula ~ (A → (~ B ∧ C)).

Consider A → (~B ∧ C) = ~ A ∨ (~B ∧ C) (Using (E→ F) = (~ E ∨ F))

Hence, ~ (A → (~ B ∧ C)) = ~ (~ A ∨ (~B ∧ C))
= ~ (~ A) ∧ (~ (~ B ∧ C)) (Using ~ ( E ∨ F) =
~ E ∧ ~ F)
= A ∧ (B ∨ (~ C)) (Using ~ (~ E) = E and
~ (E ∧ F ) = ~ E ∨ ~ F

= (A ∧ B) ∨ (A ∧ (~ C)) (Using E ∧ (F ∨ G) =
(E ∧ F) ∨ (E ∧ G))

However, if we are to obtain CNF of ~ A (→ (~ B ∧ C)), in the last but one step, we
obtain
~ (A → (~ B ∧ C)) = A ∧ (B ∨ ~ C), which is in CNF, because, each of A and
( B ∨ ~ C) is a disjunct.

Example: Obtain conjunctive Normal Form (CNF) for the formula: D → (A →

(B ∧ C))

34
Consider The Propositional
D → (A→ (B ∧ C)) (using E → F = ~ E ∨ F for the inner implication) Logic

= D → (~ A ∨ (B ∧ C)) (using E → F = ~ E ∨ F for the outer implication)

= ~ D ∨ (~ A ∨ (B ∧ C))
= ( ~ D ∨ ~ A) ∨ (B ∧ C) (using Associative law for disjunction)
= (( ~ D ∨ ~ A ∨ B) ∧ (~ D ∨ ~ A ∨ C)

The last line denotes the conjunctive Normal Form of D→ (A → (B ∧ C))

(using distributivity of ∨ over ∧)

Note: If we stop at the last but one stop, then we obtain (~ D ∨ ~ A) ∨ (B ∧ C) = ~ D

∨ ~ A ∨ (B ∧ C) is a Disjunctive Normal Form for the given formula: D → (A → (B
∧ C))

Ex. 5: Transform the following into disjunctive normal forms.

(i) ~ (A ∨ ~ B) ∧ (S → T) (ii) (A → B) → R

Ex. 6: Transform the following into conjunctive normal forms.

(i) (A → B) → R

(ii) (~A ∧ B) ∨ (A ∧ ~ B)

Ex. 7: Verify each of the following pairs of equivalent formulas by transforming

formulas on both sides of the sign = into the same normal form.

(i) (A→ B) → (A ∧ B) = (~ A → B) ∧ (B → A)
(ii) A ∧ B ∧ (~A ∨ ~ B) = ~ A ∧ ~ B ∧ (A ∨ B)

2.10 LOGICAL DEDUCTION

Definition: A formula G is said to be a logical consequence of given formulas E1,…,

En (or G is logical derivation of E1,….E2) if and only for any interpretation I in
which E1 ∧ E2 ∧ …∧ En is true, for the interpretation I, G is also true. The proposition
E1, E2…,En are called axioms/premises of G.

Next, we state without proof two very useful theorems for establishing logical
derivations:

Theorem 1: Given formulas E1,…, En and a formula G, G is a logical derivation of

E1,….,En if and only if the formula ((E1 ∧ ….∧En) → G) is valid, i.e., True for all
interpretations of the formula.

Theorem 2: Given formulas E1,…,En and a formula G, G is a logical consequence or

derivation of E1,…En if only if the formula (E1 ∧ …..∧ En ∧ ~ G) is inconsistent, i.e.,
False for all interpretations of the formula.

The above two theorems are very useful. They show that proving a particular
formula as a logical consequence of a finite set of formulas is equivalent to
proving that a certain single but related formula is valid or inconsistent.

Note: Significance of the above two theorems lies in the fact that logical consequence
relates two formulas, where as validity/inconsistency is only about one formula. Also,
there are a number of well-known methods, including truth-table method, for
35
Introduction to A.I establishing inconsistency/validity of a formula. Thus, formula G logically follows
from a given set of formulas, we check validity of single formula. And, for checking
validity of a single formula, we already have some methods including Truth-table
method.

Definition: If the formula G is a logical consequence of the formula E1,….En, then the
single formula ((E1 ∧ ….∧ En) → G) is called a theorem, and G is also called the
conclusion of the theorem.

There are at least three alternative methods of establishing formula G as a logical

consequence of given formulas E1, E2, ….En.

According to one of these methods, through truth table or otherwise, it should be

established that for any interpretation for which each of E1, ….En, is true then for that
interpretation G must be true.

According to second method, using Theorem 1, we should show that the formula:
(E1 ∧ E2 ∧ …..∧ En) → G
is valid, i.e., True for each of its interpretations. Again validity can be shown either
through a truth table or otherwise.

The last of the three methods uses Theorem 2. According to this method, in order to
show, G as a logical consequence of E1, E2,…En, it should be established that the
formula (E1 ∧ E2 ∧ …..∧ En ∧ ~ G) is inconsistent, i.e., is False under all its
interpretations. Next, we apply these methods through an example.

Example: We are given the formulas

E1 : (A → B), E2 : ~B , G : ~ A

We are required to show that G is a logical consequence of E1 and E2.

Method 1: From the following Table, it is clear that whenever E1: A → B and
E2: ~ B both are simultaneously True, (which is true only in the last row of the table)
then G: ~ A is also True. Hence, the proof.

A B A→B ~B ~A
T T T F F
T F F T F
F T T F T
F F T T T

Method 2: We prove the result by showing the validity of E1 ∧ E2 → G, i.e., of ((A →

B) ∧ ~ B) → ~ A by transforming it into a conjunctive normal form.

(A → B) ∧ ~ B) → ~ A = ~ (( A → B) ∧ ~ B) ∨ ~ A (using E → F = (~ E ∨ F))
= ~ (( ~ A ∨ B) ∧ ~ B) ∨ ~ A

= ~ ((~ A ∧ ~ B) ∨ (B ∧ ~ B)) ∨ ~ A
= ~ ((~ A ∧ ~ B) ∨ False) ∨ ~ A
= ~(( ~ A ∧ ~ B)) ∨ ~ A (using De Morgan’s Laws)
= (A ∨ B) ∨ ~ A =
= (B ∨ A) ∨ ~ A
= B ∨ (A ∨ ~ A)
= B ∨ True
36
 = True (always) The Propositional
Thus, ((A → B) ∧ B) → ~ A is valid. Logic

Ex. 8: Using Truth Table show that G is a logical consequence of E1 and E2

where E1 : (A → B), E2 : ~B , G : ~ A, by establishing validity of the formula (E1 ∧ E2
→ G).
Ex. 9: Use (i) the truth table technique (ii) reduction to DNF/CNF to show that
(A → B) ∧ ~ B ∧ A is inconsistent which, in turn proves that ~ A is a logical
consequence of (A → B) and ~ B.

2.11 APPLICATIONS

Next, we discuss some of the applications of Propositional Logic.

Example

Suppose the stock prices go down if the interest rate goes up. Suppose also that most
people are unhappy when stock prices go down. Assume that the interest rate goes up.
Show that we can conclude that most people are unhappy.

To show the above conclusion, let us denote the statements are as follows:

A : Interest rate goes up,

S : Stock prices go down
U : Most people are unhappy

The problem has the following four statements:

1) If the interest rate goes up, stock prices go down.

2) If stock prices go down, most people are unhappy.
3) The interest rate goes up.
4) Most people are unhappy. (to conclude)

The above-mentioned statements are symbolised as,

(1′) A→ S
(2′) S→ U
(3′) A
(4′) U. (to conclude)

In order to establish the conclusion, we should show that (4′) is logical consequence
of (1′) , (2′) and (3′). For this purpose, we show that (4′) is true whenever (1′) ∧ (2′) ∧
(3′) is true.

We transform ((A → S) ∧ (S → U) ∧ A) (representing (1′) ∧ (2′) ∧ (3′)) into a normal

form:

((A→ S) ∧ (S→ U) ∧ A) = ((~A ∨ S) ∧ (~S ∨ U) ∧ A) (by using E→ F =

~ E ∨ F)
= (A ∧ (~A ∨ S) ∧ (~ S ∨ U)) (by using E ∧ F =
F ∧ E, (to bring the
last clause A in the
beginning)

37
Introduction to A.I = (((A ∧ ~A) ∨ (A ∧ S)) ∧ (~ S ∨ U)) (by using associative
laws and then using
distributivity of
‘A ∧’ over the next
disjunct (~ A ∨ S))
= ((False ∨ (A ∧ S)) ∧ (~ S ∧ U)) (using False
∨ E = E)
= (A ∧ S ) ∧ ( ~ S ∨ U)
= (A ∧ S ∧ ~ S) ∨ (A ∧ S ∧ U)
= (A ∧ False) ∨ (A ∧ S ∧ U) (using A ∧ False =
False)
= False ∨ (A ∧ S ∧ U)
=A∧S∧U
Therefore, if ((A→ S) ∧ (S→ U ) ∧ A) is true, then (A ∧ S ∧ U) is true. Since
(A ∧ S ∧ U) is true then each of A, S, and U is true, we conclude that U is true. Hence,
U is a logical consequence of 1), 2) and 3) given above.

Ex. 10:Given that if the Parliament refuses to enact new laws, then the strike will not
be over unless it lasts more than one year and the president of the firm resigns, will
the strike not be over if the Parliament refuses to act and the strike just starts?

2.12 SUMMARY

In this unit, to begin with, we discuss what is Symbolic Logic and why it is it is
important to study it. The subject matter of symbolic logic consists of arguments,
where an argument consists of a number of statements — one of which is called
the conclusion and is supposed to be logically drawn from the others. Each one of the
other is called a premise, To be more specific, the subject of Symbolic Logic is the
study of how to develop tools and technique to draw correct conclusions from a given
set of premisses or to verify whether a conclusion is correct or not. A conclusion is
correct in the sense: Whenever all the premisses are True then conclusion is
necessarily True. An argument with correct conclusion is called a valid argument.
Next, a sound argument is defined as a valid argument in which premises also have to
be True.
(in some world).

In this unit, we study only a specific branch of symbolic logic, viz. Propositional
Logic (PL).

Next, we discuss how a statement, also called a well-formed formula (wff) and also a
Proposition, which is the basic unit of an argument in PL, is appropriately denoted
and how it is interpreted, i.e., how a wff is given meaning. The meaning of a wff in
PL is only in terms of True or False. The wffs are classified as valid, invalid,
consistent and inconsistent.
Then tools and techniques in the form of Truth-table, logical deduction, normal forms
etc are discussed to test these properties of wffs and also to test validity of arguments.
Finally a number of applications of these concepts, tools and techniques of PL are
used to solve problems that involve logical reasoning of PL systems.

2.13 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS

Ex. 1
(a) Let H: He campaigns hard ; E: He will be elected
38 Then the statement becomes the formula:
 H→E The Propositional
Logic
(b) Let H: The Humidity is high, RTY: It will rain today
RTW: It will rain tomorrow.
Then
H → RTY ∨ RTW
(c) Let C: Cancer will be cured
D: Cancer’s cause will be determined
F: A new drug for cancer will be found
Then the statement becomes the formula:
(~ C) ∨ (D ∧ F). This formula may also be written as:
C→D∧F
(d) Let C: One has courage
S: One has skill
M: One climbs mountain
Then the statement becomes the formula:
M→C∧S
Ex 2: (a) If he is sick then he needs a doctor, but, if he has an accident then he needs a
lawyer
(b) If One requires a doctor then one must be either sick or injured.
(c) If he needs both a doctor and a lawyer then he has an accident.
(d) One requires a doctor and also a lawyer if and only if one is sick and also
injured.

Ex. 3:
(i) Truth table of the formula: P: (~ A ∨ B) ∧ ( ~ (A ∧ ~ B)) is as given below.

A B ~A ~B ~A ∨ B A∧~B ~ (A ∧ ~B) P
T T F F T F T T
T F F T F T F F
F T T F T F T T
F F T T T F T T

Ex. 4:
(i) Consistent but not valid, because, for For B as T and A as F, the formula
is T. But, for A as T and B as F the formula is F.
(ii) It can be easily that ~ B → ~ A has same truth-value as (A → B) for any
interpretation. Therefore, in stead of the given formula, we may consider
the formula
(A → B) → (A → B)
which can be further written as P → P, writing (A → B) as P. Even P →
can be written as P ∨ P ≡ P ≡ (A → B), The last formula is F when F and
A is T. The formula is T when A is F and B is T. Hence, the formula is
neither valid nor inconsistent.
Therefore, the formula is consistent but not valid
(iii) For all truth assignments to A and B, L. H.S. of the formula is always T
and R. H.S. is always F. Hence the formula is inconsistent, i.e., always F
(iv) The L. H. S. of the given formula is F under all interpretations. Hence, the
formula is T under all interpretation. Therefore, the formula is valid.

Ex. 5: (i) Removing ‘→’, we get

~ ( A ∨ ~ B) ∧ (~ S ∨ T)
Taking ‘~’ inside we get
(~ A ∧ B) ∧ (~ S ∨ T) (using De Morgan’s Law)
Using distributivity of ∧ over ∨ we get
(~ A ∧ B ∧ ~ S) ∨ (~ A ∧ B ∧ T)
which is the required form
39
Introduction to A.I (ii) Removing outer → we get
~ (A → B ) ∨ R
Removing the other ‘→’ we get
~ (~ A ∨ B) ∨ R
Taking ~ inside, we get
(A ∧ ~ B) ∨ R,
which is the required form

Ex. 6:
(i) Using distributive law in the last formula of 5 (ii) above, we get
(A ∨ R) ∧ (~ B ∨ R)
which is the required CNF

(ii) Using Left distributivity of ∨ over ∧ we get

(( ~ A ∧ B) ∨ A ) ∧ ( ~ A ∧ B) ∨ ~ B)
Using Right distributivity inside each pair of parenthese of ∨ over ∧ we get
(( ~ A ∨ A) ∧ (B ∨ A) ∧ (( ~ A ∨ ~ B) ∧ (B ∨ ~ B))
Using ~ A ∨ A = T = B ∨ ~ B, we get
( T ∧ ( B ∨ A)) ∧ (( ~ A ∨ ~ B) ∧ T)
which is equivalent to
( B ∨ A ) ∧ (( ~ A ∨ ~ B) = (A ∨ B) ∧ (~ A ∨ ~ B)
is the required CNF.

Ex. 7: (i) Consider L.H.S

Removing inner → on L. H.S., we get
(~ A ∨ B) → (A ∧ B)
removing the other ‘→’
= ~ ( ~ A ∨ B) ∨ (A ∧ B)
Using De Morgan’s Laws, we get
= (~ (~A) ∧ (~ B)) ∨ (A ∧ B)
= (A ∧ ~ B) ∨ (A ∧ B) (i)
which is in DNF

For R.H.S, removing the two implications, we get

(~ (~ A ) ∨ B) ∧ (~ B ∨ A)
= (A ∨ B) ∧ (~ B ∨ A)
(which is in CNF, but we require DNF)
Using Left distributivity of ∧ over ∨, we get
= (( A ∨ B) ∧ ( ~ B)) ∨ (( A ∨ B) ∧ A)
Using Right distributivity of ∧ over ∨, we get
= (( A ∧ ~ B) ∨ (B ∧ ~ B)) ∨ ( ( A ∧ A) ∨ (B ∧ A))
Using B ∧ ~ B = F A∧A=A
And P ∨ F = P we get
= (A ∧ ~ B) ∨ ( A ∨ (B ∧ A))
= (A ∧ ~ B) ∨ (A) = (A ∧ ~ B) ∨ (A ∧ T) (ii)
= ( A ∧ ~ B) ∨ (A ∧ (B ∨ ~ B))
= (A ∧ ~ B) ∨ (A ∧ ~ B) ∨ (A ∧ B)
Using P ∨ P = P, we get
= (A ∧ ~ B) ∨ (A ∧ B)

(ii) R.H.S Applying associative laws, we get

( ~ A ∧ ~ B) ∧ (A ∨ B)
Using left distributivity of ∧ over ∨ we get
= (( ~ A ∧ ~ B) ∧ A) ∨ ((~ A ∧ ~ B) ∧ B)
Again using associativity of ∧ and using ~ A ∧ A = F = ~ B ∧ B we get
40
R.H. S. = F The Propositional
Consider L.H.S, applying associativity of ∧, we get Logic

= (( A ∧ B) ∧ (~ A ∨ ~ B )),
using left distributivity and commutativity of ∧ we get
= (( A ∧ B) ∧ ~ A) ∨ (( A ∧ B) ∧ ~ B)
Using associativity of ∧ and using A ∧ ~ A = F = B ∧ ~ B
= (B ∧ F) ∨ ( A ∧ F)
Using A ∧ F = F = B ∧ F
=F

Ex. 8: The following table shows that ((A → B) ∧ ~ B) → ~ A is true in every

interpretation. Therefore ((A → B) ∧ ~ B) → ~ A is valid and according to the First
theorem, ~ A is a logical consequence of (A → B) and ~ B.

Truth Table of ((A → B) ∧ ~ B) → ~ A

A B A→B ~B (A→B) ∧ ~ B ~A (A→B) ∧ ~ B) → ~ A
T T T F F F T
T F F T F F T
F T T F F T T
F F T T T T T

Ex. 9: (i) From the following table, ((A → B) ∧ ~ B ∧ A) being False for all
interpretations, is inconsistent.

Truth Table of (A → B) ∧ ~ B ∧ A
A B A→B ~B (A → B) ∧ ~ B ∧ A
T T T F F
T F F T F
F T T F F
F F T T F

(ii) Prove the inconsistency of E1 ∧ E2 ∧ ~ G, i.e., of (A → B) ∧ ~ B ∧ A by

transforming, into a disjunctive normal form:

(A → B) ∧ ~ B ∧ A = (~ A ∨ B) ∧ ( ~ B ∧ A )
= (~ A ∧ ~ B ∧ A) ∨ (B ∧ ~ B ∧ A) (Distributive Law)
= (~ A ∧ A ∧ ~ B) ∨ (F ∧ A)
= False ∨ False = False
Thus (A → B) ∧ ~ B ∧ A is inconsistent.

Ex. 10:
Let us symbolize the statements in the problem state of above as follows:
A: The Parliament refuses to act.
B: The strike is over.
R: The president of the firm resigns.
S: The strike lasts more than one year.

Then the facts and the question to be answered in the problem can be symbolized as:

E1: (A→ (~ B ∨ (R ∧ S))) represents the statement ‘If the congress refuses to enact
new laws, then the strike will not be over unless it lasts more than one year and the
president of the firm resigns.’

E2 : A, represents the statement ‘The congress refuses to act, by and’

41
Introduction to A.I E3: ~ S represent the statement ‘The strike just starts.’

E4: ~ B (to be concluded)

Ex. 10: We solve the problem by showing that the formula P: ((A → (~ B ∨ (R ∧ S)))
∧ A ∧ ~ S) → ~ B is valid by two methods: (i) by reducing to CNF/DNF
(ii) by constructing truth-table of the formula.

Methods (i) Removing the two occurrences of ‘→’ , we get

P = ~ (( ~ A ∨ (~ B ∨ (R ∧ S))) ∧ A ∧ ~ S) ∨ ~ B
Using De Morgan’s Laws, we get
= (~ ((~ A) ∨ (~ B ∨ (R ∧ S))) ∨ ~ A ∨ ~ ~ S) ∨ ~ B
= (A ∧ ( ~ ~ B ∧ ~ ( R ∧ S))) ∨ ~ A ∨ S) ∨ ~ B
= (A ∧ (B ∧ ~ ( R ∧ S))) ∨ ~ A ∨ S) ∨ ~ B
P = (A ∧ (B ∧ (~ R ∨ ~ S))) ∨ ~ A ∨ S ∨ ~ B ….. (i)

Consider the case R is assigned value F

Then the formula P becomes

(A ∧ (B ∧ (~ F ∨ ~ S))) ∨ (~ A ∨ ~ B ∨ S)
= ((A ∧ B) ∧ T) ∨ (~ (A ∧ B) ∨ S)
= (A ∧ B) ∨ (~ (A ∧ B) ∨ S)
By denoting A ∧ B by H we get P = H ∨ (~ H ∨ S) = T whether (A ∧ B) is T or F

Consider the case when R is assigned T

Then the formula P given by (i) becomes
(A ∧ (B ∧ (~ T ∨ ~ S) ∨ (~ A ∨ ~ B ∨ S) (using De Morgan Laws)
= ((A ∧ B) ∧ ~ S) ∨ (~ (A ∧ B) ∨ S)
= (( A ∧ B) ∧ ~ S) ∨ (~ (A ∧ B ∧ ~ S))
Denoting (A ∧ B ∧ ~ S) by K we get
P=K∨~K=T
Hence P is valid. Hence, the proof.

Method (ii)
The solution of the problem lies in showing that ~ B logical follows from E1, E2, and
E3. This is equivalent to showing that P: ((A → (~B ∨ (R ∧ S ))) ∧ A ∧ ~ S) → ~ B is
a valid formula. The truth values of the above formula under all the interpretations are
shown in given table

A B R S ~B ~ B ∨ (R ∧ S)
T T T T F T
T T T F F F
T T F T F F
T T F F F F
T F T T T T
T F T F T T
T F F T T T
T F F F T T
F T T T F T
F T T F F F
F T F T F F
F T F F F F
F F T T T T
F F T F T T
F F F T T T
F F F F T T

42
A B R S E1 E2 E3 ~B ~ B ∨ (R ∧ E1 (E1 ∧ E2 ∧ E3) The Propositional
Logic
S) →~B
T T T T T T F F T T T
T T T F F T T F F F T
T T F T F T F F F F T
T T F F F T T F F F T
T F T T T T F T T T T
T F T F T T T T T T T
T F F T T T F T T T T
T F F F T T T T T T T
F T T T T F F F T T T
F T T F T F T F F T T
F T F T T F F F F T T
F T F F T F T F F T T
F F T T T F F T T T T
F F T F T F T T T T T
F F F T T F F T T T T
F F F F T F T T T T T

Under all interpretations formula is True. Hence, the formula P a valid formula. ~ B is
a logical consequence of E1, E2 and E3. Hence, the “The strike will not be over” is a
valid conclusion.

2.14 FURTHER READINGS

(In the order from elementary to advanced)
1. McKay, Thomas J., Modern Formal Logic (Macmillan Publishing Company,
1989).
2. Gensler, Harry J. Symbolic Logic: Classical and Advanced Systems (Prentice
Hall, 1990).
3. Klenk, Virginia Understanding Symbolic Logic (Prentice Hall 1983)
4. Copi Irving M. & Cohen Carl, Introduction to Logic, IX edition, (Prentice Hall of
India, 2001).
5. Carroll, Lewis, Symbolic Logic & Game of Logic (Dover Publication, 1955).
6. Wells, D.G., Recreations in Logic (Dover Publications, 1979).
7. Suppes Patrick, Introduction to Logic (Affiliated East-West Press, 1957).
8. Getmanova, Alexandra, Logic (Progressive Publishers, Moscow, 1989).
9. Crossely, J.N. et al What is Mathematical Logic? (Dover Publications, 1972).
10. Mendelson, Elliott: Introduction to Mathematical Logic (Second Edition) (D.Van
Nostrand Company, 1979).

43
UNIT 1 THE FIRST-ORDER PREDICATE
LOGIC (FOPL)
Structure Page Nos.

1.0 Introduction 5
1.1 Objectives 7
1.2 Syntax of Predicate Logic 7
1.3 Prenex Normal Form (PNF) 12
1.4 (Skolem) Standard Form 15
1.5 Applications of FOPL 17
1.6 Summary 18
1.7 Solutions/Answers 19
1.8 Further/Readings 24

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In the previous unit, we discussed how propositional logic helps us in solving

problems. However, one of the major problems with propositional logic is that,
sometimes, it is unable to capture even elementary type of reasoning or argument as
represented by the following statements:

Every man is mortal.

Raman is a man.
Hence, he is mortal.

The above reasoning is intuitively correct. However, if we attempt to simulate the

reasoning through Propositional Logic and further, for this purpose, we use symbols
P, Q and R to denote the statements given above as:

P: Every man is mortal,

Q: Raman is a man,
R: Raman is mortal.

Once, the statements in the argument in English are symbolised to apply tools of
propositional logic, we just have three symbols P, Q and R available with us and
apparently no link or connection to the original statements or to each other. The
connections, which would have helped in solving the problem become invisible. In
Propositional Logic, there is no way, to conclude the symbol R from the symbols P
and Q. However, as we mentioned earlier, even in a natural language, the conclusion
of the statement denoted by R from the statements denoted by P and Q is obvious.
Therefore, we search for some symbolic system of reasoning that helps us in
discussing argument forms of the above-mentioned type, in addition to those forms
which can be discussed within the framework of propositional logic. First Order
Predicate Logic (FOPL) is the most well-known symbolic system for the pourpose.

The symbolic system of FOPL treats an atomic statement not as an indivisible unit.
Rather, FOPL not only treats an atomic statement divisible into subject and predicate
but even further deeper structures of an atomic statement are considered in order to
handle larger class of arguments. How and to what extent FOPL symbolizes and
establishes validity/invalidity and consistency/inconsistency of arguments is the
subject matter of this unit.

5
Knowledge Representation In addition to the baggage of concepts of propositional logic, FOPL has the
following additional concepts: terms, predicates and quantifiers. These concepts
will be introduced at appropriate places.

In order to have a glimpse at how FOPL extends propositional logic, let us again
discuss the earlier argument.

Every man is mortal. Raman is a man.

Hence, he is mortal.

In order to derive the validity of above simple argument, in stead of looking at an

atomic statement as indivisible, to begin with, we divide each statement into subject
and predicate. The two predicates which occur in the above argument are:
‘is mortal’ and ‘is man’.

Let us use the notation

IL: is_mortal and
IN: is_man.

In view of the notation, the argument on para-phrasing becomes:

For all x, if IN (x) then IL (x).
IN (Raman).
Hence, IL (RAMAN)

More generally, relations of the form greater-than (x, y) denoting the phrase ‘x is
greater than y’, is_brother_ of (x, y) denoting ‘x is brother of y,’ Between (x, y, z)
denoting the phrase that ‘x lies between y and z’, and is_tall (x) denoting ‘x is tall’ are
some examples of predicates. The variables x, y, z etc which appear in a predicate
are called parameters of the predicate.

The parameters may be given some appropriate values such that after substitution of
appropriate value from all possible values of each of the variables, the predicates
become statements, for each of which we can say whether it is ‘True’ or it is ‘False’.

For example, for the predicate greater-than (x, y), if x is given value 3 then we obtain
greater-than (3, y), for which still it is not possible to tell whether it is True or False.
Hence, ‘greater-than (3, y)’ is also a predicate. Further, if the variable y is given value
5 then we get greater (3, 5) which , as we known, is False. Hence, it is possible to
give its Truth-value, which is False in this case. Thus, from the predicate greater-than
(x, y), we get the statement greater-than (3, 5) by assigning values 3 to the variable x
and 5 to the variable y. These values 3 and 5 are called parametric values or
arguments of the predicate greater-than.

(Please note ‘argument of a function/predicate’ is a mathematical concept, different

from logical argument)

Similarly, we can represent the phrase x likes y by the predicate LIKE (x, y). Then
Ram likes Mohan can be represented by the statement LIKE (RAM, MOHAN).

Also function symbols can be used in the first-order logic. For example, we can use
product (x, y) to denote x ∗ y and father (x) to mean the ‘father of x’. The statement:
Mohan’s father loves Mohan can be symbolised as LOVE (father (Mohan), Mohan).
Thus, we need not know name of father of Mohan and still we can talk about him. A
function serves such a role.

We may note that LIKE (Ram, Mohan) and LOVE (father (Mohan),Mohan) are atoms
or atomic statements of PL, in the sense that, one can associate a truth-value True or
6
False with each of these, and each of these does not involve a logical operator like ~, The First Order
Predicate Logic
∧, ∨, → or ↔.

Summarizing in the above discussion, LIKE (Ram, Mohan) and LOVE (father
(Mohan) Mohan) are atoms; where as GREATER, LOVE and LIKE are predicate
symbols; x and y are variables and 3, Ram and Mohan are constants; and father and
product are function symbols.

1.1 OBJECTIVES

After studying this unit, you should be able to:

• explain why FOPL is required over and above PL;
• define, and give appropriate examples for, each of the new concepts required for
FOPL including those of quantifier, variable, constant, term, free and bound
occurrences of variables, closed and open wff;
• check consistency/validity, if any, of closed formulas;
• reduce a given formula of FOPL to normal forms: Prenex Normal Form (PNF) and
(Skolem) Standard Form, and
• use the tools and techniques of FOPL, developed in the unit, to solve problems
requiring logical reasoning.

1.2 SYNTAX OF FOPL

In the introduction of the unit, we had a bird’s eye view of:

(i) How analysis of an atomic statement of PL can and should be carried out.
(ii) What are the new concepts and terms that are required to discuss the subject
matter of FOPL.
(iii) How (i) and (ii) above will prove useful in solving problems using FOPL over and
above the set of problems solvable using only PL.
Also, in the introduction to the previous unit, we mentioned that a symbolic logic is a
formal language and hence, all the rules for building constructs of the language must
be specified clearly and unambiguously.

Next, we discuss how various constructs are built up from the alphabet.

For this purpose, from the discussion in the Introduction, we need at least the
following concepts.

i) Individual symbols or constant symbols: These are usually names of objects,

such as Ram, Mohan, numbers like 3, 5 etc.

ii) Variable symbols: These are usually lowercase unsubscripted or subscripted

letters, like x, y, z, x3.

iii) Function symbols: These are usually lowercase letters like f, g, h,….or strings
of lowercase letters such as father and product.

iv) Predicate symbols: These are usually uppercase letters like P, Q, R,….or
strings of lowercase letters such as greater-than, is_tall etc.

A function symbol or predicate symbol takes a fixed number of arguments. If a

function symbol f takes n arguments, f is called an n-place function symbol. Similarly,
if a predicate symbol Q takes m arguments, P is called an m-place predicate symbol.
For example, father is a one-place function symbol, and GREATER and LIKE are
7
Knowledge Representation two-place predicate symbols. However, father-of in father_of (x, y) is a, two place
predicate symbol.

The symbolic representation of an argument of a function or a predicate is called a

term where a term is defined recursively as follows:

i) A variable is a term.
ii) A constant is a term.
iii) If f is an n-place function symbol, and t1….tn are terms, then f(t1,….,tn) is a term.
iv) Any term can be generated only by the application of the rules given above.

For example: Since, y and 3 are both terms and plus is a two-place function symbol,
plus (y, 3) is a term according to the above definition.

Furthermore, we can see that plus (plus (y, 3), y) and father (father (Mohan)) are also
terms; the former denotes (y + 3) + y and the later denotes grandfather of Mohan.

A predicate can be thought of as a function that maps a list of constant arguments to T

or F. For example, GREATER is a predicate with GREATER (5, 2) as T, but
GREATER (1, 3) as F.

We already know that in PL, an atom or atomic statement is an indivisible unit for
representing and validating arguments. Atoms in PL are denoted generally by symbols
like P, Q, and R etc. But in FOPL,

Definition: An Atom is

(i) either an atom of Propositional Logic, or

(ii) is obtained from an n-place predicate symbol P, and terms t1,….tn so that
P (t1,….,tn) is an atom.

Once, the atoms are defined, by using the logical connectives defined in Propositional
Logic, and assuming having similar meaning in FOPL, we can build complex
formulas of FOPL. Two special symbol ∀ and ∃ are used to denote qualifications in
FOPL. The symbols ∀ and ∃ are called, respectively, the universal quantifier and
existential quantifier. For a variable x, (∀x) is read as for all x, and (∃x) is read as
there exists an x. Next, we consider some examples to illustrate the concepts discussed
above.

In order to symbolize the following statements:

i) There exists a number that is rational.

ii) Every rational number is a real number
iii) For every number x, there exists a number y, which is greater than x.

let us denote x is a rational number by Q(x), x is a real number by R(x), and x is less
than y by LESS(x, y). Then the above statements may be symbolized respectively, as

(i) (∃x) Q(x)

(ii) (∀x) (Q(x) → R (x))
(iii) (∀x) (∃y) LESS(x, y).

Each of the expressions (i), (ii), and (iii) is called a formula or a well-formed formula
or wff.

8
Next, we discuss three new concepts, viz Scope of occurrence of a quantified variable, The First Order
Predicate Logic
Bound occurrence of a quantifier variable or quantifier and Free occurrence of a
variable.

Before discussion of these concepts, we should know the difference between a

variable and occurrence of a variable in a quantifier expression.

The variable x has THREE occurrences in the formula

(∃x) Q(x) → P(x, y).

Also, the variable y has only one occurrence and the variable z has zero occurrence in
the above formula. Next, we define the three concepts mentioned above.

Scope of an occurrence of a quantifiers is the smallest but complete formula

following the quantifier sometimes delimited by pair f parentheses. For example, Q(x)
is the scope of (∃x) in the formula
(∃x) Q(x) → P(x, y).
But the scope of (∃x) in the formula: (∃x) (Q(x) → P(x, y)) is (Q(x) → P(x, y)).
Further in the formula:
(∃x) (P(x) → Q(x, y)) ∧ (∃x) (P(x) → R(x, 3)),
the scope of first occurrence of (∃x) is the formula (P(x) → Q (x, y) and the scope of
second occurrence of (∃x) is the formula
(P(x) → R(x, 3)).
As another example, the scope of the only occurrence of the quantifier (∀y) in
(∃x) (( P(x) → Q(x) ↔ (∀y) (Q (x) → R (y))) is ( Q (x) → R(y)). But the scope of the
only occurrence of the existential variable (∃x) in the same formula is the formula:
(P(x) → Q(x)) P ↔ (∀y) (Q (x) → R(y))

An occurrence of a variable in a formula is bound if and only if the occurrence is

within the scope of a quantifier employing the variable, or is the occurrence in that
quantifier. An occurrence of a variable in a formula is free if and only if this
occurrence of the variable is not bound.

Thus, in the formula (∃x) P(x, y) → Q (x), there are three occurrences of x, out of
which first two occurrences of x are bound, where, the last occurrence of x is free,
because scope of (∃x) in the above formula is P(x, y). The only occurrence of y in the
formula is free. Thus, x is both a bound and a free variable in the above formula and y
is only a free variable in the formula so far, we talked of an occurrence of a variable
as free or bound. Now, we talk of (only) a variable as free or bound. A variable is free
in a formula if at least one occurrence of it is free in the formula. A variable is bound
in a formula if at least one occurrence of it is bound.

It may be noted that a variable can be both free and bound in a formula. In order to
further elucidate the concepts of scope, free and bound occurrences of a variable, we
consider a similar but different formula for the purpose:
(∃x) (P(x, y) → Q(x)).
In this formula, scope of the only occurrence of the quantifier (∃x) is the whole of the
rest of the formula, viz. scope of (∃x) in the given formula is (P(x, y) → Q (x))
Also, all three occurrence of variable x are bound. The only occurrence of y is free.

Remarks: It may be noted that a bound variable x is just a place holder or a dummy
variable in the sense that all occurrences of a bound variable x may be replaced by
another free variable say y, which does not occur in the formula. However, once, x is
replaced by y then y becomes bound. For example, (∀x) (f (x)) is the same as (∀y) f
(y). It is something like

9
Knowledge Representation
2 23 13 7
x 2 dx = ∫ y 2 dy =
2
∫1 1
− =
3 3 3
Replacing a bound variable x by another variable y under the restrictions mentioned
above is called Renaming of a variable x

Having defined an atomic formula of FOPL, next, we consider the definition of a

general formula formally in terms of atoms, logical connectives, and quantifiers.

Definition A well-formed formula, wff a just or formula in FOPL is defined

recursively as follows:

i) An atom or atomic formula is a wff.

ii) If E and G are wff, then each of ~ (E), (E ∨ G), (E ∧ G), (E → G), (E ↔ G) is a
wff.
iii) If E is a wff and x is a free variable in E, then (∀x)E is a wff.
iv) A wff can be obtained only by applications of (i), (ii), and (iii) given above.

We may drop pairs of parentheses by agreeing that quantifiers have the least
scope. For example, (∃x) P(x, y) → Q(x) stands for
((∃x) P(x, y)) → Q(x)

We may note the following two cases of translation:

(i) for all x, P(x) is Q(x) is translated as

(∀x) (P(x) → Q(x) )
(the other possibility (∀x) P(x) ∧ Q(x) is not valid.)

(ii) for some x, P(x) is Q (x) is translated as (∃x) P(x) ∧ Q(x)

(the other possibility (∃x) P(x) → Q(x) is not valid)

Example

Translate the statement: Every man is mortal. Raman is a man. Therefore, Raman is
mortal.

As discussed earlier, let us denote “x is a man” by MAN (x), and “x is mortal” by

MORTAL(x). Then “every man is mortal” can be represented by

(∀x) (MAN(x) → MORTAL(x)),

“Raman is a man” by
MORTAL(Raman).

The whole argument can now be represented by

(∀x) (MAN(x) → MORTAL(x)) ∧ MAN (Roman)→ MORTAL (Roman).

as a single statement.
In order to further explain symbolisation let us recall the axioms of natural numbers:

(1) For every number, there is one and only one immediate successor,
(2) There is no number for which 0 is the immediate successor.
(3) For every number other than 0, there is one and only one immediate
predecessor.

Let the immediate successor and predecessor of x, respectively be denoted by f(x) and
g(x).

10
Let E (x, y) denote x is equal to y. Then the axioms of natural numbers are represented The First Order
Predicate Logic
respectively by the formulas:

(i) (∀x) (∃y) (E(y, f(x)) ∧ (∀z) (E(z, f(x)) → E(y, z)))
(ii) ~ ((∃x) E(0, f(x))) and
(iii) (∀x) (~ E(x, 0) → ((y)∃, g(x)) ∧ (∀z) (E(z, g(x)) → E(y, z))))).

From the semantics (for meaning or interpretation) point of view, the wff of FOPL
may be divided into two categories, each consisting of

(i) wffs, in each of which, all occurrences of variables are bound.

(ii) wffs, in each of which, at least one occurrence of a variable is free.

The wffs of FOPL in which there is no occurrence of a free variable, are like wffs of
PL in the sense that we can call each of the wffs as True, False, consistent,
inconsistent, valid, invalid etc. Each such a formula is called closed formula.
However, when a wff involves a free occurrence, then it is not possible to call such a
wff as True, False etc. Each of such a formula is
called an open formula.

For example: Each of the formulas: greater (x, y), greater (x, 3), (∀y) greater (x, y)
has one free occurrence of variable x. Hence, each is an open formula.
Each of the formulas: (∀x) (∃y) greater (x, y), (∀y) greater (y, 1), greater (9, 2), does
not have free occurrence of any variable. Therefore each of these formulas is a closed
formula.

Next we discuss some equivalences, and inequalities

The following equivalences hold for any two formulas P(x) and Q(x):
(i) (∀x) P(x) ∧ (∀x) Q(x) = (∀x) (P(x) ∧ Q(x))
(ii) (∃x) P(x) ∨ ( ∃x) Q (x) = (∃x) (P(x) ∨ Q(x)
But the following inequalities hold, in general:
(iii) (∀x) (P(x) ∨ Q(x) ≠ (∀x) P(x) ∨ (∀x) Q(x)
(iv) (∃x) (P(x) ∧ Q(x) ≠ (∃x) P(x) ∧ (∃x) Q (x)

We justify (iii) & (iv) below:

Let P(x): x is odd natural number,
Q(x): x is even natural number.
Then L.H.S of (iii) above states for every natural number it is either odd or even,
which is correct. But R.H.S of (iii) states that every natural number is odd or every
natural number is even, which is not correct.
Next, L.H.S. of (iv) states that: there is a natural number which is both even and odd,
which is not correct. However, R.H.S. of (iv) says there is an integer which is odd
and there is an integer which is even, correct.
Equivalences involving Negation of Quantifiers

(v) ~ (∀x) P(x) = (∃x) ~ P(x)

(iv) ~ (∃x) P(x) = (∀x) ~ P(x)
Examples: For each of the following closed formula, Prove
(i) (∀x) P(x) ∧ (∃y) ~ P(y) is inconsistent.
(ii) (∀x) P(x) → (∃y) P(y) is valid
Solution: (i) Consider
(∀x) P(x) ∧ (∃y) ~ P(y)
= (∀x) P(x) ∧ ~ (∀y) P(y) (taking negation out)
11
Knowledge Representation But we know for each bound occurrence, a variable is dummy, and can be replaced in
the whole scope of the variable uniformly by another free variable. Hence,

R = (∀x) P(x) ∧ ~ (∀x) P(x)

Each conjunct of the formula is either
True of False and, hence, can be thought of as a formula of PL, in stead of formula of
FOPL, Let us replace (∀x) (P(x) by Q , a formula of PL.

R = Q ∧ ~ Q = False
Hence, the proof.

(ii) Consider
(∀x) P(x) → (∃y) P(y)
Replacing ‘→’ we get
= ~ (∀x) P(x) ∨ (∃y) P(y)
= (∃x) ~ P(x) ∨ (∃y) P(y)
= (∃x) ~ P(x) ∨ (∃x) P(x) (renaming x as y in the second disjunct)

In other words,
= (∃x) (~ P(x) ∨ P(x)) (using equivalence)
The last formula states: there is at least one element say b, for ~ P(b) ∨ P(b) holds i.e.,
for b, either P(b) is False or P(b) is True.
But, as P is a predicate symbol and b is a constant ~ P(b) ∨ P(b) must be True. Hence,
the proof.

Ex. 1 Let P(x) and Q(x) represent “x is a rational number” and “x is a real number,”
respectively. Symbolize the following sentences:

(i) Every rational number is a real number.

(ii) Some real numbers are rational numbers.
(iii) Not every real number is a rational number.

Ex. 2 Let C(x) mean “x is a used-car dealer,” and H(x) mean “x is honest.” Translate
each of the following into English:

(i) (∃x)C(x)
(ii) (∃x) H(x)
(iii) (∀x)C(x) → ~ H (x))
(iv) (∃x) (C(x) ∧ H(x))
(v) (∃x) (H(x) → C(x)).

Ex. 3 Prove the following:

(i) P(a) → ~ ((∃x) P(x)) is consistent.

(ii) (∀x) P(x) ∨ ((∃y) ~ P(y)) is valid.

1.3 PRENEX NORMAL FORM

In order to facilitate problem solving through PL, we discussed two normal forms, viz,
the conjunctive normal form CNF and the disjunctive normal form DNF. In FOPL,
there is a normal form called the prenex normal form. The use of a prenex normal
form of a formula simplifies the proof procedures, to be discussed.
Definition A formula G in FOPL is said to be in a prenex normal form if and only if
the formula G is in the form
12
 (Q1x1)….(Qn xn) P The First Order
Predicate Logic

where each (Qixi), for i = 1, ….,n, is either (∀xi) or (∃xi), and P is a quantifier free
formula. The expression (Q1x1)….(Qn xn) is called the prefix and P is called the
matrix of the formula G.

Examples of some formulas in prenex normal form:

(i) (∃x) (∀y) (R(x, y) ∨ Q(y)), (∀x) (∀y) (~ P(x, y) → S(y)),

(ii) (∀x) (∀y) (∃z) (P(x, y) → R (z)).

Next, we consider a method of transforming a given formula into a prenex

normal form. For this, first we discuss equivalence of formulas in FOPL. Let us
recall that two formulas E and G are equivalent, denoted by E = G, if and only if the
truth values of F and G are identical under every interpretation. The pairs of
equivalent formulas given in Table of equivalent Formulas of previous unit are still
valid as these are quantifier–free formulas of FOPL. However, there are pairs of
equivalent formulas of FOPL that contain quantifiers. Next, we discuss these
additional pairs of equivalent formulas. We introduce some notation specific to FOPL:
the symbol G denote a formula that does not contain any free variable x. Then we
have the following pairs of equivalent formulas, where Q denotes a quantifier which is
either ∀ or ∃. Next, we introduce four laws for pairs of equivalent formulas.

In the rest of the discussion of FOPL, P[x] is used to denote the fact that x is a free
variable in the formula P, for example, P[x] = (∀y) P (x, y). Similarly, R [x, y]
denotes that variables x and y occur as free variables in the formula R Some of these
equivalences, we have discussed earlier.

Then, the following laws involving quantifiers hold good in FOPL

(i) ( Qx ) P [ x] ∨ G = ( Qx ) ( P [x ] ∨ G).
(ii) ( Qx ) P [x ] ∧ G = ( Qx ) ( P [x] ∧ G).

In the above two formulas, Q may be either ∀ or ∃.

(iii) ~ (( ∀x ) P [ x ]) = (∃x ) ( ~ P [ x ] ).
(iv) ~ (( ∃x) P [ x ] ) = ( ∀x ) ( ~ P [ x ]).
(v) (∀x) P [x] ∧ (∀x) H [x] = (∀x) (P [x] ∧ H [x]).
(vi) (∃x) P [x] ∨ (∃x) H [x] = (∃x) (P [x] ∨ H [x]).

That is, the universal quantifier ∀ and the existential quantifier ∃ can be distributed
respectively over ∧ and ∨.

But we must be careful about (we have already mentioned these inequalities)
(vii) (∀x) E [x] ∨ (∀x) H [x] ≠ (∀x) (P [x] ∨ H [x]) and
(viii) (∃x ) P [x] ∧ (∃x) H [x] ≠ (∃x) (P [x] ∧ H [x])

Steps for Transforming an FOPL Formula into Prenex Normal Form

Step 1 Remove the connectives ‘↔’ and ‘→’ using the equivalences
P ↔ G = (P → G) ∧ ( G → P)
P→ G = ~ P ∨ G

Step 2 Use the equivalence to remove even number of ~’s

~ ( ~ P) = P

13
Knowledge Representation Step 3 Apply De Morgan’s laws in order to bring the negation signs immediately
before atoms.

~ (P ∨ G) = ~ P ∧ ~ G
~ (P ∧ G) = ~ P ∨ ~ G

and the quantification laws

~ ((∀x) P[x]) = (∃x) (~P[x])

~ ((∃x) P [x]) = (∀x) (~F[x])

Step 4 rename bound variables if necessary

Step 5 Bring quantifiers to the left before any predicate symbol appears in the
formula. This is achieved by using (i) to (vi) discussed above.

We have already discussed that, if all occurrences of a bound variable are replaced
uniformly throughout by another variable not occurring in the formula, then the
equivalence is preserved. Also, we mentioned under (vii) that ∀ does not distribute
over ∧ and under (viii) that ∃ does not distribute over ∨. In such cases, in order to
bring quantifiers to the left of the rest of the formula, we may have to first rename one
of bound variables, say x, may be renamed as z, which does not occur either as free or
bound in the other component formulas. And then we may use the following
equivalences.

(Q1 x) P[x] ∨ (Q2 x) H[x] = (Q1 x) (Q2 z) (P[x] ∨ H[z])

(Q3 x) P[x] ∧ (Q4 x) H[x] = (Q3 x) (Q4 z) (P[x] ∧ H[z])

Example: Transform the following formulas into prenex normal forms:

(i) (∀x) (Q(x) → (∃x) R (x, y))

(ii) (∃x) (~ (∃y) Q(x, y) → ((∃z) R(z) → S (x)))
(iii) (∀x) (∀y) ((∃z) Q(z, y, z) ∧ ((∃u) R (x, u) → (∃v) R (y, v))).

Part (i)
Step 1: By removing ‘→’, we get
(∀x) (~ Q (x) ∨ (∃x) R (x, y))
Step 2: By renaming x as z in (∃x) R (x, y) the formula becomes
(∀x) (~ Q (x) ∨ (∃z) R (z, y))
Step 3: As ~ Q(x) does not involve z, we get
(∀x) (∃z) (~ Q (x) ∨ R (z, y))

Part (ii)
(∃x) (~ (∃y) Q (x, y) → ((∃z) R (z) → S (x)))
Step 1: Removing outer ‘→’ we get
(∃x) (~ (~ ((∃y) Q (x, y))) ∨ (( ∃z) R (z) → S (x)))
Step 2: Removing inner ‘→’ , and simplifying ~ (~ ( ) ) we get
(∃x) ((∃y) Q (x, y) ∨ (~ ( (∃z) R(z)) ∨ S (x)))
Step 3: Taking ‘~’ inner most, we get
(∃x) (∃y) Q (x, y) ∨ ((∀z) ~ R(z) ∨ S(x)))
As first component formula Q (x, y) does not involve z and S(x) does not involve both
y and z and ~ R(z) does not involve y. Therefore, we may take out ( ∃ y) and (∀z) so
that, we get
(∃x) (∃y) (∀z) (Q (x, y) ∨ (~ R(z) ∨ S (x) ), which is the required formula in prenex
normal form.

14
Part (iii) The First Order
Predicate Logic
(∀x) (∀y) ((∃z) Q (x, y, z) ∧ (( ∃u) R (x, u) → (∃v) R (y v)))
Step 1: Removing ‘→’, we get
(∀x) (∀y) ((∃z) Q (x, y, z) ∧ (~ ((∃u) R (x, u)) ∨ (∃v) R (y, v)))

Step 2: Taking ‘~’ inner most, we get

(∀x) (∀y) ((∃z) Q (x, y, z) ∧ ((∀u) ~ R (x, u) ∨ (∃v) R (y, v)))

Step 3: As variables z, u & v do not occur in the rest of the formula except the formula
which is in its scope, therefore, we can take all quantifiers outside, preserving
the order of their occurrences, Thus we get
(∀x) (∀y) (∃z) (∀u) (∃v) (Q (x, y, z) ∧ (~ R (x, u) ∨ R (y, v)))

Ex: 4 (i) Transform the formula (∀x) P(x) → (∃x) Q(x) into prenex normal form.

(ii) Obtain a prenex normal form for the formula

(∀x) (∀y) ((∃z) (P(x, y) ∧ P(y, z)) → (∃u) Q (x, y, u))

1.4 (SKOLEM) STANDARD FORM

A further refinement of Prenex Normal Form (PNF) called (Skolem) Standard Form,
is the basis of problem solving through Resolution Method. The Resolution Method
will be discussed in the next unit of the block.

The Standard Form of a formula of FOPL is obtained through the following three
steps:

(1) The given formula should be converted to Prenex Normal Form (PNF), and then
(2) Convert the Matrix of the PNF, i.e, quantifier-free part of the PNF into
conjunctive normal form
(3) Skolomization: Eliminate the existential quantifiers using skolem constants and
functions

Before illustrating the process of conversion of a formula of FOPL to Standard

Normal Form, through examples, we discuss briefly skolem functions.

Skolem Function

We in general, mentioned earlier that (∃x) (∀y) P(x,y) ≠ (∀y) (∃x) P(x,y)…….(1)

For example, if P(x,y) stands for the relation ‘x>y’ in the set of integers, then the
L.H.S. of the inequality (i) above states: some (fixed) integer (x) is greater than all
integers (y). This statement is False.

On the other hand, R.H.S. of the inequality (1) states: for each integer y, there is an
integer x so that x>y. This statement is True.

The difference in meaning of the two sides of the inequality arises because of the fact
that on L.H.S. x in (∃x) is independent of y in (∀y) whereas on R.H.S x of dependent
on y. In other words, x on L.H.S. of the inequality can be replaced by some constant
say ‘c’ whereas on the right hand side x is some function, say, f(y) of y.

Therefore, the two parts of the inequality (i) above may be written as
LH.S. of (1) = (∃x) (∀y) P (x,y) = (∀y) P(c,y),
15
Knowledge Representation Dropping x because there is no x appearing in (∀y) P(c,y)

R.H.S. of (1) = (∀y) (∃x) P(f(y),y) = (∀y) P(f(y), y)

The above argument, in essence, explains what is meant by each of the terms viz.
skolem constant, skolem function and skolomisation.

The constants and functions which replace existential quantifiers are respectively
called skolem constants and skolem functions. The process of replacing all
existential variables by skolem constants and variables is called skolemisation.

A form of a formula which is obtained after applying the steps for

(i) reduction to PNF and then to

(ii) CNF and then
(iii) applying skolomization is called Skolem Standard Form or just Standard
Form.

We explain through examples, the skolomisation process after PNF and CNF have
already been obtained.

Example: Skolomize the following:

(i) (∃x1) (∃x2) (∀y1) (∀y2)(∃x3)(∀y3) P(x1, x2, x3, y1, y2, y3)

(ii) (∃x1)(∀y1)(∃x2)(∀y2) (∃x3)P(x1, x2, x3, y1, y2 )∧(∃x1)(∀y3)( ∃x2) (∀y4)Q(x1, x2,
y3, y4)

Solution (i) As existential quantifiers x1 and x2 precede all universal quantifiers,

therefore, x1 and x2 are to be replaced by constants, but by distinct constants, say by
‘c’ and ‘d’ respectively. As existential variable x3 is preceded by universal quantifiers
y1 and y2, therefore, x3 is replaced by some function f(y1, y2) of the variables y1 and y2.
After making these substitutions and dropping universal and existential variables, we
get the skolemized form of the given formula as
(∀y1) (∀y2) (∀y3) (c, d, f (y1, y2), y1, y2, y3).

Solution (ii) As a first step we must bring all the quantifications in the beginning of
the formula through Prenex Normal Form reduction. Also,

(∃x)…P(x,…) ∧ (∃x)…. Q (x,….) ≠ (∃x) (….P(x) ∧ …Q(x,….),

therefore, we rename the second occurrences of quantifiers (∀x1) and (∀x2) by
renaming these as x5 and x6. Hence, after renaming and pulling out all the
quantifications to the left, we get
(∃x1) (∀y1) (∃x2) (∀y2) (∃x3) (∃x5) (∀y3) (∃x6) (∀y4)
(P(x1, x2, x3, y1, y2) ∧ Q (x5, x6, y3, y4)

Then the existential variable x1 is independent of all the universal quantifiers. Hence,
x1 may be replaced by a constant say, ‘c’. Next x2 is preceded by the universal
quantifier y1 hence, x2 may be replaced by f (y1). The existential quantifier x3 is
preceded by the universal quantifiers y1 and y2. Hence x3 may be replaced by g
(y1, y2). The existential quantifier x5 is preceded by again universal quantifier y1 and
y2. In other words, x5 is also a function of y1 and y2. But, we have to use a different
function symbol say h and replace x5 by h (y1, y2). Similarly x6 may be replaced by
j (y1, y2, y3).

Thus, (Skolem) Standard Form becomes

(∀y1) (∀y2) (∀y3) (P (c, f(y1), g(y1, y2), y1, y2) ∧ Q (h (y1, y2), j (y1, y2, y3))).
16
 The First Order
Ex 5. Obtain a (skolem) standard form for each of the following formula: Predicate Logic
(i) (∃x) (∀y) (∀v) (∃z) (∀w) (∃u) P (x, y, z, u, v, w)
(ii) (∀x) (∃y) (∃z) ((P (x, y) ∨ ~ Q (x, z)) → R (x, y, z))

1.5 APPLICATIONS OF FOPL

We have developed tools of FOPL for solving problems requiring logical reasoning.

Now, we attempt solve the problem mentioned in the introduction the unit to show
insufficiency of Propositional Logic.
Example: Every man is mortal. Raman is a man. Show that Raman is mortal. The
problem can be symbolized as:
(i) (∀x) (MAN(x) → MORTAL (x)).
(ii) MAN (Roman).
To show
(iii) Mortal (Raman)

Solution:

By Universal Instantiation of (i) with constant Raman, we get

(iv) Man (Raman) → Mortal (Raman)
Using Modus Ponens with (iii) & (iv) we get Mortal (Raman)

Ex: 6 No used-car dealer buys a used car for his family. Some people who buy used
cars for their families are absolutely dishonest. Conclude that some absolutely
dishonest people are not used-car dealers.
Ex: 7 Some patients like all doctors. No patient likes any quack. Therefore, no doctor
is a quack.

When it is convenient, we shall regard a set of literals as synonymous with a clause.

For example, P ∨ Q ∨ ~ R = {P, Q, ~ R}. A clause consisting of r literals is called
an r-literal clause. A one-literal clause is called a unit clause. When a clause
contains no literal, we call it the empty clause. Since, the empty clause is always
false. We customarily denote the empty clause by False.

The disjunctions (~ P(x, f(x)) ∨ R(x, f(x), g(x))) and Q(x, g(x)) ∨ R(x, f(x), g(x)) of
the standard form
~ P(x, f(x) ∨ R(x, f(x), g(x)) ∧ Q(x, g(x)) ∨ R(x, f(x), g(x))
are clauses. A set S of clauses is regarded as a conjunction of all clauses in S, (1)
with the condition that every variable that occurs in S is considered governed by a
universal quantifier. By this convention, a standard form can be simply represented
by a set of clauses.
For example, the standard form the above mentioned formula of (1) can be
represented by the set.
{P(x, f(x)) ∨ R(x, f(x), g(x)), Q(x, g(x)) ∨ R(x, f(x), g(x))}.
Example:

Find a standard form for the following formula:

a) ~ ((∀x) P(x) → (∃y) (∀z) Q(y, z))
Solution: Removing the logical symbol ‘→’, we get
~ (~ (∀x) P(x)) ∨ (∃y) (∀y) Q (y, z))
Taking ‘~’ inside, we getr
= (∀x) P(x) ∧ ~ (∃y) (∀z) Q (y z)
17
Knowledge Representation Again taking ~ inside, we get
= (∀x) P (x) ∧ (∀y) (∃z) ~ Q (y, z)

As variables x, y and z do not occur any where else, expect within their respective
scopes, therefore, the quantifiers may be taken in the beginning of the formula
without any changes. Hence, we get
(∀x) (∀y) (∃z) (P (x) ∧ ~ Q (y , z))
which is the required standard form.

Notation: Once, the standard form is obtained, there are no existential

quantifications left in the formula. Also universal quantifications are dropped,
because whatever variables appear in the rest of the formula can have only
universal quantification and hence universal quantifications are implied. Next, if
the standard form (without any quantifiers appearing) which is by definition also in
CNF, is of the form:
C1 ∧ C2 ∧ …..∧ Cn then, we may denote the standard form as a set {c1, c2,….,cn}.
For example, in the previous example, the standard normal form was
(∀x) (∀y) (∀z) (P (x) ∧ ~ Q (y, z)), after dropping quantifiers becomes
P (x) ∧ ~ Q (y, z).
The last expression can be written as { P(x), ~ Q (y, z)}.

Ex: 8 Obtain a standard form of the formula

(∃x) (∀y) (∀z) (∃u) (∀v) (∃w) P(x, y, z, u, v, w).

Ex: 9 Obtain a standard form of the formula

(∀x) (∃y) (∃z) ((~P(x, y) ∧ Q(x, z)) ∨ R(x, y, z)).

Ex: 10 Using Show that G is logical conclusion of H1 and H2, where

H1 : (∀x) (C(x) → (W(x) ∧ R(x)))

H2 : (∃x) (C(x) ∧ O(x))
G : (∃x) (O(x) ∧ R(x))

Ex: 11 Using resolution method, solve the following logic problem.

(i) Some patients like all doctors.
(ii) No patient likes any quake.
(iii) Therefore, no doctor is a quake.

Ex: 12 Conclude that some of the officials were drug pushers where we know the
following

(i) The custom officials searched everyone who entered this country who was
not a VIP.
(ii) Some of the drug pushers entered this country and they were only searched
by drug pushers. (iii) No drug pusher was a VIP.
(iv) Some of the officials were drug pushers.

Ex: 13 From the given statement: Everyone who saves money earns interest, conclude
that if there is no interest, then nobody saves money.

1.6 SUMMARY
In this unit, initially, we discuss how inadequacy of PL to solve even simple problems,
requires some extension of PL or some other formal inferencing system so as to
compensate for the inadequacy. First Order Predicate Logic (FOPL), is such an
extension of PL that is discussed in the unit.
18
Next, syntax of proper structure of a formula of FOPL is discussed. In this respect, a The First Order
Predicate Logic
number of new concepts including those of quantifier, variable, constant, term, free
and bound occurrences of variables; closed and open wff, consistency/validity of wffs
etc. are introduced.

Next, two normal forms viz. Prenex Normal Form (PNF) and Skolem Standard
Normal Form are introduced. Finally, tools and techniques developed in the unit, are
used to solve problems involving logical reasoning.

1.7 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS

Ex. 1 (i) (∀x) (P (x) → Q(x))

(ii) (∃x) (P(x) ∧ Q(x))
(iii) ~ (∀x) ( Q (x) → P(x))

Ex. 2
(i) There is (at least) one (person) who is a used-car dealer.
(ii) There is (at least) one (person) who is honest.
(iii) All used-car dealers are dishonest.
(iv) (At least) one used-car dealer is honest.
(v) There is at least one thing in the universe, (for which it can be said that) if
that something is Honest then that something is a used-car dealer
Note: the above translation is not the same as: Some no gap one honest, is a used-car
dealer.

Ex 3: (i) After removal of ‘→’ we get the given formula

= ~ P(a) ∨ ~ (( ∃x) P(x))
= ~ P(a) ∨ (∀x) (~ P(x))
Now P(a) is an atom in PL which may assume any value T or F. On taking P(a) as F
the given formula becomes T, hence, consistent.
(ii) The formula can be written
(∀x) P(x) ∨ ~ (∀x) (P(x)), by taking negation outside the second disjunct and then
renaming.
The (∀x) P(x) being closed is either T or F and hence can be treated as formula of PL.
Let ∀x P(x) be denoted by Q. Then the given formula may be denoted by Q ∨ ~ Q =
True (always) Therefore, formula is valid.

Ex: 4 (i) (∀x) P(x) → (∃x) Q(x) = ~ ((∀x) P(x)) ∨ (∃x) Q(x) (by removing the
connective→)
= (∃x) (~P(x)) ∨ (∃x) Q(x) (by taking ‘~’ inside)

= (∃x) (~P(x) ∨ Q(x)) (By taking distributivity of ∃x over ∨)

Therefore, a prenex normal form of (∀x) P(x) → (∃x) Q(x) is (∃x) (~P(x) ∨ Q(x)).

(ii) (∀x) (∀y) ((∃z) (P(x, y) ∧ P(y, z)) → (∃u) Q (x, y, u)) (removing the
connective→)
= (∀x) (∀y) (~ ((∃z) (P(x, z) ∧ P(y, z)))
∨ (∃u) Q (x, y, u)) (using De Morgan’s Laws)
= (∀x) (∀y) ((∀z) (~P(x, z) ∨ ~ P(y, z))
∨ (∃u) Q(x, y, u))
= (∀x) (∀y) (∀z) (~P(x, z)

19
Knowledge Representation ∨ ~ P(y, z) ∨ Q (x, y, u) (as z and u do not occur in the rest of
the formula except their respective
scopes)
Therefore, we obtain the last formula as a prenex normal form of the first formula.

Ex 5 (i) In the given formula (∃x) is not preceded by any universal quantification.
Therefore, we replace the variable x by a (skolem) constant c in the formula and drop
(∃x).
Next, the existential quantifier (∃z) is preceded by two universal quantifiers viz., v and
y. we replace the variable z in the formula, by some function, say, f (v, y) and drop
(∃z). Finally, existential variable (∃u) is preceded by three universal quantifiers, viz.,
(∀y), (∀y) and (∀w). Thus, we replace in the formula the variable u by, some function
g(y, v, w) and drop the quantifier (∃u). Finally, we obtain the standard form for the
given formula as
(∀y) (∀v) (∀w) P(x, y, z, u, v, w)

(ii) First of all, we reduce the matrix to CNF.

= (P (x, y) ∨ ~ Q (x, z)) → R (x, y, z)
= (~ P (x, y) ∧ Q (x, z)) ∨ R (x, y, z)
= (~ P (x, y) ∨ R (x, y, z)) ∧ (Q (x, z) ∨ R (x, y, z))

Next, in the formula, there are two existential quantifiers, viz., (∃y) and (∃z). Each of
these is preceded by the only universal quantifier, viz. (∀x).

Thus, each variable y and z is replaced by a function of x. But the two functions of x
for y and z must be different functions. Let us assume, variable, y is replaced in the
formula by f(x) and the variable z is replaced by g(x). Thus the initially given formula,
after dropping of existential quantifiers is in the standard form:
(∀x) ((~ P (x, y) ∨ R (x, y, z)) ∧ (Q (x, z) ∨ R (x, y, z)))

Ex: 6 Let
(i) U(x), denote x is a used-car dealer,
(ii) B(x) denote x buys a used car for his family, and
(iii) D(x) denote x is absolutely dishonest,

The given problem can be symbolized as

(i) (∀x) (U(x) → ~ B(x))
(ii) (∃x) (B(x) ∧ D (x)).
(iii) (∃x) (D(x) ∧ ~ U(x)) (to be shown)
By Existential Instantiation of (iii) we get that for some fixed c
(iv) B (c) ∧ D (c)
Using Universal Instantiation of (i), with c we get
(v) U (c) → ~ B (c)
Using simplification of (iv) we get
(vi) B (c) (vii) D(c)
Using Modus Tollens with (v) and (vi) taking B (c) = ~ (~ (B (c)), we get
(vii) ~ U (c)
Using conjunction of (vii) & (viii), we get
(ix) D (c) ∧ ~ U (c)
Using Existential Generalization of (ix) we get
(∃x) (D(x) ∧ ~ U (x)),
which is required to be established.

20
Ex: 7 The First Order
Predicate Logic

Let us use the notation for the predicates of the problem as follows:

P(x) : x is a patient,
D(x): x is a doctor,
Q(x): x is a quack,
L(x, y): x likes y.

The problem can be symbolized as follows:

(i) (∃x) ((P(x) ∧ (∀y) (D(y) → L(x, y)))

(ii) (∀x) (P(x) → (∀y) (Q(y) → ~ L (x, y)))
(iii) (∀x) (D(x) → ~ Q(x)). (to be shown)

Taking Existential Instantiation of (i), we get a specific c such that

(iv) P (c) ∧ (∀y) ( D (y) → L (c, y))
By simplification of (iv), we get
(v) P(c)
(vi) (∀y) (D (y) → L (c, y))

By Universal Instantiation of (ii) with x as c (because the fact in (ii) is true for all
values of x and for the already considered value c also. This type of association of an
already used value c may not be allowed in Existential Instantiation)
we get
(vii) P (c) → ∀(y) (Q (y) → ~ L (c, y))
Using Modus Ponens with (v) and (vii) we get
(viii) ∀(y) (Q(y) → ~ L (c, y))
As (∀y) is the quantifier appearing in both (vi) and (viii),
we can say that for an arbitrary a, we have
(ix) D (a) → L (c, a) for every a (from (vi)) and
(x) Q (a) → ~ L (c, a) for every a (from (viii))
(Using the equivalent P → Q = ~ Q → ~ P, we get from (x):
(xi) L (c, a) → ~ Q (a)

Ex: 8 In the formula, (∃x) is preceded by no universal quantifiers, (∃u) is preceded by

(∀y) and (∀z), and (∃w) by (∀y), (∀z) and (∀z) and (∀v). Therefore, we replace the
existential variable x by a constant a, u by a two-place function f(y, z), and w by a
three-place function g(y, z, v). Thus, we obtain the following standard form of the
formula:

(∀y) (∀z) (∀v) P(a, y, z, f (y, z), v, g(y, z, v)).

Ex: 9 As a first step, the matrix is transformed into the following conjunctive normal
form:

(∀x) (∃y) (∃z) ((~P(x, y) ∨ R(x, y, z)) ∨ R (x, y, z)) ∧ (Q(x, z) ∨ R(x, y, z))).

As the existential variables (∃y) and (∃z) are both preceded by (∀x), the variables y
and z are replaced, by one-place function f(x) and g(x) respectively.

In this way, we obtain the standard form of the formula as:

(∀x) ((~P(x, f(x)) ∨ R(x, f(x), g(x))) ∧ (Q(x, g(x)) ∨ R(x, f(x), g(x)))).

Ex: 10 As we are going to use resolution method, we consider ~ G: ~ (∃x) (O (x) ∧

R (x) as an axiom.
21
Knowledge Representation We use the resolution method to show these clauses as unsatisfiable.
As H1 unsolves only quantifier at extreme left, its standard form is:
H1 ~ (x) ∨ (W (x) ∧ R (x)) = (~ ( (x) ∨ W (x)) ∧ ( ~ C (x) ∨ R (x))
H2 : C (a) ∧ O (a) (a for ∃x)
For standard form of ~ G
~ G = ~ (∃x) (O (x) ∧ R (x)) = (∀x) (~ O (x) ∨ ~ R (x))
Standard form of ~ G = ~ O (x) ∨ ~ R (x)
Thus, the clauses of the wffs of the problem are:

(i) ~C(x) ∨ W(x)

(ii) ~ C(x) ∨ R(x) from H1
(iii) C(a)
(iv) O(a) from H2
(v) ~ O(x) ∨ ~ R(x) from ~ G.
Resolving (ii) and (iii), we get
(vi) R(a) Resolving (iv) and (v), we get
(vii) ~ R(a) Resolvent (v) and (iv)
Resolving (vi) and (vii) we get
(viii) False
Hence, G is a logical consequence of F1 and F2.

Ex : 11 Let us use the symbols:

P(x): x is a patient
D(x): x is a doctor
Q(x): x is a quake
L (x, y): x likes y.
Therefore, the given statements in the problem are symbolized as:

(i) (∃x) (P(x) ∧ (∀y) (D(y) → L(x, y)))

(ii) (∀x) (P(x) → (∀y) (Q(y) → ~L(x, y)))
(iii) (∀x) (D(x) → ~ Q(x)).

The clauses which are obtained after reducing to standard form are:

(iv) P(a) from (i) to standard

(v) ~ D(y) ∨ L(a, y) from (i) form are:
(vi) ~ P(x) ∨ ~ Q(y) ∨ ~ L(x, y) from (ii)
(vii) D(b) from ~ (iii)
(viii) Q(b) from ~ G from ~ (iii)

Resolving (v) and (vii), we get

(ix) L(a, b)
Resolving (iv) and (vi) we get
(x) ~ Q(y) ∨ ~ L(a, y)
Resolving (viii) and (x), we get
(xi) ~L (a, b)
Resolving (ix) and (xi), we get
(xii) False

Ex: 12 E(x): x entered this country

V(x): x was VIP,

S(x, y): y searched x,
C(x): x was a custom official, and
P(x): x was a drug pusher.

22
When symbolized, the known facts become: The First Order
Predicate Logic

(i) (∀x) (E(x) ∧ ~ V(x) → (∃y) (S(x, y) ∧ C(y)))

(ii) (∃x) (P(x) ∧ E(x) ∧ (∀y) (S(x, y) → P(y)))
(iii) (∀x) (P(x) → ~ V(x))

and on symbolization, the conclusion becomes

(iv) (∃x) (P(x) ∧ C(x)).

As resolution method is to be used, we assume ~ (iv)

After converting to standard form, we get the clauses:
(v) ~ E(x) ∨ V(x) ∨ S(x, (f(x)) (from (i))
(vi) ~ E(x) ∨ V(x) C(f(x)) (from (i))
(vii) P(a) (from (ii))
(viii) E(a) (from (ii))
(ix) ~ S(a, y) ∨ P(y) (from (ii))
(x) ~P(x) ∨ ~ V(x) (from (iii))
(xi) ~ P(x) ∨ ~ C(x) (from (iv))

Resolving (vii) and (x) we get

(xii) ~ V(a)
Resolving (vi) and (viii), we get
(xiii) V(a) ∨ C(f(a))
Resolving (xii) and (xiii), we get
(xiv) Cf(a))
Resolving (v) and (viii), we get
(xv) V(a) ∨ S(a, f(a))
Resolving (xii) and (xv) we get
(xvi) S(a, f(a))
Resolving (xvi) and (ix)
(xvii) P(f(a))
Resolving (xvii) and (xi), we get
(xviii) ~ C(f(a))
Resolving (xiv) and (xviii)
(xix) False

Hence, the proof by resolution method.

Ex: 13 Let us use the symbols:

S (x, y): x saves y,

M (x): x is money,
I (x): x is interest,
E (x, y): x Earns y.

Then the given statement on symbolization becomes:

(i) (∀x) ((∃y) (S(x, y) ∧ M(y)) → (∃y) (I(y) ∧ E(x, y)))
the conclusion on
(ii) ~ (∃x) I (x) → (∀x) (∀y) (S(x, y) → ~M(y))
(iii) ~ (~ (∃x) I (x) → (∀x) (∀y) (S(x, y) → ~M(y)))

The negation of (ii) becomes (iii) ~ ((∃x) I (x) → (∀x) (∀y) (S(x, y) → ~M(y)))

After converting to standard form, we get the clauses:

(iv) ~S(x, y) ∨ ~ M(y) ∨ I(f(x)) (from (i))
(v) ~S(x, y) ∨ ~ M(y) ∨ E(x, f(x)). (from (ii))
23
Knowledge Representation (vi) ~I(z) (from (iii))
(vii) S(a, b) (from (iii))
(viii) M(b) (from (iii))
Resolving (iv) and (vi), we get
(ix) ~S(x, y) ∨ ~M(y)
Resolving (vii) and (ix) we get
(x) ~ M(b)
Resolving (viii) and (x), we get
(xi) False

1.8 FURTHER READINGS

1. McKay, Thomas J., Modern Formal Logic (Macmillan Publishing Company,

1989).
2. Gensler, Harry J. Symbolic Logic: Classical and Advanced Systems (Prentice Hall
of India, 1990).
3. Klenk, Virginia Understanding Symbolic Logic (Prentice Hall of India 1983)
4. Copi Irving M. & Cohen Carl, Introduction Logic IX edition, (Prentice Hall of
India, 2001).
5. Carroll, Lewis, Symbolic Logic & Game of Logic (Dover Publication, 1955).
6. Wells, D.G., Recreations in Logic (Dover Publications, 1979).
7. Suppes Patrick, Introduction to Logic (Affiliated East-West Press, 1957).
8. Getmanova, Alexandra, Logic (Progressive Publishers, Moscow, 1989).
9. Crossely, J.N. et al What is Mathematical Logic? (Dover Publications, 1972).
10. Mendelson, Elliott: Introduction to Mathematical Logic (Second Edition)
(D.Van Nostrand Company, 1979).

24
 Deductive Inference
UNIT 2 DEDUCTIVE INFERENCE RULES Rules and Methods

AND METHODS
Structure Page Nos.

2.0 Introduction 25
2.1 Objectives 26
2.2 Basic Inference Rules and Application in PL 26
2.3 Basic Inference Rules and Application in FOPL 31
2.4 Resolution Method in PL 37
2.5 Resolution Method in FOPL 40
2.6 Summary 44
2.7 Solutions/Answers 45
2.8 Further Readings 49

2.0 INTRODUCTION

In order to establish validity/invalidity of a conclusion C, in an argument, from a

given set of facts/axioms A1, A2,…, An; so far, we only know that either a truth table
should be constructed for the formula P: A1 ∧ A2 ∧…∧ An → C, or this formula
should be converted to CNF or DNF through substitutions of equivalent formulas and
simplifications. There are other alternative methods also. However, the problem with
these methods is that as the number n of axioms becomes larger, the formula becomes
complex (imagine n = 50) and the number of involved variables, say k, also, generally,
increases. With number of variables k involved in the argument, the size of Truth-
table becomes 2k. For large k, the number of rows, i.e. 2k becomes, almost
unmanageable. Therefore, we need to search for alternative methods which instead of
processing the whole of the argument as a single formula, process each of the
individual formulas A1, A2,…, and C of the argument and their derivatives by
applying some rules which preserve validity.

In Section 3.2, we introduce eight inference rules for drawing valid conclusions in PL.
Next, in Section 3.3, we introduce four quantification rules, so that all the twelve
inference rules are used to validate conclusions in FOPL. The methods of drawing
valid conclusions, discussed so far, are cases of an approach of drawing valid
conclusions, called natural deduction approach of making inferences in which the
reasoning system initiates reasoning process from the axioms, uses inferencing rules
and, if the conclusion can be validly drawn, then ultimately reaches the intended
conclusion.

On the other hand, there is another approach called Refutation approach of drawing
valid conclusions. According to this approach, negation of the intended conclusion is
taken as an additional axiom. If the conclusion can be validly drawn from the axioms,
then through application of inference rules, a contradiction is encountered, i.e., two
formulas which are mutual negations, are encountered during the process of making
inference.

Resolution method is a single rule refutation method. Resolution method and its
applications for PL are discussed in Section 3.4. Resolution Method and its
applications for FOPL are discussed in Section 3.5.

25
Knowledge Representation
2.1 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you should be able to:

• enumerate basic inference rules of PL and also be able to apply these in solving
problems requiring PL reasoning;
• enumerate four basic quantification rules and be able to apply these rules
alongwith basic rules of PL to solve problems involving FOPL reasoning;
• explain Resolution method for PL and apply it in solving problems requiring PL
reasoning, and
• explain Resolution method for FOPL to solve problems involving FOPL
reasoning.

2.2 BASIC INFERENCE RULES AND

APPLICATIONS IN PL

In this section, we study a method which uses a number of rules of inference for
drawing valid conclusions, and later we study Resolution Method for establishing
validity of arguments.

We introduce eight rules of inference. Each of these rules has a specific name. In
order to familiarize ourselves with
(i) what a rules of inference is ,
(ii) how a rule is represented, and
(iii) how a rule of inference helps us in solving problems.

We discuss in some detail, one of the rules known as Modus Pones.

Rule 1 Modus Ponens (M. P.)

P → Q, P
Notations for M. P.:
Q

(The comma is read as ‘and’. The rule may also be written as

P, P → Q
, i.e,. we may assume commutativity of comma)
Q

The rule states that if formulas P and P → Q (of either propositional logic or
predicate logic) are True then we can assume the Truth of Q.
The assumption is based on the fact that through truth-table method or otherwise we
can show that if P and P → Q , each is assigned truth value T then Q must have truth
value T.

Consider the Table

P Q P→Q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

26
From the above table, we can see that P and P → Q both are True only in the first Deductive Inference
Rules and Methods
row and in the first row Q, the formula which is inferred, is also True.

The same is the reason for allowing use of other rules of inference in deducing
new facts.

Rule 2 Module Tollens (M. T.)

P → Q, ~ Q
~P

The rule states if P → Q is True, but Q , the consequent of P→ Q is False then the
antecedent P of P → Q is also False.

The validity of the rule may again be established through truth-table as follows:

P Q P→Q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

In the above table P → Q is T and Q is False simultaneously only in the last row and
in this row P, the formula which is inferred, is False.

Note: The validity of the rest of the rules will not be established. However, it is
desirable that the students verify the validity of the other inference rules also through
Truth-Table or otherwise.

Rule 3 Hypothetical Syllogism (H.P.)

P → Q, Q → R
P→R

The rule states that if we assume that both the formulas P → Q and Q → R are True
then we may assume P → R is also True.

Rule 4 Simplification (Simp.)

P∧Q P∧Q
(i) and (ii )
P Q

The rule says that if P ∧ Q is True then P can be assumed to be True ( and similarly
Q may be assumed to be True.)

Some of us may be surprised at the mention of the rule, thinking that if P∧ Q is True
then P must be True. The symbol ∧ is generally read as ‘and’. But the significance of
the rule is that ‘ ∧ ’ is merely a symbol and its meaning in the sense of ‘and’ comes
only through this rule of inference.
Rule 5 Conjunction (Conj.)

P, Q
P∧Q
27
Knowledge Representation The rule states if formulas P and Q are simultaneously True then the formula
P ∧ Q can be assumed to be True.

Rule 6 Disjunctive Syllogism (D.S.)

P ∨ Q, ~ P P ∨ Q, ~ Q
(i) and (ii)
Q P

The two rules above state that if it is given that (a) P ∨ Q is true and (b) one of P or
Q is False, then other must be True

Rule 7 Addition (Add.)

P Q
(i) and (ii)
P∨Q P∨Q

The rules state that if one of P and Q is assumed to be True, then we can assume
P ∨ Q to be True.

Rule 8 Dilemma (Dil.)

P → Q, R → S , P ∨ R
Q∨S

The rule states that if both the formulas P → Q and R → S are assumed to be True and
if P ∨ R , i.e. disjunction of the antecedents is assumed to be ‘True’, then assume
Truth of Q ∨ S , which is disjunction of consequents.

We demonstrate how the above-mentioned rules of inference can be used in

solving problems.

Example: Symbolize and construct a proof for the following valid argument using
rules of inference:

(i) If you smoke or drink too much then you do not sleep well, and if you do not sleep
well or do not eat well then you feel rotten, (ii) If you feel rotten, you do not exercise
well and do not study enough, (iii) You do smoke too much, therefore, (iv) You do
not study enough.

Solution: Let us symbolize the statements in the argument as follows:

S: You smoke too much

D: You drink too much

W: You sleep well

E: You eat well

R: You feel rotten

X : You exercise well

T: You study enough

28
Then the three given statements marked as (i), (ii) and (iii) are symbolized as follows: Deductive Inference
Rules and Methods
(i) (( S ∨ D) → ~ W) ∧ (( ~ W ∨ ~ E) → R)

(ii) R → (~ X ∧ ~ T)

(iii) S

(iv) ~T .(To show)

P∧Q
Through simplification of (i), i.e., by using , we get
P
(v) S ∨ D → ~ W

S
Using Add on (iii) i.e. by using , we get
S∨D
(vi) S ∨ D

and using syllogism on (v) and (vi) we get

(vii) ~ W

Again through simplification of (i), we get

(viii) (~ W ∨ ~ E) → R

and by addition of (vii), we get

(ix) ~ W ∨ ~ E

From (viii) and (ix) using M.P., we get

(x) R

Again using M.P. with (ii) & (x), we get

(xi) ~ X ∧ ~ T

Again using simplification of (xi) we get the required formula

(xi) ~ T

Example: Symbolize and construct a proof for the following valid argument: (i) If the
Bible is literally true then the Earth was created in six days, (ii) If the Earth was
created in six days then carbon dating techniques are useless and scientists are frauds,
(iii) Scientists are not frauds, (iv) The Bible is literally true, therefore, (iv) God does
not exist.

Solution: Let us symbolize as follows:

B: Bible is literally true

E: The Earth was created in six days
C: Carbon dating techniques are useless
S: Scientists are frauds
G: God exists

29
Knowledge Representation Therefore the statements in the given arguments are symbolically represented as :

(i) B → E
(ii) E → C ∧ S
(iii) ~ S
(iv) B
(v) ~ G (to show)

Using M.P. on (i) and (iv), we get

(vi) E
Using M.P. on (ii) & (vi) we get
(vii) C ∧ S
Using Simp on (vii), we get
(viii) S

Using Addition on (viii), we get

(ix) S ∨ ~ G
Using (D.S.) on (iii) & (ix) we get
(x) ~ G
The last statement is what is to be proved.

Remarks: In the above deduction, (iii) and (viii) are contradicting each other. In
general, if in the process of derivation, we encounter two statement (like S and ~S)
which contradict each other, then we can deduce any statement even if the statement
can never be True in any sense. Thus, if both S and ~ S have already occurred in the
process of derivation, then we can assume the truth of any statement. For example, we
can assume the truth of the statement: ‘Moon is made of green cheese’

The technique, to prove any non-sense statement say NON-SENSE in a situation

where already two mutually contradicting statements say S and ~ S have already been
encountered, is the same as is used in deriving (ix) by applying Addition Rule to (viii).

Thus, once we encounter S, where ~S has already occurred, use Addition rule to get
S ∨ NON-SENSE from S. Then use D.S. on S ∨ NON-SENSE and ~S, we get NON-
SENSE.

Ex.1 Given the following three statements:

(i) Matter always existed

(ii) If there is God, then God created the universe.
(iii) If God created the universe, then matter did not always exist.

Show the truth of the statement: (iv) There is no God.

Ex.2 Using propositional logic, show that, if the following statements are
assumed to be true:

(i) There is a moral law.

(ii) If there is a moral law, then someone gave it.
(iii) If someone gave the moral law, then there is God.

then the following statement is also true:

(iv) There is GOD

30
 Deductive Inference
2.3 BASIC INFERENCING RULES AND Rules and Methods

APPLICATIONS IN FOPL

In the previous unit, we discussed eight inferencing rules of Propositional Logic (PL)
and further discussed applications of these rules in exhibiting validity/invalidity of
arguments in PL. In this section, the earlier eight rules are extended to include four
more rules involving quantifiers for inferencing. Each of the new rules, is called a
Quantifier Rule. The extended set of 12 rules is then used for validating arguments in
First Order Predicate Logic (FOPL).

Before introducing and discussing the Quantifier rules, we briefly discuss why, at all,
these rules are required. For this purpose, let us recall the argument discussed earlier,
which Propositional Logic could not handle:

(i) Every man is mortal.

(ii) Raman is a man.
(iii) Raman is mortal.

The equivalent symbolic form of the argument is given by:

(i’) (∀x) (Man (x) → Mortal (x)

(ii’) Man (Raman)
(iii’) Mortal (Raman)

If, instead of (i’) we were given

(iv) Man (Raman) → Mortal (Raman) ,
(which is a formula of Propositional Logic also)
then using Modus Ponens on (ii’) & (iv) in Propositional Logic, we would have
obtained (iii’) Mortal (Raman).
However, from (i’) & (ii’) we cannot derive in Propositional Logic (iii’). This
suggests that there should be mechanisms for dropping and introducing quantifier
appropriately, i.e., in such a manner that validity of arguments is not violated. Without
discussing the validity-preserving characteristics, we introduce the four Quantifier
rules.

(i) Universal Instantiation Rule (U.I.):

(∀x) p ( x)
p(a)

Where is an a arbitrary constant.

The rule states if (∀x) p(x) is True, then we can assume P(a) as True for any constant
a (where a constant a is like Raman). It can be easily seen that the rule associates a
formula P(a) of Propositional Logic to a formula (∀x) p(x) of FOPL. The
significance of the rule lies in the fact that once we obtain a formula like P(a), then
the reasoning process of Propositional Logic may be used. The rule may be used ,
whenever, its application seems to be appropriate.

(ii) Universal Generalisation Rule (U.G.)

P(a ), for all a

(∀x) p( x)

31
Knowledge Representation The rule says that if it is known that for all constants a, the statement P(a) is True,
then we can, instead, use the formula (∀x) p ( x) .

The rule associates with a set of formulas P(a) for all a of Propositional Logic, a
formula (∀x) p ( x) of FOPL.

Before using the rule, we must ensure that P(a) is True for all a,
Otherwise it may lead to wrong conclusions.

(iii) Existential Instantiation Rule (E. I.)

(∃x) P( x)
( E.I .)
P(a)

The rule says if the Truth of (∃x) P( x) is known then we can assume the Truth of
P(a) for some fixed a . The rule, again, associates a formula P(a) of Propositional
Logic to a formula (∀x) p ( x) of FOPL.

An inappropriate application of this rule may lead to wrong conclusions. The source
of possible errors lies in the fact that the choice ‘a’ in the rule is not arbitrary and can
not be known at the time of deducing P(a) from (∃x) P ( x) .

If during the process of deduction some other (∃y ) Q( y ) or (∃x) ( R ( x) ) or even

another (∃x)P(x) is encountered, then each time a new constant say b, c etc. should be
chosen to infer Q (b) from (∃y ) Q( y ) or R(c) from (∃x) ( R( x) ) or P(d) from
(∃x) P( x) .

(iv) Existential Generalization Rule (E.G)

P (a)
(E.G)
(∃x) P ( x)

The rule states that if P(a), a formula of Propositional Logic is True, then the Truth of
(∃x) P( x) , a formula of FOPL , may be assumed to be True.
The Universal Generalisation (U.G) and Existential Instantiation rules should be
applied with utmost care, however, other two rules may be applied, whenever, it
appears to be appropriate.

Next, The purpose of the two rules, viz.,

(i) Universal Instantiation Rule (U. I.)
(iii) Existantial Rule (E. I.)
is to associate formulas of Propositional Logic (PL) to formulas of FOPL in a
manner, the validity of arguments due to these associations, is not disturbed. Once, we
get formulas of PL, then any of the eight rules of inference of PL may be used to
validate conclusions and solve problems requiring logical reasoning for their
solutions.

The purpose of the other Quantification rules viz. for generalisation, i.e.,
P(a), for all a
(ii)
(∀x) P( x)
P(a)
(iv)
(∃x) P ( x)
32
is that the conclusion to be drawn in FOPL is not generally a formula of PL but a Deductive Inference
Rules and Methods
formula of FOPL. However, while making inference, we may be first associating
formulas of PL with formulas of FOPL and then use inference rules of PL to conclude
formulas in PL. But the conclusion to be made in the problem may correspond to a
formula of FOPL. These two generalisation rules help us in associating formulas of
FOPL with formulas of PL.

Example: Tell, supported with reasons, which one of the following is a correct
inference and which one is not a correct inference.

(i) To conclude F (a ) ∧ G (a ) → H (a ) ∧ I (a )
from (∀x) ( F ( x) ∧ G ( x) ) → H ( x) ∧ I ( x)
using Universal Instantiation (U.I.)

The above inference or conclusion is incorrect in view of the fact that the scope of
universal quantification is only the formula: F ( x) ∧ G ( x) and not the whole of the
formula.

The occurrences of x in H ( x) ∧ I ( x) are free occurrences. Thus, one of the correct

inferences would have been:

F (a) ∧ G (a) → H ( x) ∧ I ( x)

(ii) To conclude F (a ) ∧ G (a ) → H (a ) ∧ I (a ) from

(∀x) (F(x) ∧ G (x) → H(x) ∨ I (x)) using U.I.
The conclusion is correct in view of the argument given in (i) above.

(iii) To conclude ~ F(a) for an arbitrary a, from ~ (∀x) F(x) using U.I.

The conclusion is incorrect, because actually

~ (∀x) F(x) = (∃x) ~ F (x)

Thus, the inference is not a case of U.I., but of Existential Instantiation (E.I.)

Further, as per restrictions, we can not say for which a, ~ F(x) is True. Of course,
~ F(x) is true for some constant, but not necessarily for a pre-assigned constant a.

(iv) to conclude ( ( F (b) ∧ G (b) → H (c ) )

from (∃x ) ( ( F (b) ∧ G ( x ) ) → H (c )

Using E.I. is not correct

The reason being that the constant to be substituted for x cannot be assumed to be the
same constant b, being given in advance, as an argument of F. However,

to conclude ( ( F (b) ∧ G ( a ) → H (c ) )
from (∃x ) ( ( F (b) ∧ G ( x ) ) → H (c ) ) is correct.

Ex. 3: Tell for each of the following along with appropriate reasoning, whether it is a
case of correct/incorrect reasoning.

(i) To conclude
33
Knowledge Representation F (a) ∧ G (a) by applying E.I. to
(∃x) F(x) ∧ ∃ (x) G (x)

(ii) To conclude F ( a ) ∨ ( G ( a ) ∧ H ( a ) ) from

(∃x) F ( x) ∨ ( G ( x) ∧ H ( x) )

(iii) To conclude (∃x) (~ F(x) → ~ G (x)) from

~ F (a) →~ G (a )

(iv) To conclude ~ ( (∃x )( F ( x) ∧ G ( x ) ) from ~ ( F ( a ) ∧ G ( a ) )

Step for using Predicate Calculus as a Language for Representing Knowledge &
for Reasoning:

Step 1: Conceptualisation: First of all, all the relevant entities and the relations that
exist between these entities are explicitly enumerated. Some of the implicit facts like,
‘a person dead once is dead for ever’ have to be explicated.

Step 2: Nomenclature & Translation: Giving appropriate names to objects and

relations. And then translating the given sentences given in English to formulas in
FOPL. Appropriate names are essential in order to guide a reasoning system based on
FOPL. It is well-established that no reasoning system is complete. In other words, a
reasoning system may need help in arriving at desired conclusion.

Step 3: Finding appropriate sequence of reasoning steps, involving selection of

appropriate rule and appropriate FOPL formulas to which the selected rule is to be
applied, to reach the conclusion.

Applications of the 12 inferrencing rules (8 of Propositional Logic and 4

involving Quantifiers.)

Example: Symbolize the following and then construct a proof for the argument:

(i) Anyone who repairs his own car is highly skilled and saves a lot of money on
repairs
(ii) Some people who repair their own cars have menial jobs. Therefore,
(iii) Some people with menial jobs are highly skilled.

Solution: Let us use the notation:

P(x) : x is a person
S(x) : x saves money on repairs
M(x) : x has a menial job
R(x) : x repairs his own car
H(x) : x is highly skilled.

Therefore, (i), (ii) and (iii) can be symbolized as:

(i) (∀x) (R(x) → (H(x)∧S(x)))

(ii) ∃(x) (R(x)∧M(x))
(iii) (∃x) (M(x)∧H(x)) (to be concluded)

From (ii) using Existential Instantiation (E.I), we get, for some fixed a
34
 (iv)R(a) ∧ M(a) Deductive Inference
Rules and Methods
Then by simplification rule of Propositional Logic, we get
(v) R(a)
From (i), using Universal Instantiation (U.I.), we get
(vi) R(a) → H(a) ∧ S(a)
Using modus ponens w.r.t. (v) and (vi) we get
(vii) H(a) ∧ S(a)
By specialisation of (vii) we get
(viii) H(a)
By specialisation of (iv) we get
(ix) M(a)
By conjunctions of (viii) & (ix) we get
M(a) ∧ H(a)
By Existential Generalisation, we get
(∃x) (M(x) ∧ H(x))

Hence, (iii) is concluded.

Example:

(i) Some juveniles who commit minor offences are thrown into prison, and any
juvenile thrown into prison is exposed to all sorts of hardened criminals.
(ii) A juvenile who is exposed to all sorts of hardened criminals will become bitter
and learn more techniques for committing crimes.
(iii) Any individual who learns more techniques for committing crimes is a menace
to society, if he is bitter.
(iv) Therefore, some juveniles who commit minor offences will be menaces to the
society.

Example: Let us symbolize the statement in the given argument as follows:

(i) J(x) : x is juvenile.

(ii) C(x) : x commits minor offences.
(iii) P(x) : x is thrown into prison.
(iv) E(x) : x is exposed to hardened criminals.
(v) B(x) : x becomes bitter.
(vi) T(x) : x learns more techniques for committing crimes.
(vii) M(x) : x is a menace to society.

The statements of the argument may be translated as:

(i) (∃x) (J(x) ∧C(x) ∧P(x)) ∧((∀y) (J(y)→E(y))

(ii) (∀x) (J(x) ∧E(x)→ B(x) ∧T(x))
(iii) (∀x) (T(x) ∧B(x)→ M(x))
Therefore,
(iv) (∃x) (J(x) ∧C(x) ∧M(x))

By simplification (i) becomes

(v) (∃x) (J(x) ∧C(x) ∧P(x)) and
(vi) (∀y) (J(y) → E(y))

From (v) through Existential Instantiation, for some fixed b, we get

(vii) J(b) ∧C(b) ∧P(b)
Through simplification (vii) becomes

(viii) J(b)
35
Knowledge Representation (ix) C(b) and
(x) P(b)

Using Universal Instantiation, on (vi), we get

(xi) J(b) → E (b)
Using Modus Ponens in (vii) and (xi) we get
(xii) E(b)
Using conjunction for (viii) & (xii) we get
(xiii) J(b) ∧E(b)
Using Universal Instantiation on (ii) we get
(xiv) J(b) ∧E(b)→B(b) ∧T(b)
Using Modus Ponens for (xiii) & (xiv), we get
(xv) T(b) ∧B(b)
Using Universal Instantiation for (iii) we get
(xvi) T(b) ∧B(b)→M(b)
Using Modus Ponens with (xv) and (xvi) we get
(xvii) M(b)
Using conjunction for (viii), (ix) and (xvii) we get
(xviii) J(b) ∧C(b) ∧M(b)
From (xviii), through Existential Generalization we get the required (iv), i.e.
(∃x) (J(x) ∧C(x) ∧M(x))

Remark: It may be noted the occurrence of quantifiers is not, in general,

commutative i.e.,
(Q1x) (Q2x) ≠(Q2x) (Q1x)
For example
(∀x) (∃y) F(x,y)≠ (∃y) (∀x) F(x,y) (A)

The occurrence of (∃y) on L.H.S depends on x i.e., occurrence of y on L.H.S is a

function of x. However, the occurrence of (∃y) on R.H.S is independent of x, hence,
occurrence of y on R.H.S is not a function of x.

For example, if we take F(x,y) to mean:

y and x are integers such that y>x,

then, L.H.S of (A) above states: For each x there is a y such that y>x.
The statement is true in the domain of real numbers.

On the other hand, R.H.S of (A) above states that: There is an integer y which is
greater than x, for all x.

This statement is not true in the domain of real numbers.

Ex. 4 We are given the statements:

(i) No feeling of pain is publically observable

(ii) All chemical processes are publically observable

We are to prove that

(iii) No feeling of pain is a chemical process.

36
 Deductive Inference
2.4 RESOLUTION METHOD IN PL Rules and Methods

Basically, there are two different approaches for proving a theorem or for making a
valid deduction from a given set of axioms:

i) natural deduction
ii) refutation method

In the natural deduction approach, one starts with a the set of axioms, uses some
rules of inference and arrives at a conclusion. This approach closely resembles of the
intuitive reasoning of human beings.

On the other hand, in a refutation method, one starts with the negation of the
conclusion to be drawn and derives a contradiction or FALSE. Because of having
assumed the conclusion as false, we derive a contradiction; therefore, the
assumption that the conclusion is wrong, itself is wrong. Hence, the argument of
resolution method leads to the validity of the conclusion.

So far, we have discussed methods, of solving problems requiring reasoning of

propositional logic, that were based on

i) Truth-table construction
ii) Use of inference rules,
and follow, directly or indirectly, natural deduction approach.

In this section, we discuss another method, viz., Resolution Method suggested by

Robinson in 1965 which is based on refutation approach. The method is important
in view of the fact that the Robinson’s method has been a basis for some automated
theorem provers. Even, the logic programming language PROLOG (subject matter of
Unit 2, Block 3) is based on Resolution Method. The resolution method, as mentioned
above, is a refutation method.

In this section, we discuss how the resolution method is applied in solving problems
using only Propositional Logic (PL). The general resolution method for FOPL is
discussed in the next section.

The resolution method in PL is applied only after converting the given statements or
wffs into clausal forms. A clasual form of a wff is obtained by first converting the
wff into its equivalent Conjuctive Normal Form (CNF). We already know that a
clause is a formula (only) of the form:
A1 ∨ A2 ∨……..∨ An ,
where Ai is either an atomic formula or negation of an atomic formula.

The resolution method is a generalization of the Modus Ponens, i.e., of

P, P → Q P, ~ P ∨ Q
when written in the equivalent form
Q Q
(replacing P → Q by ~ P ∨ Q).

This simple special case, of general resolution principle to be discussed soon, states
that if the two formulas P and ~ P ∨ Q are given to be True, then we can assume Q to
be True.

The validity of (general) resolution method can be established by constructing truth-

table.
37
Knowledge Representation In order to discuss the resolution method, first we discuss some of its applications.

Example: Let C1 : Q ∨ R and C2: ~ Q ∨ S be two given clauses, so that, one of the
literals i.e., Q occurs in one of the clauses (in this case C1) and its negation (~ Q)
occurs in the other clause C2. Then application of resolution method in this case tells
us to take disjunction of the remaining parts of the given clause C1 and C2, i.e., to take
C3 : R ∨ S as deduction from C1 and C2. Then C3 is called a resolvent of C1 and C2.
The two literals Q and (~ Q) which occur in two different clauses are called
complementary literals.

In order to illustrate resolution method, we consider another example.

Example: Let us be given the clauses C1: ~ S ∨ ~ Q ∨ R and C2; ~ P ∨ Q.

In this case, complementary pair of literals viz. Q and ~ Q occur in the two clause C1
and C2.
Hence, the resolution method states:

Conclude C3: ~ S ∨ R ∨ (~ P)

Example: Let us be given the clauses C1: ~ Q ∨ R and C2: ~ Q ∨ S

Then, in this case, the clauses do not have any complementary pair of literals and
hence, resolution method cannot be applied.

Example: Consider a set of three clauses

C1 : R
C2: ~ R ∨ S
C3: ~ S

Then, from C1 and C2 we conclude, through resolution:

C4: S
From C3 and C4, we conclude,
C5 : FALSE
However, a resolvent FALSE can be deduced only from an unstatisfiable set of
clauses. Hence, the set of clauses C1, C2 and C3 is an unsatisfiable set of clauses.

Example: Consider the set of clauses

C1: R ∨ S
C2: ~ R ∨ S
C3: R ∨ ~ S
C4: ~ R ∨ ~ S
Then, from clauses C1 and C2 we get the resolvent
C5 : S ∨ S = S
From C3 and C4 we get the resolvent
C6 : ~ S
From C5 and C6 we get the resolvent
C7 : FALSE

Thus, again the set of clauses C1, C2, C3 and C4 is unsatisfiable.

Note: We could have obtained the resolvent FALSE from only two clauses, viz., C2
and C3. Thus, out of the given four clauses, even set of only two clauses viz, C2 and C3
is unsatisfiable. Also, a superset of any unsatisfiable set is unsatisfiable.

38
Example: Show that the set of clauses: Deductive Inference
Rules and Methods
C1: R ∨ S
C2: ~ S ∨ W
C3: ~ R ∨ S
C4: ~ W is unsatisfiable.

From clauses C1 and C3 we get the resolvent

C7 : S
From the clauses C7 and C2 we get the resolvent
C8 : W
From the clauses C8 and C4 we get
C9 : FALSE
Hence, the given set of clauses is unsatisfiable.

Problem Solving using resolution method. We have mentioned earlier, the

resolution method is a refutation method. Therefore, proof technique in solving
problems will be as follows:

After symbolizing the problem under consideration, add the negation of the wff which
represents conclusion, as an additional premise. From this enhanced set of
premises/axioms, derive FALSE or contradiction. If we are able to conclude FALSE,
then the conclusion, that was required to be drawn, is valid and problem is solved.
However, through all efforts, if we are not able to derive FALSE, then we cannot say
whether the conclusion is valid or invalid. Hence, the problem with given axioms and
the conclusion is not solvable.

Let us now apply Resolution Method for the problems considered earlier.

Example: Suppose the stock prices go down if the interest rate goes up. Suppose also
that the most people are unhappy when stock prices go down. Assume that the interest
rate goes up. Show that we can conclude that most people are unhappy.

To show the above conclusion, let us denote the statements as follows:

A : Interest rate goes up,

S : Stock prices go down
U : Most people are unhappy

The problem has the following four statements

1) If the interest rate goes up, stock prices go down.

2) If stock prices go down, most people are unhappy.
3) The interest rate goes up.
4) Most people are unhappy. (to conclude)

These statements are first symbolized as wffs of PL as follows:

(1′) A→ S
(2′) S→ U
(3′) A
(4′) U. (to conclude)

Converting to clausal form, we get

(i) ~ A ∨ S
(ii) ~ S ∨ U
(iii) A
(iv) U (to be concluded)
39
Knowledge Representation As per resolution method, assume (iv) as false, i.e., assume ~ U as initially given
statement, i.e., an axiom.

Thus, the set of axioms in clasual form is:

(i) ~ A ∨ S
(ii) ~ S ∨ U
(iii) A
(iv) ~ U

Then from (i) and (iii), through resolution, we get the clause
(v) S.
From (ii) and (iv), through resolution, we get the clause
(vi) ~ S
From (vi) and (v), through resolution we get,
(viii) FALSE

Hence, the conclusion, i.e.,

(iv) U : Most people are unhappy
is valid.

We might have observed from the above solution using resolution method, that clausal
conversion is a major time-consuming step after translation to wffs. Generally, once
the clausal form is obtained, proof, at least, by a human being can be easily visualised.

Ex. 5:Given that if the Parliament refuses to enact new laws, then the strike will not
be over unless it lasts more than one year and the president of the firm resigns, will
the strike not be over if the Parliament refuses to act and the strike just starts?

2.5 RESOLUTION METHOD IN FOPL

In the beginning of the previous section, we mentioned that resolution method for
FOPL requires discussion of a number of complex new concepts. Also, in Block 2, we
discussed (Skolem) Standard Form and also discussed how to obtain Standard Form
for a given formula of FOPL. In this section, we introduce two new, and again
complex, concepts, viz., substitution and unification.

The complexity of the resolution method for FOPL mainly results from the fact that a
clause in FOPL is generally of the form : P(x) ∨ Q ( f(x), x, y) ∨….., in which the
variables x, y, z, may assume any one of the values of their domain.

Thus, the atomic formula (∀x) P(x), which after dropping of universal quantifier, is
written as just P(x) stands for P(a1) ∧ P(a2)… ∧ P(an) where the set {a1 a2…, an} is
assumed here to be domain (x).

Similarly, (∃x) P(x) stands for ( P(a1 ) ∨ P(a2) ∨ …. ∨ P(an)

However, in order to resolve two clauses – one containing say P(x) and the other
containing ~ P(y) where x and y are universal quantifiers, possibly having some
restrictions, we have to know which values of x and y satisfy both the clauses. For this
purpose we need the concepts of substitution and unification as defined and
discussed in the rest of the section.

Instead of giving formal definitions of substitution, unification, unifier, most general

unifier and resolvent, resolution of clauses in FOPL, we illustrate the concepts
through examples and minimal definitions, if required

40
Example: Let us consider our old problem: Deductive Inference
Rules and Methods
To conclude
(i) Raman is mortal

From the following two statements:

(ii) Every man is mortal and

(iii) Raman is a man

Using the notations

MAN (x) : x is a man

MORTAL (x) : x is mortal,

the problem can be formulated in symbolic logic as: Conclude

MORTAL (Raman)

from

(ii) ((∀x) (MAN(x) → MORTAL (x))

(iii) MAN (Raman).

As resolution is a refutation method, assume

(i) ~ MORTAL (Raman)

After Skelomization and dropping (∀x), (ii) in standard form becomes

(i) ~ MAN (x) ∨ MORTAL (x)

(ii) MAN (Raman)

In the above x varies over the set of human beings including Raman. Hence, one
special instance of (iv) becomes

(vi) ~ MAN (Raman) ∨ MORTAL (Raman)

At the stage, we may observe that

(a) MAN(Raman) and MORTAL(Raman) do not contain any variables, and, hence,
their truth or falsity can be determined directly. Hence, each of like a formula of PL.
In term of formula which does not contain any variable is called ground term or
ground formula.

(b) Treating MAN (Raman) as formula of PL and using resolution method on (v) and
(vi), we conclude

(vii) MORTAL (Raman),

Resolving (i) and (vii), we get False. Hence, the solution.

Unification: In the process of solution of the problem discussed above, we tried to

make the two expression MAN(x) and MAN(Raman) identical. Attempt to make
identical two or more expressions is called unification.

41
Knowledge Representation In order to unify MAN (x) and MAN (Raman) identical, we found that because one of
the possible values of x is Raman also. And, hence, we replaced x by one of its
possible values : Raman.

This replacement of a variable like x, by a term (which may be another variable also)
which is one of the possible values of x, is called substitution. The substitution, in
this case is denoted formally as {Raman/x}
Substitution, in general, notationally is of the form {t1 / x1 , t2 / x2 …tm/ xm } where
x1, x2 …, xm are variables and t2, t2 …tm are terms and ti replaces the variable xi in
some expression.

Example: (i) Assume Lord Krishna is loved by everyone who loves someone (ii) Also
assume that no one loves nobody. Deduce Lord Krishna is loved by everyone.

Solution: Let us use the symbols

Love (x, y): x loves y (or y is loved by x)

LK : Lord Krishna

Then the given problem is formalized as :

(i) (∀x) ((∃y) Love (x, y)→Love (x, LK))

(ii) ~ (∃x) ((∀y) ~ Love (x, y))

To show : (∀x) (Love (x, LK))

As resolution is a refutation method, assume negation of the last statement as an

axiom.

(iii) ~ (∀x) Love (x, LK)

The formula in (i) above is reduced in standard form as follows:

(∀x) (~ (∃y) Love (x, y) ∨ Love (x, LK) )

= (∀x) ( (∀y) ~ Love (x, y) ∨ Love (x, LK) )

= (∀x) (∀y) (~ Love (x, y) ∨ Love L (x, LK) )

(∵ (∀y) does not occurs in Love (x, LK))

After dropping universal quantifications, we get

(iv) ~ Love (x, y) ∨ Love (x, LK)

Formula (ii) can be reduced to standard form as follows:

(ii) = (∀x) (∃y) Love (x, y)

y is replaced through skolomization by f(x)

so that we get

(∀x) Love (x, f(x))

42
Dropping the universal quantification Deductive Inference
Rules and Methods
(v) Love (x, f(x))

The formula in (iii) can be brought in standard form as follows:

(iii) = (∃x) ( ~ Love (x, LK))

As existential quantifier x is not preceded by any universal quantification, therefore, x

may be substituted by a constant a , i.e., we use the substitution {a/x} in (iii) to get the
standard form:

(vi) ~ Love (a, LK).

Thus, to solve the problem, we have the following standard form formulas for
resolution:

(iv) ~ Love (x, y) ∨ Love (x, LK)

(v) Love (x, f(x))
(vi) ~ Love (a, LK).

Two possibilities of resolution exist for two pairs of formulas viz.

one possibility: resolving (v) and (vi).

second possibility : resolving (iv) and (vi).

The possibilities exist because for each possibility pair, the predicate Love occurs in
complemented form in the respective pair.

Next we attempt to resolve (v) and (vi)

For this purpose we attempt to make the two formulas Love(x, f(x)) and Love (a, LK)
identical, through unification involving substitutions. We start from the left, matching
the two formulas, term by term. First place where matching may fail is when ‘x’
occurs in one formula and ‘a’ occurs in the other formula. As, one of these happens
to be a variable, hence, the substitution {a/x} can be used to unify the portions so far.

Next, possible disagreement through term-by-term matching is obtained when we get

the two disagreeing terms from two formulas as f(x) and LK. As none of f(x) and LK
is a variable (note f(x) involves a variable but is itself not a variable), hence, no
unification and, hence, no resolution of (v) and (vi) is possible.

Next, we attempt unification of (vi) Love (a, LK) with Love (x, LK) of (iv).

Then first term-by-term possible disagreement occurs when the corresponding terms
are ‘a’ and ‘x’ respectively. As one of these is a variable, hence, the substitution{a/x}
unifies the parts of the formulas so far. Next, the two occurrences of LK, one each in
the two formulas, match. Hence, the whole of each of the two formulas can be unified
through the substitution {a/x}. Though the unification has been attempted in
corresponding smaller parts, substitution has to be carried in the whole of the
formula, in this case in whole of (iv). Thus, after substitution, (iv) becomes
(viii) ~ Love (a, y) ∨ Love (a, L K)
resolving (viii) with (vi) we get

(ix) ~ Love (a, y)

43
Knowledge Representation In order to resolve (v) and (ix), we attempt to unify Love (x, f(x)) of (v) with Love (a,
y) of (ix). The term-by-term matching leads to possible disagreement of a of (ix) with
x of (v). As, one of these is a variable, hence, the substitution {a/x} will unify the
portions considered so far. Next, possible disagreement may occur with f (x) of (v)
and y of (ix). As one of these are a variable viz. y, therefore, we can unify the two
terms through the substitution { f(x)/y}. Thus, the complete substitution {a/x, f (x)/y}
is required to match the formulas.
Making the substitutions, we get
(v) becomes Love (a, f(x))
and (ix) becomes ~ Love (a, f (x))
Resolving these formulas we get False. Hence, the proof.

Ex. 6: Unify, if possible, the following three formulas:

(i) Q (u, f (y, z)),
(ii) Q (u, a)
(iii) Q (u, g (h (k (u))))

Ex. 7: Determine whether the following formulas are unifiable or not:

(i) Q (f (a), g(x))
(ii) Q (x, y)

Example: Find resolvents, if possible for the following pairs of clauses:

(i) ~ Q (x, z, x) ∨ Q (w, z, w) and

(ii) Q (w, h (v, v), w)

Solution: As two literals with predicate Q occur and are mutually negated in (i) and
(ii),therefore, there is possibility of resolution of ~ Q (x, z, x) from (i) with Q (w, h (v,
v), w) of (ii). We attempt to unify Q (x, z, x) and Q (w, h (v, v), w), if possible, by
finding an appropriate substitution. First terms x and w of the two are variables,
hence, unifiable with either of the substitutions {x/w} or {w/x}. Let us take {w/x}.
Next pair of terms from the two formulas, viz, z and h(v, v) are also unifiable,
because, one of the terms is a variable, and the required substitution for unification is
{ h (v, v)/z}.

Next pair of terms at corresponding positions is again {w, x} for which, we have
determined the substitution {w/x}. Thus, the substitution {w/x, h(v, v)/z} unfies the
two formulas. Using the substitutions, (i) and (ii) become resp. as
(iii) ~ Q (w, h (v, v), w) ∨ Q (w, h (v, v), w)
(iv) Q (w, h (v, v), w)
Resolving, we get
Q (w, h (v, v), w),
which is the required resolvent.

2.6 SUMMARY

In this unit, eight basic rules of inference for PL and four rules involving quantifiers
for inferencing in FOPL, are introduced respectively in Section 3.2 and Section 3.3,
and then these rules are used in solving problems. Further, a new method of drawing
inference called Resolution method based on refutation approach, is discussed in the
next two Sections. In Section 3.4, Resolution method for PL is introduced and applied
in solving problems involving PL reasoning. In Section 3.5, Resolution method for
FOPL is introduced and used for solving problems involving FOPL reasoning.

44
Problems with FOPL as a system of knowledge representation and reasoning: Deductive Inference
Rules and Methods
FOPL is not capable of easily representing some kinds of information including
information pieces involving.

(i) Properties of relations. For example, the mathematical statement:

Any relation which is symmetric and transitive may not be reflexive is not expressible
in FOPL. A relation in FOPL can only be constant, and not a variable. Only in second
and higher order logics, the relations may be variable. This type of logics are not
within the scope of the course.

(ii) linguistic variable like hot, tall, sweat.

For example: It is very cold today,
can not be appropriately expressed in FOPL.

(iii) different belief systems.

For example, I know that he thinks India will win the match, but I think India
will lose, also, cannot be appropriately expressed in FOPL.

2.7 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS

Ex.1: Assuming the statements (i), (ii) and (iii) given above as True we are required to
Show the truth of (iv)
The first step is to mark the logical operators, if any, in the statements of the
argument/problem under consideration.

In the above-mentioned problem, statement (i) does not contain any logical operator.
Each of the statements (ii) and (iii) contains the logical operator ‘If….then….’

The next step is to use symbols, P, Q, R, for atomic formulas occurring in the
problem. The symbols are generally mnemonic, i.e., names used to help memory.

Let us denote the atomic statements in the argument given above as follows:

M: Matter always existed,

TG: There is God,
GU: God created the universe.

Then the given statements in English, become respectively the following formulas of
PL:

(i) M
(ii) TG → GU
(iii) GU → ~ M
(iv) ~ TG (To show)

Applying transposition to (iii) we get

(v) M → ~ GU

using (i) and (v) and applying Modus Ponens, we get

(vi) ~ GU

Again, applying transposition to (ii) we get

45
Knowledge Representation (vii) ~ GU → ~ TG

Applying Modus Ponens to (vi) and (vii) we get

(vii) ~ TG

The formula (viii) is the same as formula (iv) which was required to be proved.

Ex.2 In order to translate in PL, let us use the symbols:

ML: there is a moral law,

SG: someone gave it, (the word ‘it’ stand for moral law)
TG: There is God.

Using these symbols, the Statement (i) to (iv) become the formula (i) to (iv) of PL as
given below:

(i) ML
(ii) ML → SG
(iii) SG → TG and
(iv) TG

Applying Modus Ponens to formulae (i) and (ii) we get the formula

(v) SG

Applying Modus Ponens to (v) and (iii), we get

(vi) TG

But formula (vi) is the same as (iv), which is required to be established. Hence the
proof.

Ex. 3: (i) Concluding F (a) ∧ G (a) from (∃x) F ( x) ∧ (∃x) G ( x) is incorrect, because,
as mentioned earlier also, the given Quantified Formula may be equivalently written
as (∃x) F ( x) ∧ (∃y ) G ( y ) . And in the case of each existential quantification, we can
not assign an already-used constant. Therefore, a correct conclusion may be of the
form
F (a) ∧ G (b)

(ii) The conclusion of F ( a ) ∨ ( G ( a ) ∧ H ( a ) )

from (∃x ) F ( x) ∨ ( G ( x) ∧ H ( x) )
is again incorrect, in view of the fact that scope of existential variable in the
formula, is only F(x) and not the whole formula. Hence, the last two occurrences
of x are free. Therefore, a correct conclusion can be F (a) ∨ (G (x) ∧ H (x))

(iii) The conclusion is correct

(iv) The conclusion is incorrect, because , from the given fact ~ ( F ( a ) ∧ G ( a ) ) ,

we may conclude ((∃x) (~ (F (x) ∧ G (x))

which is equivalent to ~ (∀x) ( F ( x) ∧ G ( x) )
and not to ~ (∃x) (F (x) ∧ G(x))
46
Ex. 4: For translating the given statements (i), (ii) & (iii), let us use the notation: Deductive Inference
Rules and Methods
F(x): x is an instance of feeling of pain
O(x): x is an entity that is publically observable
C(x): x is a chemical process.

Then, the statement (i), (ii) and (iii) can be equivalently expressed as formulas of
FOPL

(i) (∀x) ( F(x) → ~ O(x) )

(ii) (∀x) ( C(x) → O(x) )
To prove

(iii) (∀x) ( F(x) → ~ C(x) )

From (i) using generalized instantiation, we get

(iv) F (a) → ~ O(a), for any arbitrary a

Similarly, from (ii), using generalized instantiation, we get

(v) C(b) → O(b), for arbitrary b

From (iv) using transposition rule, we get

(vi) O(a) → ~ F(a), for arbitrary a

As b is arbitrary in (v), therefore we can rewrite (v) as

(vii) C(a) → O(a), for arbitrary a

From (vii) and (vi) and using chain rule, we get

(viii) C(a) → ~ F(a), for any arbitrary a

But as a is arbitrary in (viii), by generalized quantification, we get

(ix) (∀x) ( C(x) → ~ F(x) )

But (ix) is the same as (iii), which was required to be proved.

Ex. 5: Let us symbolize the statements in the problem given above as follows:
A: The Parliament refuses to act.
B: The strike is over.
R: The president of the firm resigns.
S: The strike lasts more than one year.

Then the facts and the question to be answered can be symbolized as:

E1: (A→ (~ B ∨ (R ∧ S))) represents the statement: If the congress refuses to enact
new laws, then the strike will not be over unless it lasts more than one year and the
president of the firm resigns.
(Note: Punless Q = P ∨ Q)
E2 : A represents the statement: The congress refuses to act, and

E3: ~ S represent the statement: The strike just starts.

E4: ~ B (to be concluded)
47
Knowledge Representation As we are going to use resolution method, we use E5 the negation of E4 as an axiom
in addition to E1, E2 and E3.
E5: B
As a first step, we convert E1, E2, E3 and E5 into clausal forms as follows:
E1: ~ A ∨ (~ B ∨ (R ∧ S)))
Using associativity of ∨, we get
= (~ A ∨ ~ B) ∨ (R ∧ S)
Using distributivity of ∨ over ∧, we get
= (~ A ∨ ~ B ∨ R ) ∧ (~ A ∨ ~ B ∨ S)

replacing E1 by two clauses

E11: (~ A ∨ ~ B ∨ R) and
E12: (~ A ∨ ~ B ∨ S)

E2, E3 and E5 are already in clausal form

We get the axioms, including the negation of the conclusion, in the clausal form
as
E11: (~ A ∨ ~ B ∨ R)
E12: (~ A ∨ ~ B ∨ S)
E2: A
E3: ~ S
E5: ~ (~ B) = B
By resolving E2 with E12, we get the resolvent
E6: ~ B ∨ S
By resolving E5 with E6, we get the resolvent as
E7 : S
By resolving E7 with E3, we get the resolvent as
E8 : FALSE

Hence, the conclusion ~ B: The strike will not be over, is valid.

Ex. 6: First, we attempt to unify (i) and (ii)

As the predicate is Q in each of the given terms, therefore, we should attempt
matching terms. The first terms match, as each is u. Next second terms are ‘a’ and f
(y, z), none of which is a variable. Hence, (i) and (ii) are not unifiable.

In the similar manner (i) and (iii) are not unifiable as the second terms f (y, z) and g (h
(k (u))) are such that none is a variable.

Ex. 7: The predicate symbols (each being Q) match. Hence, we may proceed. Next,
the first two terms viz. f (a) and x, are not identical. However, as one of these terms is
a variable viz. ‘x’, hence, the corresponding terms are unifiable with substitution
{f (a)/x}.
Next, the two terms g (x) and y, one from each of the formula at corresponding
positions, are again unifiable by the substitution { g(x)/y}.
Hence, the required substitutions { f (a)/x, g (f (a))/y} using the substitution {f (a)/x}
in g (x)/y to get the substitution {g (f (a))/y}.

Therefore the two formulas are unifiable and after unification the formulas become
Q (f(a), g (f (a)))

48
 Deductive Inference
2.8 FURTHER READINGS Rules and Methods

1. McKay, Thomas J., Modern Formal Logic (Macmillan Publishing Company,

1989).
2. Gensler, Harry J. Symbolic Logic: Classical and Advanced Systems (Prentice
Hall, 1990).
3. Klenk, Virginia Understanding Symbolic Logic (Prentice Hall 1983)
4. Mendelson, Elliott: Introduction to Mathematical Logic (Second Edition)
(D.Van Nostrand Company, 1979).
5. Copi Irving M. & Cohen Carl, Introduction Logic, IX edition, (Prentice Hall of
India, 2001).
6. Stuart Russell, Peter Norving Artificial Intelligence (Second Edition) (Pearson
Education 2003).

49
Knowledge Representations
UNIT 3 SYSTEMS FOR
IMPRECISE/INCOMPLETE
KNOWLEDGE
Structure Page Nos.

3.0 Introduction 50
3.1 Objectives 51
3.2 Fuzzy Systems 51
3.3 Relations on Fuzzy Sets 55
3.4 Operations on Fuzzy Sets 57
3.5 Operations Unique to Fuzzy Sets 59
3.6 Non-Monotonic Reasoning Systems 62
3.7 Default Reasoning Systems 64
3.8 Closed World Assumption Systems 65
3.9 Other Non-Deductive Systems 66
3.10 Summary 67
3.11 Solutions/ Answers 67
3.12 Further Readings 68

3.0 INTRODUCTION

In the earlier three units of the block, we discussed PL and FOPL systems for making
inferences and solving problems requiring logical reasoning. However, these systems
assume that the domain of the problems under consideration is complete, precise and
consistent. But, in the real world, the knowledge of the problem domains is generally
neither precise nor consistent and is hardly complete.

In this unit, we discuss a number of techniques and formal systems that attempt to
handle some of these blemishes. To begin with, in Sections 4.2 to 4.5, we discuss
fuzzy systems that attempt to handle imprecision in knowledge bases, specially, due
to use of natural language words like hot, good, tall etc.

Then, we discuss non-monotonic systems which deal with indefiniteness of

knowledge in the knowledge bases. The significance of these systems lies in the fact
that most of the statements in the knowledge bases are actually based on beliefs of the
concerned persons or actors. These beliefs get revised as better evidence for some
other beliefs become available, where the later beliefs may be in conflict with the
earlier beliefs. In such cases, the earlier beliefs my have to be temporarily suspended
or permanently excluded from further considerations.

In Sections 4.7 and 4.8, we discuss two formal systems that attempt to handle
incompleteness of the available information. These systems are called Default
Reasoning Systems and Closed World Assumption Systems. Finally, we discuss
some inference rules, viz, abductive inference rule and inductive inference rule that
are, though not deductive, yet are quite useful in solving problems arising out of
everyday experience.

50
 Systems for
3.1 OBJECTIVES Imprecise/incomplete
knowledge

After going through this unit, you should be able to:

• enumerate various formal methods, which deal with different types of blemishes
like incompleteness, imprecision and inconsistency in a knowledge base;
• discuss, why fuzzy systems are required;
• discuss, develop and use fuzzy arithmetic tools in solving problems, the
descriptions of which involve imprecision;
• discuss default reasoning as a tool for handling incompleteness of knowledge;
• discuss Closed World Assumption System, as another tool for handling
incompleteness of knowledge, and
• discuss and use non-deductive inference rules like abduction and induction, as
tools for solving problems from everyday experience.

3.2 FUZZY SYSTEMS

In the symbolic Logic systems like, PL and FOPL, that we have studied so far, any
(closed) formula has a truth-value which must be binary, viz., True or False.
However, in our everyday experience, we encounter problems, the descriptions of
which involve some words, because of which, to statements of situations, it is not
possible to assign a truth value: True or False. For example, consider the statement:
If the water is too hot, add normal water to make it comfortable for taking a bath.

In the above statement, for a number of words/phrases including ‘too hot’ ‘add’,
‘comfortable’ etc., it is not possible to tell when exactly water is too hot, when water
is (at) normal (temperature), when exactly water is comfortable for taking a bath.

For example, we cannot tell the temperature T such that for water at temperature T or
less, truth value False can be associated with the statement ‘Water is too hot’ and at
the same time truth-value True can also be associated to the same statement ‘Water is
too hot’ when the temperature of the water is, say, at degree T + 1, T + 2….etc.

Some other cases of Fuzziness in a Natural Language

Healthy Person: we cannot even enumerate all the parameters that determine health.
Further, it is even more difficult to tell for what value of a particular parameter, one is
healthy or otherwise.

Old/young person: It is not possible to tell exactly upto exactly what age, one is
young and, by just addition of one day to the age, one becomes old. We age gradually.
Aging is a continuous process.

Sweet Milk: Add small sugar cube one at a time to glass of milk, and go on adding
upto, say, 100 small cubes.

Initially, without sugar, we may take milk as not sweet. However, with addition of
each one small sugar particle cube, the sweetness gradually increases. It is not
possible to say that after addition of 100 small cubes of sugar, the milk becomes
sweet, and, till addition of 99 small cubes, it was not sweet.

Pool, Pond, Lake,….., Sea, Ocean: for different sized water bodies, we can not say
when exactly a pool becomes a pond, when exactly a pond becomes a lake and so on.

51
Knowledge Representations One of the reasons, for this type of problem of our inability to associate one of the
two-truth values to statements describing everyday situations, is due to the use of
natural language words like hot, good, beautiful etc. Each of these words does not
denote something constant, but is a sort of linguistic variable. The context of a
particular usage of such a word may delimit the scope of the word as a linguistic
variable. The range of values, in some cases, for some phrases or words, may be very
large as can be seen through the following three statements:

• Dinosaurs ruled the earth for a long period (about millions of years)
• It has not rained for a long period (say about six months).
• I had to wait for the doctor for a long period (about six hours).

Fuzzy theory provides means to handle such situations. A Fuzzy theory may be
thought as a technique of providing ‘continuization’ to the otherwise binary
disciplines like Set Theory, PL and FOPL.

Further, we explain how using fuzzy concepts and rules, in situation like the ones
quoted below, we, the human beings solve problems, despite ambiguity in language.

Let us recall the case of crossing a road discussed in Unit 1 of Block 1. We

Mentioned that a step by step method of crossing a road may consist of

(i) Knowing (exactly) the distances of various vehicles from the path to be
followed to cross over.

(ii) Knowing the velocities and accelerations of the various vehicles moving on the
road within a distance of, say, one kilometer.
1 2
(iii) Using Newton’s Laws of motion and their derivatives like s = ut + at , and
2
calculating the time that would be taken by each of the various vehicles to reach
the path intended to be followed to cross over.

(iv) Adjusting dynamically our speeds on the path so that no collision takes place
with any of the vehicle moving on the road.

But, we know the human beings not only do not follow the above precise method but
cannot follow the above precise method. We, the human beings rather feel
comfortable with fuzziness than precision. We feel comfortable, if the instruction
for crossing a road is given as follows:

Look on both your left hand and right hand sides, particularly in the beginning, to
your right hand side. If there is no vehicle within reasonable distance, then attempt to
cross the road. You may have to retreat back while crossing, from somewhere on the
road. Then, try again.

The above instruction has a number of words like left, right (it may 45° to the right or
90° to the right) reasonable, each of which does not have a definite meaning. But we
feel more comfortable than the earlier instruction involving precise terms.

Let us consider another example of our being comfortable with imprecision than
precision. The statement: ‘The sky is densely clouded’ is more comprehensible to
human beings than the statement: ‘The cloud cover of the sky is 93.5 %’.

Thus is because of the fact that, we, the human beings are still better than computers
in qualitative reasoning. Because of better qualitative reasoning capabilities

• just by looking at the eyes only and/or nose only, we may recognize a person.
52
 Systems for
• just by taking and feeling a small number of grains from cooking rice bowl, we Imprecise/incomplete
can tell whether the rice is properly cooked or not. knowledge
• just by looking at few buildings, we can identify a locality or a city.

Achieving Human Capability

In order that computers achieve human capability in solving such problems,

computers must be able to solve problems for which only incomplete and/or
imprecise information/knowledge is available.

Modelling of Solutions and Data/Information/Knowledge

We know that for any problem, the plan of the proposed solution and the relevant
information is fed in the computer in a form acceptable to the computer.

However, the problems to be solved with the help of computers are, in the first place,
felt by the human beings. And then, the plan of the solution is also prepared by human
beings.

It is conveyed to the computer mainly for execution, because computers have much
better executional speed.

Summarizing the discussion, we conclude the following facts

(i) We, the human beings, sense problems, desire the problems to be solved and
express the problems and the plan of a solution using imprecise words of a natural
language.

(ii) We use computers to solve the problems, because of their executional power.

(iii) Computers function better, when the information is given to the computer in
terms of mathematical entities like numbers, sets, relations, functions, vectors,
matrices graphs, arrays, trees, records, etc., and when the steps of solution are
generally precise, involving no ambiguity.

In order to meet the mutually conflicting requirements:

(i) Imprecision of natural language, with which the human beings are comfortable,
where human beings feel a problem and plan its solution.

(ii) Precision of a formal system, with which computers operate efficiently, where
computers execute the solution, generally planned by human beings
a new formal system viz. Fuzzy system based on the concept of ‘Fuzzy’ was
suggested for the first time in 1965 by L. Zadeh.

In order to initiate the study of Fuzzy systems, we quote two statements to recall the
difference between a precise statement and an imprecise statement.

A precise Statement is of the form: ‘If income is more than 2.5 lakhs then tax is 10%
of the taxable income’.

An imprecise statement may be of the form: ‘If the forecast about the rain being
slightly less than previous year is believed, then there is around 30% probability that
economy may suffer heavily’.

The concept of ‘Fuzzy’, which when applied as a prefix/adjective to mathematical

entities like set, relation, functions, tree, etc., helps us in modelling the imprecise
data, information or knowledge through mathematical tools.
53
Knowledge Representations Crisp Set/Relation vs. Fuzzy Set/Relation: In order to differentiate the sets,
normally used so far, from the fuzzy sets to be introduced soon, we may call the
normally called sets as crisp sets.

Next, we explain, how the fuzzy sets are defined, using mathematical entities, to
capture imprecise concepts, through an example of the concept : tall.

In Indian context, we may say, a male adult, is

(i) definitely tall if his height > 6 feet

(ii) not at all tall if height < 5 feet and
(iii) if his height = 5' 2” a little bit tall
iv) if his height = 5' 6” slightly tall
(v) if height = 5' 9” reasonably tall etc.

Next step is to model ‘definitely tall’ ‘not at all tall’, ‘little bit tall’, ‘slightly tall’
‘reasonably Tall’ etc. in terms of mathematical entities, e.g., numbers; sets etc.
In modelling the vague concept like ‘tall’, through fuzzy sets, the numbers in the
closed set [0, 1] of reals may be used on the following lines:

(i) ‘Definitely tall’ may be represented as ‘tallness having value 1’

(ii) ‘Not at all tall’ may be represented as ‘Tallness having value 0’

other adjectives/adverbs may have values between 0 and 1 as follows:

(iii) ‘A little bit tall’ may be represented as ‘tallness having value say .2’.
(iv) ‘Slightly tall’ may be represented as ‘tallness having value say .4’.
(v) ‘Reasonably tall’ may be represented as ‘tallness having value say .7’.
and so on.

Similarly, the values of other concepts or, rather, other linguistic variables like
sweet, good, beautiful, etc. may be considered in terms of real numbers between
0 and 1.

Coming back to the imprecise concept of tall, let us think of five male persons of an
organisation, viz., Mohan, Sohan, John, Abdul, Abrahm, with heights 5' 2”, 6' 4”,
5' 9”, 4' 8”, 5' 6” respectively.
Then had we talked only of crisp set of tall persons, we would have denoted the

Set of tall persons in the organisation = {Sohan}

But, a fuzzy set, representing tall persons, include all the persons alongwith
respective degrees of tallness. Thus, in terms of fuzzy sets, we write:

Tall = {Mohan/.2; Sohan/1; John/.7; Abdul/0; Abrahm/.4}.

The values .2, 1, .7, 0, .4 are called membership values or degrees:

Note: Those elements which have value 0 may be dropped e.g.

Tall may also be written as Tall = {Mohan/.2; Sohan/1; John/.7;, Abrahm/.4},

neglecting Abdul, with associated degree zero.

If we define short/Diminutive as exactly opposite of Tall we may say

Short = {Mohan/.8; Sohan/0; John/.3; Abdul/1; Abrahm/.6}

54
 Systems for
3.3 RELATIONS ON FUZZY SETS Imprecise/incomplete
knowledge

In the case of Crisp sets, we have the concepts of Equality of sets, Subset of a set, and
Member of a set, as illustrated by the following examples:

(i) Equality of two sets

Let A = {1, 4, 3, 5}
B = {4, 1, 3, 5}
C = {1, 4, 2, 5}
be three given sets.

Then, Set A is equal to set B denoted by A = B. But A is not equal to C, denoted by

A ≠ C.
(ii) Subset
Consider sets A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
B = {4, 1, 3, 5}
C = {4, 8}
Then B is a subset of A, denoted by B ⊂ A. Also C is not a subset of A, denoted by
C ⊄ A.
(iii) Belongs to/is a member of
If A = {1, 4, 3, 5}
Then each of 1, 4, 3 and 5 is called an element or member of A and the fact that 1 is a
member of A is denoted by 1 ∈ A.

Corresponding Definitions/ concepts for Fuzzy Sets

In order to define for fuzzy sets, the concepts corresponding to the concepts of
Equality of Sets, Subset and Membership of a Set considered so far only for crisp sets,
first we illustrate the concepts through an example:

Let X be the set on which fuzzy sets are to be defined, e.g.,

X = {Mohan, Sohan, John, Abdul, Abrahm}.

Then X is called the Universal Set.

Note: In every fuzzy set, all the elements of X with their corresponding memberships
values from 0 to 1, appear.

(i) Degree of Membership: In respect of fuzzy sets, we do not speak of just

‘membership’, but speak of ‘degree of membership’.
In the set
A = {Mohan/.2; Sohan/1; John/.7; Abrahm/.4},
Degree (Mohan) = .2, degree (John) =.4

For (ii) Equality of Fuzzy sets: Let A, B and C be fuzzy sets defined on X as
follows:
Let A = {Mohan/.2; Sohan/1; John/.7; Abrahm/.4}
B = {Abrahm/.4, Mohan/.2; Sohan/1; John/.7}.

Then, as degrees of each element in the two sets, equal; we say fuzzy set A equals
fuzzy set B, denoted as A = B
However, if C = {Abrahm/.2, Mohan/.4; Sohan/1; John/.7}, then
A ≠ C.

55
Knowledge Representations (iii) Subset/Superset

Intuitively, we know
(i) The Set of ‘Very Tall’ people should be a subset of the set of Tall
people.
(ii) If the degree of ‘tallness’ of a person is say .5 then degree of ‘Very
Tallness’ for the person should be lesser say .3.

Combining the above two ideas we, may say that if

A = {Mohan/.2; Sohan/1; John/.7; Abrahm/.4} and
B = {Mohan/.2, Sohan/.9, John/.6, Abraham/.4}and further,
C = {Mohan/.3, Sohan/.9, John/.5, Abraham/.4},

then, in view of the fact that for each element, degree in A is greater than or equal to
degree in B, B is a subset of A denoted as B ⊂ A.
However, degree (Mohan) = .3 in C and degree (Mohan) =.2 in A,
,therefore, C is not a subset of A.
On the other hand degree (John) = .5 in C and degree (John) = .7 in A,
therefore, A is also not a subset of C.

We generalize the ideas illustrated through examples above

Let A and B be fuzzy sets on the universal set

X = {x1, x2, …, xn}
(X is called the Universe or Universal set)
s.t.
A = {x1/v1, x2/v2, …., xn/vn} and
B = {x1/w1, x2/w2, …., xn/wn}

with that 0 ≤ vi , wi ≤ 1.
Then fuzzy set A equals fuzzy set B, denoted as A = B, if and only if
vi = wi for all i = 1,2,….,n.
Further if and w ≤ vi for all i.

then B is a fuzzy subset of A.

Example: Let X = {Mohan, Sohan, John, Abdul, Abrahm}

A = {Mohan/.2; Sohan/1; John/.7; Abrahm/.4}
B = {Mohan/.2, Sohan/.9, John/.6, Abraham/.4}

Then B is a fuzzy subset of A.

In respect of fuzzy sets vis-à-vis (crisp) sets, we may note that:

Š Corresponding to the concept of ‘belongs to’ of (Crisp) set, we use the concept
of ‘degree of membership’ for fuzzy sets.
Š It may be noted that every crisp set may be thought of as a Fuzzy Set, but not
conversely. For example, if Universal set is
X = {Mohan, Sohan, John, Abdul, Abrahm} and
A = set of those members of X who are at least graduates, say,
= {Mohan, John, Abdul}
then we can rewrite A as a fuzzy set as follows:
A = {Mohan/1; Sohan/0; John/1; Abdul/1; Abrahm/0}, in which degree of each
member of the crisp set, is taken as one and degree of each element of the universal
set which does not appear in the set A, is taken as zero.

56
However, conversely, a fuzzy set may not be written as a crisp set. Let C be a fuzzy Systems for
Imprecise/incomplete
set denoting Educated People, where degree of education is defined as follows: knowledge
degree of education (Ph.D. holders) = 1
degree of education (Masters degree holders) = 0.85
degree of education (Bachelors degree holders) = .6
degree of education (10 + 2 level) = 0.4
degree of education (8th Standard) = 0.1
degree of education (less than 8th) = 0.
Let us C = {Mohan/.85; Sohan/.4; John/.6; Abdul/1; Abrahm/0}.

Then, we cannot think of C as a crisp set.

Next, we define some more concepts in respect of fuzzy sets.

Definition: Support set of a Fuzzy Set, say C, is a crisp set, say D, containing all the
elements of the universe X for which degree of membership in Fuzzy set is positive.
Let us consider again

C = {Mohan/.85; Sohan/.4; John/.6; Abdul/1; Abrahm/0}.

Support of C = D = {Mohan, Sohan, John, Abdul}, where the element

Abrahm does not belong to D, because, it has degree 0 in C.

Definition: Fuzzy Singleton is a fuzzy set in which there is exactly one element
which has positive membership value.

Example:

Let us define a fuzzy set OLD on universal set X in which degree of OLD is zero if a
person in X is below 20 years and Degree of Old is .2 if a person is between 20 and 25
years and further suppose that
Old = C = {Mohan/0; Sohan/0; John/.2; Abdul/0; Abrahm/0},
then support of old = {John} and hence old is a fuzzy singleton.

Ex. 1: Discuss equality and subset relationship for the following fuzzy sets defined on
the Universal set X = { a, b , c, d, e}
A = { a/.3, b/.6, c/.4 d/0, e/.7}
B = {a/.4, b/.8, c/.9, d/.4, e/.7}
C = {a/.3, b/.7, c/.3, d/.2, e/.6}

3.4 OPERATIONS ON FUZZY SETS

For Crisp sets, we have the operations of Union, intersection and

complementation, as illustrated by the example:

Let X = {x1, x2, …, x10}

A = {x2, x3, x4, x5}
B = {x1, x3, x5, x7, x9}

Then A ∪ B = {x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, x7, x9}

A ∩ B = {x3, x5}
A' or X ~ A = {x1, x6, x7, x8, x9, x10}

The concepts of Union, intersection and complementation for crisp sets may be
extended to FUZZY sets after observing that for crisp sets A and B, we have
57
Knowledge Representations (i) A ∪ B is the smallest subset of X containing both A and B.
(ii) A ∩ B is the largest subset of X contained in both A and B.
(iii) The complement A' is such that

(a) A and A' do not have any element in common and

(b) Every element of the universal set is in either A or A'.

Fuzzy Union, Intersection, Complementation:

In order to motivate proper definitions of these operations, we may recall
(1) when a crisp set is treated as a fuzzy set then

(i) membership in a crisp set is indicated by degree/value of membership as 1 (one) in

the corresponding Fuzzy set,

(ii) non-membership of a crisp set is indicated by degree/value of membership as zero

in the corresponding Fuzzy Set.

Thus, smaller the value of degree of membership, a sort of lesser it is a member of

the Fuzzy set.

(2) While taking union of Crisp sets, members of both sets are included, and none
else. However, in each Fuzzy set, all members of the universal set occur but their
degrees determine the level of membership in the fuzzy set.

The facts under (1) and (2) above, lead us to define:

The Union of two fuzzy sets A and B, is the set C with the same universe as that of A
and B such that, the degree of an element of C is equal to the MAXIMUM of degrees
of the element, in the two fuzzy sets.
(if Universe A ≠ Universe B, then take Universe C as the union of the universe A and
universe B)
The Intersection C of two fuzzy sets A and B is the fuzzy set in which, the degree
of an element of C is equal to the MINIMUM of degrees in the two fuzzy sets.

Example:

A = {Mohan/.85; Sohan/.4; John/.6; Abdul/1; Abrahm/0}

B = {Mohan/.75; Sohan/.6; John/0; Abdul/.8; Abrahm/.3}

Then

A ∪ B = {Mohan/.85; Sohan/.6; John/.6; Abdul/1; Abrahm /.3}

A ∩ B = {Mohan/.75; Sohan/.4; John/0; Abdul/.8; Abrahm/0}

and, the complement of A denoted by A′ is given by

C′ = {Mohan/.15; Sohan/.6; John/.4; Abdul/0; Abrahm /1}

Properties of Union, Intersection and Complement of Fuzzy Sets:

The following properties which hold for ordinary sets, also, hold for fuzzy sets

Commutativity

(i) A ∪ B = B ∪ A
(ii) A ∩ B = B ∩ A

We prove only (i) above just to explain, how the involved equalities, may be proved in
general.
58
Let U = {x1, x2…..xn}. be universe for fuzzy sets A and B Systems for
Imprecise/incomplete
If y ∈ A ∪ B, then y is of the form {xi/di} for some i knowledge
y ∈ A ∪ B ⇒ y = {xi/ei} as member of A and
y = (xi/fi} as member of B and
di = max {ei, fi} = max {fi, ei}
⇒ y∈ B ∪ A.

Rest of the properties are stated without proof.

Associativity
(i) (A ∪ B ) ∪ C = A ∪ (B ∪ C)
(ii) (A ∩ B ) ∩ C = A ∩ (B ∩ C)
Distributivity
(i) A ∪ (B ∩ C) = (A ∪ B) ∩ (A ∪ C)
(ii) A ∩ (B ∪ C) = (A ∩ B) ∪ (A ∩ C)

DeMorgan’s Laws

(A ∪ B)' = A' ∩ B'

(A ∩ B)' = A' ∪ B'

Involution or Double Complement

(A')' = A

Idempotence
A∩A=A
A∪A=A
Identity
A∪U =U A∪U=A
A∩φ =A φ ∩A=φ

where
φ : empty fuzzy set = {x/0 with x∈U}
and
U: universe = {x/1 with x∈U}

Ex. 2: For the following fuzzy sets

A = {a/.5, b/.6, c/.3, d/0, e/.9} and
B = { a/.3, b/.7, c/.6, d/.3, e/.6},
find the fuzzy sets A ∩ B, A ∪ B and (A ∩ B)'

3.5 OPERATIONS UNIQUE TO FUZZY SETS

Next, we discuss three operations, viz., concentration, dilation and normalization, that
are relevant only to fuzzy sets and can not be discussed for (crisp) sets.

(1) Concentration of a set A is defined as

CON (A) = {x/m2A(x)|x∈U}
Example:
If A = {Mohan/.5; Sohan/.9; John/.7; Abdul/0; Abrahm/.2}
then
CON (A) = {Mohan/.25; Sohan/.81; John/.49; Abdul/0; Abrahm/.04}.

59
Knowledge Representations In respect of concentration, it may be noted that the associated values being between 0
and 1, on squaring, become smaller. In other words, the values concentrate towards
zero. This fact may be used for giving increased emphasis on a concept. If Brightness
of articles is being discussed, then Very bright may be obtained in terms of
CON. (Bright).

(2) Dilation (Opposite of Concentration) of a fuzzy set A is defined as

DIL (A) = {x/ m A ( x)|x ∈ U }

Example:

If A = {Mohan/.5; Sohan/.9; John/.7; Abdul/0; Abrahm/.2}

then
DIL (A) = {Mohan/.7; Sohan/.95; John/.84; Abdul/0; Abrahm/.45}

The associated values, that are between 0 and 1, on taking square-root get increased,
e.g., if the value associated with x was .01 before dilation, then the value associated
with x after dilation becomes .1, i.e., ten times of the original value.
This fact may be used for decreased emphasis. For example, if colour say ‘yellow’ has
been considered already, then ‘light yellow’ may be considered in terms of already
discussed ‘yellow’ through Dilation.

(3) Normalization of a fuzzy set, is defined as

⎧ ⎛ m ( x) ⎞ ⎫
NORM ( A) = ⎨ x / ⎜ A ⎟ | x ∈ U ⎬ .
⎩ ⎝ Max ⎠ ⎭

NORM (A) and is a fuzzy set in which membership values are obtained by dividing
values of the membership function of A by the maximum membership function.

The resulting fuzzy set, called the normal, (or normalized) fuzzy set, has the
maximum of membership function value of 1.

Example:

If A = {Mohan/.5; Sohan/.9; John/.7; Abdul/0; Abrahm/.2}

Norm (A) = {Mohan/(.5 ÷.9 = .55.); Sohan/1; John /(.7 ÷.9 = .77.); Abdul/0;
Abrahm/(.2 ÷.9 = .22.)}

Note: If one of the members has value 1, then Norm (A) = A,

Relation & Fuzzy Relation

We know from our earlier background in Mathematics that a relation from a set A to a
set B is a subset of A x B.
For example, The relation of father may be written as {{Dasrath, Ram), …}, which is
a subset of A × B, where A and B are sets of persons living or dead.

The relation of Age may be written as

{(Mohan, 43.7), (Sohan, 25.6), …},
where A is set of living persons and B is set of numbers denoting years.

Fuzzy Relation

60
In fuzzy sets, every element of the universal set occurs with some degree of Systems for
Imprecise/incomplete
membership. A fuzzy relation may be defined in different ways. One way of knowledge
defining fuzzy relation is to assume the underlying sets as crisp sets. We will discuss
only this case.

Thus, a relation from A to B, where we assume A and B as crisp sets, is a fuzzy

set, in which with each element of A × B is associated a degree of membership
between zero and one.

For example:

We may define the relation of UNCLE as follows:

(i) x is an UNCLE of y with degree 1 if x is brother of mother or father,
(ii) x is an UNCLE of y with degree .7 if x is a brother of an UNCLE of y, and x is
not covered above,
(iii) x is an UNCLE of y with degree .6 if x is the son of an UNCLE of mother or
father.

Now suppose

Ram is UNCLE of Mohan with degree 1, Majid is UNCLE of Abdul with degree .7
and Peter is UNCLE of John with degree .7. Ram is UNCLE of John with degree.4
Then the relation of UNCLE can be written as a set of ordered-triples as follows:

{(Ram, Mohan, 1), (Majid, Abdul, .7), (Peter, John, .7), (Ram, John, .4)}.

As in the case of ordinary relations, we can use matrices and graphs to represent
FUZZY relations, e.g., the relation of UNCLE discussed above, may be graphically
denoted as
1
Ram Mohan
.4
Majid .7 John

.7 Abdul
Peter

Fuzzy Graph

Fuzzy Reasoning

In the rest of this section, we just have a fleeting glance on Fuzzy Reasoning.
Let us recall the well-known Crisp Reasoning Operators

(i) AND
(ii) OR
(iii) NOT
(iv) IF P THEN Q
(v) P IF AND ONLY IF Q

Corresponding to each of these operators, there is a fuzzy operator discussed and

defined below. For this purpose, we assume that P and Q are fuzzy propositions with
associated degrees, respectively, deg (P) and deg (Q) between 0 and 1.

The deg (P) = 0 denotes P is False and deg (P) =1 denotes P is True.

Then the operators are defined as follows:

61
Knowledge Representations (i) Fuzzy AND to be denoted by ∧ , is defined as follows:

For given fuzzy propositions P and Q, the expression P ∧ Q denotes a fuzzy

proposition with Deg (P ∧ Q) = min (deg (P), deg (Q))

Example: Let P: Mohan is tall with deg (P) = .7

Q: Mohan is educated with deg (Q) = .4
Then P ∧ Q denotes: ‘Mohan is tall and educated’ with degree ((min) {.7, .4}) = .4

(ii) Fuzzy OR to be denoted by ∨, is defined as follows:

For given fuzzy propositions P and Q, P ∨ Q is a fuzzy proposition with
Deg (P ∨ Q) = max (deg (P), deg (Q))

Example: Let P: Mohan is tall with deg (P) = .7

Q: Mohan is educated with deg (Q) = .4
Then P ∨ Q denotes: ‘Mohan is tall or educated’ with degree ((max) {.7, .4}) = .7

3.6 NON-MONOTOMIC REASONING SYSTEMS

Monotonic Reasoning: The conclusion drawn in PL and FOPL are only through
(valid) deductive methods. When some axiom is added to a PL or an FOPL system,
then, through deduction, we can draw more conclusions. Hence, more additional facts
become available in the knowledge base with the addition of each axiom. Adding of
axioms to the knowledge base increases the amount of knowledge contained in the
knowledge base. Therefore, the set of facts through inferences in such systems can
only grow larger with addition of each axiomatic fact. Adding of new facts can not
reduce the size of K.B. Thus, amount of knowledge monotonically increases with the
number of independent premises due to new facts that become available.

However, in everyday life, many times in the light of new facts that become available,
we may have to revise our earlier knowledge. For example, we consider a sort of
deductive argument in FOPL:

(i) Every bird can fly long distances

(ii) Every pigeon is a bird. (iii) Tweety is a pigeon.
Therefore, Tweety can fly long distances.

However, later on, we come to know that Tweety is actually a hen and a hen cannot
fly long distances. Therefore, we have to revise our belief that Tweety can fly over
long distances.

This type of situation is not handled by any monotonic reasoning system including PL
and FOPL .This is appropriately handled by Non-Monotomic Reasoning Systems,
which are discussed next.

A non-monotomic reasoning system is one which allows retracting of old

knowledge due to discovery of new facts which contradict or invalidate a part of the
current knowledge base. Such systems also take care that retracting of a fact may
necessitate a chain of retractions from the knowledge base or even reintroduction of
earlier retracted ones from K.B. Thus, chain-shrink and chain emphasis of a K.B and
reintroduction of earlier retracted ones are part of a non-monotomic reasoning
system.

62
To meet the requirement for reasoning in the real-world, we need non-monotomic Systems for
Imprecise/incomplete
reasoning systems also, in addition to the monotomic ones. This is true specially, in knowledge
view of the fact that it is not reasonable to expect that all the knowledge needed for a
set of tasks could be acquired, validated, and loaded into the system just at the outset.
In general, initial knowledge is an incomplete set of partially true facts. The set may
also be redundant and may contain inconsistencies and other sources of uncertainty.

Major components of a Non-Monotomic reasoning system

Next, we discuss a typical non-monotomic reasoning system (NMRS) consists of the

following three major components:

(1) Knowledge base (KB),

(2) Inference Engine (IE),
(3) Truth-Maintenance System (TMS).

The KB contains information, facts, rules, procedures etc. relevant to the type of
problems that are expected to be solved by the system. The component IE of NMRS
gets facts from KB to draw new inferences and sends the new facts discovered by it
(i.e., IE) to KB. The component TMS, after addition of new facts to KB. either from
the environment or through the user or through IE, checks for validity of the KB. It
may happen that the new fact from the environment or inferred by the IE may
conflict/contradict some of the facts already in the KB. In other words, an
inconsistency may arise. In case of inconsistencies, TMS retracts some facts from
KB. Also, it may lead to a chain of retractions which may require interactions
between KB and TMS. Also, some new fact either from the environment or from IE,
may invalidate some earlier retractions requiring reintroduction of earlier retracted
facts. This may lead to a chain of reintroductions. These retrievals and introductions
are taken care of by TMS. The IE is completely relieved of this responsibility. Main
job of IE is to conclude new facts when it is supplied a set of facts.

IEIE TMS

KB

Next, We explain the ideas discussed above through an example:

Let us assume KB has two facts P and ~ Q → ~ P and a rule called Modus Tollens.
When IE is supplied these knowledge items, it concludes Q and sends Q to KB.
However, through interaction with the environment, KB is later supplied with the
information that ~ P is more appropriate than P. Then TMS, on the addition of ~ P to
KB, finds that KB is no more consistent, at least, with P. The knowledge that ~ P is
more appropriate, suggests that P be retracted. Further Q was concluded assuming P
as True. But, in the new situation in which P is assumed to be not appropriate, Q also
becomes inappropriate. P and Q are not deleted from KB, but are just marked as
dormant or ineffective. This is done in view of the fact that later on, if again, it is
found appropriate to include P or Q or both, then, instead of requiring some
mechanism for adding P and Q, we just remove marks that made these dormant.

Non-monotomic Reasoning Systems deal with

63
Knowledge Representations 1) Revisable belief systems

2) incomplete K.B. Default Reasoning

Closed World assumption

3.7 DEFAULT REASONING SYSTEMS

In the previous section, we discussed uncertainty due to beliefs (which are not
necessarily facts) where beliefs are changeable. Here, we discuss another form of
uncertainty that occur as a result of incompleteness of the available knowledge at a
particular point of time.

One method of handling uncertainty due to incomplete KB is through default

reasoning which is also a form of non-monotomic reasoning and is based on the
following mechanism:

Whenever, for any entity relevant to the application, information is not in the KB, then
a default value for that type of entity, is assumed and is assigned to the entity. The
default assignment is not arbitrary but is based on experiments, observations or some
other rational grounds. However, the typical value for the entity is removed if some
information contradictory to the assumed or default value becomes available.

The advantage of this type of a reasoning system is that we need not store all facts
regarding a situation. Reiter has given one theory of default reasoning, which is
expressed as

a ( x ) : M b1 ( x ),....., Mb k ( x )
(A)
C( x )

where M is a consistency operator.

The inference rule (A) states that if a(x) is true and none of the conditions bk (x) is in
conflict or contradiction with the K.B, then you can deduce the statement C(x)

The idea of default reasoning is explained through the following example:

Suppose we have

Bird ( x ) : Mfly ( x )
(i)
Fly ( x )

(ii) Bird (twitty)

M fly (x) stands for a statement of the form ‘KB does not have any statement of the
form that says x does not have wings etc, because of which x may not be able to fly’.
In other words, Bird (x) : M fly (x) may be taken to stand for the statement ‘if x is a
normal bird and if the normality of x is not contradicted by other facts and rules in the
KB.’ then we can assume that x can fly. Combining with Bird (Twitty), we conclude
that if KB does not have any facts and rules from which, it can be inferred that Twitty
can not fly, then, we can conclude that twitty can fly.
Further, suppose, KB also contains

(i) Ostrich (twitty)

64
 Systems for
(ii) Ostrich (x) → ~ FLY (x). Imprecise/incomplete
knowledge
From these two facts in the K.B., it is concluded that Twitty being an ostrich, can not
fly. In the light of this knowledge the fact that Twitty can fly has to be withdrawn.
Thus, Fly (twitty) would be locked. Because, default Mfly (Twitty) is now
inconsistent.

Let us consider another example:

Adult( x ) : M drive ( x )
Drive ( x )

The above can be interpreted in the default theory as:

If a person x is an adult and in the knowledge base there is no fact (e.g., x is blind, or
x has both of his/her hands cut in an accident etc) which tells us something making x
incapable of driving, then x can drive, is assumed.

3.8 CLOSED WORLD ASSUMPTION SYSTEMS

Another mechanism of handling incompleteness of a KB is called ‘Closed World

Assumption’ (CWA).

This mechanism is useful in applications where most of the facts are known and
therefore it is reasonable to assume that if a proposition cannot be proved, then it is
FALSE. This is called CWA with failure as negation.

This means if a ground atom P(a) is not provable, then assume ~ P(a). A predicate like
LESS (x, y) becomes a ground atom when the variables x and y are replaced by
constants say x by 2 and y by 3, so that we get the ground atom LESS (2, 3).

Example of an application where CWA is reasonable is that of Airline reservation

where city-to-city flight not explicitly entered in the flight schedule or time table, are
assumed not to exist.

AKB is complete if for each ground atom P(a); either P(a) or ~ P(a) can be proved.

By the use of CWA any incomplete KB becomes complete by the addition of the
meta rule:

If P(a) can not be proved then assume ~ P (a).

Example of an incomplete K.B: Let our KB contain only

(i) P(a).
(ii) P(b).
(iii) P(a) → Q(a).
(iv) Rule of Modus Ponens: From P and P → Q, conclude Q.

The above KB is incomplete as we can not say anything about Q(b) (or ~ Q(b)) from
the given KB.
Remarks: In general, KB argumented by CWA need not be consistent i.e.,
it may contain two mutually conflicting wffs. For example, if our KB contains
only P(a) ∨ Q(b).

65
Knowledge Representations (Note: from P (a) ∨ Q (b), we can not conclude either of P (a) and Q (b) with
definiteness)

As neither P(a) nor Q(b) is provable, therefore, we add ~ P(a) and ~ Q(b) by using
CWA.
But, then, the set of P(a) ∨ Q(b), ~ P(a) and ~Q(b) is inconsistent.

3.9 OTHER NON-DEDUCTIVE SYSTEMS

PL and FOPL are deductive inferencing systems: i.e., the conclusions drawn are
invariably true whenever the premises are true. However, due to limitations of these
systems for making inferences, as discussed earlier, we must have other systems
inferences. In addition to Default Reasoning systems and Closed World Assumption
systems, we have the following useful reasoning systems:

1) Abductive inference System, which is based on the use of causal knowledge to

explain and justify a (possibly invalid) conclusion.

Abduction Rule
P→Q

Note that abductive inference rule is different form Modus Ponens inference rule in
that in abductive inference rule, the consequent of P → Q, i.e., Q is assumed to be
given as True and the antecedent of P → Q, i.e., P is inferred.

The abductive inference is useful in diagnostic applications. For example while

diagnosing a disease (say P), the doctor asks for the symptoms (say Q). Also, the
doctor knows that for given the disease, say, Malaria (P); the symptoms include high
fever starting with feeling of cold etc. (Q)

i.e., doctor knows P→Q

The doctor then attempts to diagnose the disease (i.e., P) from symptoms. However, it
should be noted that the conclusion of the disease from the symptoms may not always
be correct. In general, abductive reasoning leads to correct conclusions, but the
conclusions may be incorrect also. In other words, Abductive reasoning is not a valid
form of reasoning.

Inductive Reasoning is a method of generalisation from a finite number of instances.

The rule, generally, denoted as

P(a1 ), P ( a2 ) ......, P ( an )
,
( x) P ( x)
states that from n instances P(ai) of a predicate/property P(x), we infer that P(x) is
True for all x.

Thus, from a finite number of observations about some property of objects, we

generalize, i.e., make a general statement about all the elements of the domain in
respect of the property.
66
For example, we may, conclude that: all cows are white, after observing a large Systems for
Imprecise/incomplete
number of white cows. However, this conclusion may have some exception in the knowledge
sense that we may come across a black cow also. Inductive Reasoning like Abductive
Reasoning, Closed World Assumption Reasoning and Default Reasoning is not
irrefutable. In other words, these reasoning rules lead to conclusions, which may be
True, but not necessarily always.

However, all the rules discussed under Propositional Logic (PL) and FOPL, including
Modus Ponens etc are deductive i.e., lead to irrefutable conclusions.

3.10 SUMMARY

In this unit, we briefly discussed some formal systems which take care of at least one
of the blemishes in the knowledge base, namely, of inconsistency, imprecision and
incompleteness of the knowledge base. In Sections 4.2 to 4.5, we discuss Fuzzy
systems, which attempt to handle imprecision due to use of words, having multiple
meanings, of a natural language. The words appear in the description of the problems
to be solved by man-machine systems.

In Section 4.6, we briefly discuss non-monotonic (formal) systems, which mainly deal
with problems involving beliefs, in stead of facts. A belief may be revised by the
believer, when strong evidence becomes available for the revision of the belief.

In Sections 4.7 and 4.8, we discuss two formal systems which attempt to deal with
incompleteness of the available knowledge of the problem domain. Default reasoning
systems discussed in Section 4.7, attempt to handle the problem of incompleteness of
knowledge, through assumption of default values for the missing values. The default
values may be withdrawn, in case some knowledge contrary to the default values,
becomes available.

On the other hand, another formal system, viz., closed world assumption system
discussed in Section 4.8, assume that, if the truth of a statement is not available in the
knowledge base, then assume the statement false. Finally, in Section 4.9, we discuss
some inference rules, namely, abductive and inductive rules, which though are not
deductive, yet prove quite useful in everyday problems, particularly, in diagnostic
problems.

3.11 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS

Ex. 1: Both A and C are subsets of the fuzzy set B, because deg (x min A ) ≤ deg (x
in B) for all x ∈ X

Similarly degree (x in C) ≤ degree (x in B) for all x ∈ X

Further, A is not a subset of C, because,
deg (c in A) = .4 > .3 = degree (c in C)
Also, C is not a subset of A, because,
degree (b in C) = .7 > .6 = degree (b in A)

Ex. 2: A ∩ B = {a/.3, b/.6, c/.3, d/0, e/.6},

where degree (x in A ∩ B) = min { degree (x in A), degree (x in B)}.
A ∪ B = {a/.5, b/.7, c/.6, d/.3, e/.9},
where degree (x in A ∪ B) = max {degree (x in A), degree (x in B)}.

The fuzzy set (A ∩ B)′ is obtained from A ∩ B, by the rule: 67

Knowledge Representations degree (x in (A ∩ B)′ ) = 1 − degree (x in A ∩ B).
Hence
(A ∩ B)′ = { a/.7, b/.4, c/.7, d/1, e/.4}

3.12 FURTHER READINGS

1. Munikata, Toshinori Chapter 5 of Fundamentals of the New Artificial

Intelligence: Beyond Traditional Paradigm (springer, 1998).
2. Nguyen, H.T. Walker E.A. A First Course in Fuzzy Logic (CRC Press, 1997)
3. Patterson, D.W. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Expert
Systems(Prentice-Hall of India, 2001)

68
 A.I. Languages-1:
UNIT 1 A.I. LANGUAGES-1: LISP LISP

Structure Page Nos.

1.0 Introduction 5
1.1 Objectives 6
1.2 Basics of LISP 6
1.3 Data Structures and Data Values 9
1.4 The EVAL Function and Some Evaluations 10
1.5 Evaluation of Primitive Functions 13
1.6 Primitive List Manipulation Functions 14
1.7 Built-in Predicates 16
1.8 Logical Operators: AND, OR and NOT 18
1.9 Evaluation of Special Forms involving DEFUN and COND 18
1.10 The special forms DO and LET 20
1.11 Input/Output Primitives 23
1.12 Recursion in LISP 24
1.13 Association List and Property List 25
1.14 Lambda Expression, APPLY, FUNCALL and MAPCAR 29
1.15 Symbol, Object, Variable, Representation and Dotted Pair 31
1.16 Destructive Updates, RPLACE, RPLACD and SETF 34
1.17 Arrays, Strings and Structures 35
1.18 Summary 38
1.19 Solutions/Answers 39
1.20 Further Readings 41

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The task of solving problems using computer as a tool, in general, is a quite a LISP has jokingly been called ‘the
most intelligent way to misuse a
comprehensive task. Ever since the use of computers in solving problems, it has been computer’. I think that description
found that the solving of problems can be facilitated by using appropriate is a great compliment, because it
style/paradigm for a given type of problem and using a language designed and transmits the full flavour of
developed according to the basic principles of the style. liberation; it has assisted a number
of most gifted fellow humans in
thinking previously impossible
Some of the well-known programming languages like C support imperative style of thoughts’
programming for solving problems with the help of a computer. The major feature of
imperative style is that the proposed solution is expressed in terms of variables, Edsger W. Dijkstra
declarations, expressions and commands. Declarations assign names to locations in
the memory and associate types with the values. Commands may be thought of as
names for actions, that are required to be executed by a computing system, mainly to
change values stored in the memory locations. Commands are generally executed in
the order, from top to bottom, as these appear in the program, though through
conditional and unconditional jumps, flow of execution can be changed. One of very
important concept in imperative style of programming is that of the state (of memory),
i.e., the set of values assigned to various locations in the memory at a particular point
of time.

In this style of programming, the programmer is required to think and express

proposed solution (to a problem under consideration) in terms of the basic actions that
a machine is to carry out. For complex problems, the task of the programmer becomes
more and more difficult with increase in the complexities of the problems to be
solved. In view of this difficulty, alternative paradigms or styles for solving problems
have evolved since almost the beginning of problem solving with computers. The
language LISP, we are going to discuss in this unit, supports an alterative paradigm,
namely, functional paradigm, for solving problems with the help of a computer. In 5
A.I. Programming functional paradigm, the solution is primarily considered as an exercise in defining
Languages
functions and applying functions either recursively or through composition. Common
LISP is not a pure functional style programming language. It has some features of
imperative style also. For example, the symbol SETQ allows assigning names to
memory locations and storing values in the memory locations. But, Lisp incorporates
features dominantly of functional programming style.

1.1 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you should be able to:

• explain what is functional paradigm of problem solving using a computing
system;
• explain how functional paradigm is different from the normally used imperative
paradigm;
• discuss LISP as a language having features of functional paradigm;
• enumerate and discuss characteristic features of LISP;
• enumerate and discuss data types and data structures of LISP;
• use these types and structures in defining data required to solve a problem under
consideration ;
• explain the role of the inbuilt function EVAL;
• explain and use various built-in general functions, list manipulation functions,
predicates, and logical operators;
• explain the role of the special forms viz. Defun, COND, DO, LET and use these
in writing complex programs in LISP;
• explain and use the various input/output primitives available in LISP;
• explain the significance of the concept of recursion in solving problem, and how
recursion is achieved in LISP;
• explain the role of association lists and property lists in developing database and
use these in defining objects and their attributes/properties;
• explain the role of a symbol as a variable and further should be able to explain
the concepts of bound variable and free variable;
• explain the concept of dotted pairs and be able to use the concept in representing
lists in LISP, and
• Write complex LISP programs.

1.2 BASICS OF LISP

The programming language LISP takes its name from List Processing. LISP* was
developed by John McCarthy, during 1956-58 and was implemented during
1959-62. LISP has a number of dialects. However, with the development of
COMMON LISP in the 1980s and its acceptance by a large number of system
implementers and manufactures, it has become almost standard for LISP users. We
also shall be using and discussing COMMON LISP only.

LISP has been one of the most popular languages for AI applications. LISP was
specifically designed for A.I. applications, and we have already mentioned that AI
applications involve symbolic processing, instead of mere numeric processing. Also,
AI systems are generally large and complex. Their development requires that the
implementation language and support environment provide flexibility, rapid
prototyping and good debugging tools. On all these counts, LISP wins over all other
*LISP is based on a formal system called λ-calculus (Lambda-calculus) originally proposed by Alonzo church and
who developed it later alongwith Stephen Kleene as a foundation for Mathematics.

6
programming languages. Hence, the language was used in its earliest applications for A.I. Languages-1:
writing programs which performed symbolic differentiation, integration and LISP
mathematical theorem proving. Later applications mainly written in LISP, include
expert systems and programs for common sense reasoning, natural language
interfaces, education and intelligent support systems, learning, speech and vision.
LISP has been found quite useful for the purpose of systems programming to the
extent that LISP machines have been developed in which whole of the programming
from top to bottom is in LISP. In LISP machines, which are personal computers, the
operating system, the user utility programs, the compilers, and the interpreters are all
written in LISP.

We summarise below the main characteristics of LISP.

(i) It is an applicative/functional language. In a functional language the primary

effect is achieved by applying functions either recursively or through composition.
For example, in order to evaluate the arithmetic expression
(x*y) + (z − u) where the variable x, y, z and u have values respectively 9, 2, 8
and 6, the following LISP expression
(+(*xy)(−zu))
evaluates to 20. For evaluating the expression, first the function ‘*’ is applied to
the values of x and y, next the function ‘−’ is applied to the values of z and u and
then recursively the function ‘+’ is applied to the results of the applications.

(ii) The above example also shows that prefix notation is used in LISP, i.e., the
operator ‘*’ comes before operands x and y. The prefix notation has the
advantage that the operators (like +, −, * etc.) can be easily located in an
expression.

In contrast, the programming languages introduced to us earlier like, FORTRAN and

C are all imperative languages. A language is said to be imperative which achieves
its primary effect by changing the state of variables by assignment. For example, to
compute the arithmetic expression (x * y) + (z − u), the programme code in Pascal
would include a sequence of instruction like,

Product = x * y;
Difference = z − u
Result = product + sum

It is easily seen that the emphasis is on assigning values to the variables, viz,
product, difference and result.

(iii) The language LISP allows programs to be used as data and vice-versa.

LISP has mainly one data structures viz list, in addition to the elementary
data types: number and symbol. All expressions, whether data or programs,
mainly are expressed in terms of lists.

The main advantage of this property of LISP is that the declarative knowledge, i.e.,
information about properties of an object can be easily integrated with procedural
knowledge, i.e., information about what actions to be performed. The facility of
uniform representation in LISP is also useful in the sense that it allows us to write

• LISP programs which can modify other programs (written in any language)
including themselves.
• LISP program that can write entirely new LISP programs.
• AI programs that learn new tasks.
7
A.I. Programming (iv) LISP is a highly modular language and hence suitable for development of
Languages
large software.

(v) The LISP environment provides a facility called Trace by using which
programs written in LISP can easily keep track of the various instructions that
have been executed, the number of times each has been executed and the
order in which the instructions have been executed.

(vi) LISP, being based on the mathematical discipline of λ-calculus, is the most
well-defined of all the programming languages. Hence, programs in LISP
are more reliable. The well-definedness of a language is a very important
issue as can be seen from the fact that due to a small error in FORTRAN
program of the type quoted below and FORTRAN environment’s
incapability to detect it, lead to the loss a spaceship.
In FORTRAN, the statement
DO 12 I = 1,5
denotes the beginning of a loop, whereas the statement
DO 12 I = 1.5
is an assignment statement. Through the execution of the second statement,
the value 1.5 is assigned to the variable DO12I, because blanks are ignored at
all places in FORTRAN.

(vii) Comments in LISP are given by using the character for semicolon i.e. ‘;’ as
the first symbol on the line which is to be treated as a comment. Sequence of
characters on a given line after semi-colon, is treated as a comment.

We included this feature here because while explaining various features of

LISP, we would be required to provide comments in LISP environment.

(viii) The types of the variables are not required to be declared in the beginning
as is done in imperative languages like, FORTRAN or C. Also a variable
name say x, we can assume any type for the values of the variable within the
same program or procedure.

(ix) LISP is format-free. Any valid LISP expression, say

(x ( yz ) u )

can be written in any one of the following (or even other) formats:

(x( (x(y
yz) or z
u )
) u)

(x) We should note that the two parentheses viz the left parenthesis denoted by
‘(‘ and the right parenthesis denoted by ’)’ are two most important
characters in LISP and must be used very carefully. They are used to
denote lists and for each left parenthesis, there is a right parenthesis for any
valid LISP expression. In the light of the above fact, the expressions
xyx ) or (fg

are illegal symbols or expressions.

Next most important character in LISP is quote, the role of which is explained
after some time under (ii) of evaluation of S-expr.

8
 (xi) Separator. Blanks are used to separate S-exprs, i.e., any valid Lisp entity A.I. Languages-1:
or object, specially numbers and symbols. Lists are always separated LISP
automatically from other S-exprs. Comma is used for special purposes
and not as a separator.

(xii) List is defined recursively. A list is a sequence of atoms and/or other

lists enclosed within parentheses. Each of the following three expressions
is an example of a valid list.

(3a(cd))
( this is a list of only symbols)
( )
But the following expressions, one on each of the next three lines is
not a valid list.
(ba3
this − is − not − a − list
) a b c (

1.3 DATA STRUCTURES AND DATA VALUES

Notation for a valid object in LISP is called S-expressions or just S-exprs (shorthand
for Symbolic Expression). Even objects themselves are also referred to sometime as
S-exprs. The main data types of LISP objects and their interrelationships are shown
in the following diagram:

S-exprs

atom string
list

symbol
number character

integer floating complex

As shown above, an atom is a number, a symbol or a character. A number is a
sequence of digits, possibly, involving a dot and the letter E appropriately so that the
value is either an integer or a real (decimal) number. The following are examples of
numbers:
11.5E−3 −14.E3
A symbol is any string of characters which does not represent a number and does not
include parentheses and quotes. However, each of the expressions,
‘( )’ and ‘nil’, represents an empty list, and, is both an atom as well as a list.
Each of the following is a symbol
3 + 11 *Name* BLOCK#8

Note that 3 + 11 is not a number but a symbol. The reason for this is that any
arithmetic expression involving at least one operator, when represented in LISP, has
to be a list with first and the last characters as ‘( ’ and ‘)’ respectively, and first
element within the list being necessarily an operator. If we intend to represent the
arithmetic expression 3 + 11 which is equivalent to 14, then it is represented as
( + 3 11). 9
A.I. Programming String: A sequence of characters enclosed within double quotes is a string, e.g.,
Languages
“abc 2 @ string ”
is a string

However, the following is not a string

“square of two is four

because right double quote is missing.

1.4 THE EVAL FUNCTION

Initially LISP was designed as an interpreted language, though later compiler based
versions also became available. In the interpreted mode, the prompt visible on the
screen is the symbol ‘→‘ , which, of course, may be changed.

LISP environment provides an inbuilt function called eval or commonly known

as read−eval−print loop. Any legal LISP object, i.e., an S-expr typed after the prompt
is considered both as an S-expr and as an input to the read−eval−print loop. The
S−expr is evaluated according to the rules to be explained and then printed. The value,
so obtained, is also an S−expr, provided that the input is an S−expr. Else, error will be
printed.

Next, we explain, in some detail, how LISP expressions are evaluated.

(i) A quoted expression is evaluated to the expression obtained by removing the

quote. For example,

The following expression

→ ’( + x ( * y z) )
evaluates to the expression

→ (+x(*yz))

→ ’Colour
; where colour is a symbol we get respectively the
; following situations after printing
→ colour

(ii) For evaluating a symbol say colour, first of all, some value or binding must have
been associated at some stage before the current evaluation. And then evaluation
of the symbol returns the associated value or binding. Suppose, earlier at some
stage, the symbol colour is given the value RED, then, if give the input colour,
i.e., if we have
→ colour
;then RED is returned, i.e., we get after evaluation
→ RED
(iii) Evaluating a number: A number evaluates to itself
For example if the input is given as
→ 41
;then after evaluation the number 41 is returned.

(iv) Evaluating a function application

10 A list of the form

 ( < function−name > < param1 > < param2 > …. < paramk > ) A.I. Languages-1:
with < function−name > being an atom and the name of a function, and < parami > LISP
being an S−expr for each i, is called a function application. For evaluating a function
application, first < param1 > is evaluated to get arg1. Similarly < parami > is
evaluated to get argi, first for i =2, then for i = 3, and so on. Once all the arguments
are evaluated then the function is applied to the arguments. Finally the value so
obtained is printed. For example, if the following expression is given as input
→ ( * 4 11 )

as 4 evaluates to 4 and 11 evaluates to 11, therefore 44 is returned and printed. Next

suppose, the symbol x is bound to 2 and y to 5 then for the input

→(+(*x3)(−y1))

first (* x 3) is evaluated, which in turn requires evaluation of symbol x. The symbol

x being bound to 2 is evaluated as 2. Thus, the expression ( * x 3 ) evaluates to 6.
Similarly, the expression (− y 1 ) evaluates to 4 and finally the whole of the above
expression evaluates to 10.

Next, assume sum-sq is a function defined in a program which returns the sum of the
squares of its arguments and again suppose x is bound to 2 and y is bound to 5, then if
we have the following expression is given as input

→ ( sum-sq ( * x 3 ) ( − y 1 ) )

the expression is evaluated and printed as

→ 52.
on the monitor

(v) Evaluating a special form

A list of the form
( < special-word > < param 1 > < param 2 > …… < param k > )

with < special-word > being a special word in LISP (to be discussed) and < parami >
an S-expr, is called a special form. The evaluation of special form depends upon the
special word. The parameters < parami > may or may not be evaluated depending
upon the
< special-word >.

Some of the well-known special words are: defun, cond, do, quote. We shall discuss
evaluation of these special forms at appropriate place. The special form
(quote x) is just equivalent to ’x and hence evaluates to x.

→ (quote (* 3 7 ) );
evaluates to
→ (* 3 7 )

Note that ’(* 3 7 ) or ( quote ( * 3 7 ) ) evaluates to ( * 3 7 ) and not to 21

(vi) Evaluating a list of the form

( < non-atom > < param1 ….. < paramk > ),

where < non-atom > is an S-expr is evaluated as follows :
Each of the parameter < parami > is evaluated yielding arguments and then the
S-expression < non-atom > is applied to the evaluated arguments. We shall discuss
examples of such evaluations later.
11
A.I. Programming (vii) Certain atoms have preassigned meaning or evaluations as follows in LISP,
Languages
therefore, should not be used for other purposes.

Atom Associated meaning

t logical value true

nil denotes either logical value false or

the empty list ( ) depending on the context.

The special symbol Setq

Before coming to evaluation of functions in LISP we consider evaluation of special-

form for the special word SETQ. It binds symbols to values and will be useful in
explaining evaluation of other functional expressions. The special word setq takes two
parameters, the first a symbol and the second an S-expr. The first parameter is not
evaluated. Actually SETQ may be taken as shorthand for SET QUOTE. And, as we have
explained earlier, QUOTE EXPRESSION evaluates to EXPRESSION and not to the value of
EXPRESSION. e.g. (QUOTE 3 + 5 ) evaluates to 3 + 5 and not to 8). The second parameter
is evaluated and the value so obtained is bound to the symbol represented by first
parameter, e.g., the S-expr

(setq x 27) binds 27 to x and also the value 27 is returned

(setq x (* 3 5)) binds 15 to x and returns the value 15,
(setq x’(* 3 5)) binds the list (* 35 ) to x and also returns the list (*3 5) and not 15.

We have already mentioned that the action of return includes printing of the
returned value. Also the action of return includes the fact that returned value can
be utillised in further processing, e.g., the S-expr

( + ( setq x 7 ) ( setq y 3 ) )

not only binds x to 7 and y to 3 but also the values 7 and 3 respectively are used
in further evaluation and

( + ( setq x 7 ) ( setq y 3 ) )

returns 10, in addition to binding x to 7 and y to 3.

Sometimes the pairs of arguments to several occurrences of SETQ are run together
and given to a single SETQ. In such a situation, odd-numbered arguments are not
evaluated and even-numbered arguments are evaluated. Further each even-numbered
value is associated or bound to the immediately preceding (or bound to the
immediately preceding) odd numbered argument, e.g., the S-expr

( setq x ’( 1 2 ) y 7 z 11)

binds the list ( 1 2 ) to x, 7 to y and 11 to z.

associates or binds (12) to x, 7 to y and 11 to z. It may be noted that the list (12) and
the number 12 is associated with x.

Ex 1: Explain the effect of execution of the following statements:

(i) ( ∗ ( + ( setq x 5) x) ( + ( setq y 7 ) y ) )
(ii) ’( – ( + setq p 9) ( setq s 3) ) ( ∗ p s ) )

12
 A.I. Languages-1:
1.5 EVALUATION OF PRIMITIVE FUNCTIONS LISP

LISP has a number of basic functions. In this section, we discuss how S-exprs
involving these primitive functions are evaluated.

We have already mentioned that LISP uses prefix notation for representing functional
expressions.

We explain of evaluation of LISP objects through examples, preceded by some

explanatory remarks, if required.

(i) Some Primitive Numeric Functions: As numeric evaluation is self-evident,

therefore, the following table is sufficient for the purpose

Function call Value Comments

(+ 3 4 8 11 –2) 24 + or plus can take any finite

( plus 3 4 8 11 –2) 24 number of appropriate arguments

( – 13 55) –42 differences or – takes exactly two arguments

(difference 13 53) –42

(* 2 3 4 ) 24 times or * may take any finite

(times 2 3 4) 24 number of appropriate arguments

(/93) 3 quotient or ‘/ ‘takes exactly two arguments

(quotient 9 3) 3

( abs –5.7 ) 5.7 only one argument

( abs 5.7) 5.7

(expt 3 2 ) 9 exponential function

(sqrt 4.0) 2.0 positive square-root

(max 8 11 9 7) 11 any finite number of appropriate arguments

(min 8 11 9 7) 7

(turncate 14 4) 3 turncate returns the quotient in integer

division neglecting the remainder;

(rem 14 4) 2 rem returns the remainder on division

(round 14.3) 14 round returns the integer nearest to its

(round 14.6) 15 argument.

(float 14) 14.0 integer argument; returns real.

Ex 2: Evaluate the following:

(i) (+ ( ∗ 2 3 4 ) (– 8 9 ) (truncate ( 15 7) ) )
(ii) ( ∗ ( rem 17 6) (truncate 8 9) ( max 5 9 11 ) )

Ex 3: Write a function division which divides a number X by Y such that if Y = 0

then the function returns the symbol ‘infinity’ else it returns the quotient X/Y.
13
A.I. Programming
Languages 1.6 PRIMITIVE LIST MANIPULATION
FUNCTIONS

We have already mentioned that the programming language LISP is mainly designed
for symbolic processing though it may be used for numeric purposes also. Symbolic
processing in LISP is mainly about manipulating lists. Here we consider main list
processing operations.

(i) car: It takes a list as an argument and returns the first element of the list. ( car ’(d b
c)) returns the element d, ( car ’( ( d b ) c ) ) returns ( d b ). We should note that
argument has to be a quoted list. This is in consonance with our earlier statement
that for all functions denoted by an atom, the parameters are evaluated to return
arguments for the function.

Thus for evaluating ( car ’( ( d b ) c ) ), first of all its parameter viz. ’( ( d b ) c ) is

evaluated. Also we mentioned earlier any quoted expression is evaluated to its
unquoted part i.e., ’( ( d b ) c ) evaluates to the list ( ( d b ) c ). And the first element (
( d b ) c ) is ( d b ) . Hence ( d b ) is returned.

Further

( car ( car ’( ( d b ) c ) ) ) is evaluated to the atom d.

( car ’( LISP IS AN AI LANGUAGE ) )

returns the symbol LISP.

If the statement ( setq x ’( a b c ) ) is followed by the statement ( car x ) then the

symbol a is returned.

(ii) cdr (pronounced as ‘KUDDR’) also takes a list as its argument and returns a list
obtained from the given list by deleting its first element e.g.

( cdr ’( d b c ) ) returns the list ( b c )

( cdr ’( ( d b ) c ) ) returns the list ( c)
( cdr ’( LISP IS AN AI LANGUAGE ) ) returns the list

(IS AN AI LANGUAGE ).

Also if the statement ( setq x ’( a b c ) ) is followed by the statement ( cdr x ) then the
value returned is ( b c ).

But note (cdr ’x) returns error, because, ’x evaluates to x and not to the list (a b c) and
the cdr of a symbol, in this case x, is not defined.

Sequence of CARs and CDRs

( car ( cdr ( cdr ( cdr ’( person ( Name Raj )

( Residence K−76 HauzKhas )
( City New Delhi )
)))))
returns K − 76

LISP provides facilities to simplify notation for a sequence of cars and cdrs e.g. the
S-expr
( car ( car ( cdr ( car ( cdr ( cdr given-list ) ) ) ) ) ).
14
where given-list is bound to some valid list, can be simplified to A.I. Languages-1:
( caadaddr given-list) LISP
or to any other S-expr like
( caar ( cdadr ( cdr given-list ) ) ).

Remark: The functions car and cdr take things apart. Next we describe three
functions cons, list and append which put things together.

(iii) Cons: takes two arguments, the first may be any (valid) S-expr but the second
must be a list. Then cons returns a new list in which the first argument is the first
element in the returned list followed by the elements of the list given as second
argument, preserving the earlier order of occurrence in the second argument.

( Cons ’ * ’ ( 4 7 ) ) returns the list ( * 4 7 )

( Cons ’ ( a b ) ’ ( b c ) ) returns the list ( ( a b ) b c )
( Cons ’a nil ) returns the list ( a )

Also, if S-exprs ( setq x ’ ( a b ) ) and ( setq y ’ ( c d ) ) are followed by the S-expr

( Cons y x ) then the list ( ( c d ) a b ) is returned but ( Cons ’y x ) returns the list
( y a b ).

(iv) list: may take any number of parameters, each of which is an S-expr, it evaluates
the parameters and then the arguments so obtained are grouped into a list in the
same order as the corresponding parameters are given initially, e.g., if the inputs (
setq x ’ (a b ) ) and ( setq y ’intelligence) are followed by the input s-expr (list ’x y
x ’knowledge ’y ) then on evaluation of the last expr, we get the list ( x
intelligence ( a b ) knowledge y )

(v) Append: the parameters of the function append can not be arbitrary S-exprs but
must evaluate to lists. It removes the parenthesis from the arguments obtained by
evaluating the parameters and puts all the lisp objects so obtained into a list.
For example, if the S-exprs ( setq x ’ ( a b ) ) and (setq y ’ (c d ) ) are followed by
( append x y ’ ( ( a b ) ) )
then the last S-expr on evaluation returns ( a b c d ( a b ). If we try to evaluate
( append ’ x y ) then an error is returned, because value of ’x is a symbol x and a
symbol can not be an argument of append.

Next, we define some more built-in list processing functions, which are quite useful in
writing LISP programs for solving problems requiring symbolic processing.

(vi) Reverse: takes a list as its argument and reverses the top level elements of the
argument e.g.

( reverse ’ ( a b ( a b ) ( c d ) ) )
returns
((cd)(ab)ba)

(vii) Length: again takes a list as its argument and returns the number of the top level
elements, e.g.,
( length ’ (a ( a b ) ( c d ) e ) ) returns the number 4.

(viii) Last: again takes a list as argument and returns the last top-level element of the
list, e.g.,

( last ’ ( a b ( c d ) ) ) returns the list ( c d ).

15
A.I. Programming (ix) Subst (stands for substitution): takes three arguments, such that each occurrence
Languages
of second argument in the third argument are replaced by the first argument.
Second argument must be an atom, e.g.,

( subst ’ A ’B ’ ( D B A ) )
returns
(DAA)
Also
( subst ’ ( A B ) ’C ’ ( D B A C ) )
returns
(DBA(AB))

(x) eval: In some situations, we may need another evaluation, in addition to the
evaluation provided by read −eval−print loop. The function eval is explained with
following examples:

→ ( setq x ’y )
→ ( setq y z ) ; then x evaluates to y but ( eval x ) evaluates to z.

Ex 4: Explain the sequence of steps of evaluation of the following LISP expression:

(length (append (setq x ’(a b ) ) ’( c d) (reverse (sublist’x ’(s t) ’( u v x)))))

1.7 BUILT-IN PREDICATES

Predicates are functions which return nil or t depending upon the values of their
arguments. The evaluation by some important predicates is explained in the following
table:

Function call Value Returned Comments

(>7(+23)) t normal ‘greater than’

relation
(<73) nil normal ‘less than’ relation

( = ( * 3 7 ) ( + 16 5) t ‘ = ’ tests equality of only

numbers
( = equal ’( one two ) ’( one two ) ) t ‘equal’ tests
( equal ’( two one ) ’ (one two ) ) nil equality of any two S-exprs,
( equal ’ ( a b ) ( car ( ( a b ) c ) ) ) t

( evenp ( + 4 7 ) ) nil returns t if arguments is an

integer
( evenp ( * 2 5 ) ) t and is even, else returns nil,

( numberp 2.1416 ) t returns t if parameter

evaluates to a
( numberp ’x ) nil number else evaluates to nil.

Further if we have (setq fifty 50) before the next S-expr then

( numberp fifty ) t

16
But A.I. Languages-1:
( number ’fifty ) nil LISP

( zerop 0 ) t

if we have ( setq x 0 ) then

( zerop x ) t

But
( zerop ’x ) nil

( zerop .00001 ) nil

The predicate ‘null’: null returns t if its argument is nil else returns nil, e.g.,

( null ( ) ) returns t
( null ’man ) returns nil
( null ’ (a b ) ) returns nil

The predicate ‘member’: The predicate ‘member’ has a little different behaviour. It
may not return t and/or nil. The predicate member tests an atom for the membership
of a list. If an atom is not a member of the list then it returns nil, else it returns the
portion of the list starting with the atom in the list up to the last element of the list. For
example, if we define

(setq last-alphabet ’( u v w x y z ) )
; then
( member ’a last-alphabet ) returns nil
( member ’w last-alphabet ) returns ( w x y z )

However, the predicate member tests the atom only for top membership of the
argument list. Hence,
( member ’w ’ ( u v ( w x y ) z ) returns nil,
because w is not a member of the list given by the second argument, but w is a
member of a member, viz of (w x y) of the list given by the second argument.

The predicate eql: We considered two forms of predicates for equality viz. ‘equal’
and ‘=’. We consider another predicate eql for equality. The predicate eql checks the
equality of the internal structure of its arguments. If the structures of arguments are
identical, it returns t else nil. In order to explain the behaviour of eql, we need the
following additional information:

Each time we use the function list even with the same elements, it takes new memory
cells and creates the list. Thus the two s-exprs,

(setq list1 ( list ’x ’y ’z ) )

and
(setq list2 ( list ’x ’y ’z ) )

creates two lists viz list1 and list2 which are internally different though each of them
consists of the same three elements x, y and z. However, further we have

( setq list3 list1)

then list3 and list1 point to the same memory locations and hence
17
A.I. Programming ( eql list1 list2 ) returns nil
Languages
( eql list1 list3 ) returns t
( eql list2 list3 ) returns nil

1.8 LOGICAL OPERATORS: AND, OR and NOT

The main differences in the behaviour of the logical operators in LISP from their
behaviour in Boolean Algebra or in some other/programming languages are:

i) The operators AND and OR may take one, two or more than two arguments

ii) The values operated by logical operators in LISP are not exactly true or false

but the values are nil and non-nil, i.e., in LISP any S-expr which is not nil has the
same logical status as that of true in Boolean Algebra. Hence, modified definitions of
the three logical operators are:

NOT: Not of nil is t, and, Not of non-nil is nil or ( )

For example, (not ’ (a b) ) is nil
(not ( ) ) is t

AND and OR are treated as special forms as described below:

AND: The arguments of AND are evaluated from left to right until some S-expr
evaluates to nil then other arguments are not evaluated. If, at any stage, an
argument evaluates to nil, then nil is returned. However, if none of the
arguments evaluates to nil then the value of the last argument is returned.

OR: The arguments of OR are evaluated from left to right, until either some value
returned is non- nil, then the value is returned as the value of application of
OR and the rest of the arguments are not evaluated. However, every argument
evaluates to nil, then nil is returned.
Examples:

( not nil ) returns t

( not t ) returns nil
( not ’dog ) returns nil
( and t ’dog ) returns dog
( and t nil ’dog ) returns nil
( or t nil ’dog ) returns t ; first argument that is
non-nil, if any
( or ’dog nil t) returns dog;
( or ’dog ) returns dog
( and ’dog ) returns dog
( or nil ( ) ) returns nil.

1.9 EVALUATION OF SPECIAL FORMS

INVOLVING DEFUN and COND

So far we have discussed only built-in functions including predicates and relations.
The special word DEFUN allows us to write our own functions and build our own
programs. To build up highly complex programs, we need

18 (i) iteration, i.e., repeated execution of a sequence of statements, and

(ii) Selection. A.I. Languages-1:
In LISP, capability for iteration is provided by the Do construct. On the other hand, LISP
the selection capability in LISP is provided by COND.

(i) Functions are defined using the syntax:

(defun < function-name > < parameter-list >

< function-body > )

where < function-name > is a symbol which names the function being defined,
< parameter-list > is a list of distinct symbols, which forms a list of parameters to the
function and < function-body > is the sequence of S-exprs which describes (or
denotes) the desired computation.

Simple examples: The LISP function, corresponding to the mathematical function

f(x, y) = x3 + y3 for all x, y, is given by the function definition

(defun sumcube ( x y )
(+(*xxx)(*yyy)))

Note 1: We have already mentioned that in interpreter mode, every S-expr, which
appears after the LISP prompt ’→’ is read, evaluated and printed. The execution of an
S-expr that defines a function, returns the name of the function. The name, acting as
a symbol, has a value obtained through execution, associated with it and the
associated value can be used in further processing. For example,

→ ( defun sumcube ( x y ) ( + ( * x x x ) ( * y y y ) ); returns

; sumcube
Next S-expr

→ ( length ( list ( defun sumcube ( x y ) ( + (* x x x ) ( * y y y ) )

; returns
;the integer 1 because ( defun ….) returns symbol sumcube then (list …) returns the
;list (sumcube) and finally (length …….) returns the integer 1.

Note 2: Applying a function to its arguments is termed as making a function call. For
the above definition of the function sumcube, the following sequence

→ (setq x 3 ) ; returns 3
→ ( sumcube 2 x) ; returns 2 * 2 * 2 + 3 * 3 * 3, i.e. 35

The capability of conditional or selective evaluation is provided by the special

symbol COND.

The syntax (or legal form ) for COND is:

(cond
( < test-1 > < S-expr > < S-expr > … < S-expr > )
( < test-2 > < S-expr > < S-expr > … < S-expr > )
( < test-n > < S-expr > < S-expr > … < S-expr > )
)
Each list of the form ( < test-i > < S-expr > . . . < S-expr > ) in the above is called a
clause.
The COND form is evaluated according to the following rule :

19
A.I. Programming Evaluate the first test viz. < test-1 > in clause 1. If it evaluates to non-nil then the
Languages
remaining < S-expr > ’s in the clause are evaluated in the order from left to right and
the value of the whole COND is the same as the value of the last S-expr in clause1.
If < test-1 > evaluates to nil, the same sequence of steps is repeated for second clause,
and so on. Until either some < test-i > evaluates to non-nil, for which earlier described
sequence of steps for the non-nil case, is followed. However, if all < test-i > evaluate
to nil then COND form evaluates to nil.

A special case of COND form is the one in which < test-i > is the first test which
invariably evaluates to non-nil and the corresponding ith clause has no other S-expr,
i.e., ith clause is of the form ( < test-i > ).

In this case, the value of < test-i > which is assumed to be non-nil is returned.

Examples of COND special form

( defun our-max-3 (xyz)

( cond
( (>xy)
( cond
( (>xz)x)
(t z)
)
)
( (>yz)y)
(t z)
)
)
)

Comment (a): The example given above graphically demonstrates a style of placing
corresponding parentheses in the code. This is allowed as LISP code is format free.

Comment (b): We also know that t evaluates to itself and hence is non-nil. Therefore,
the two occurrences of the clause ( t z ) state that in case ( > x y ) is true but ( > x z )
is false then z is returned. Similarly, if ( > x y ) is false then the next clause as given
below is executed

(
( (>y z) y)
( t z )
)
In this clause, first of all, condition ( > y z ) is evaluted which, if the value happens to
be nil then the condition t in the next sub-clause ( t z ) is tested. As t always evaluates
to non-nil, hence z is returned.

Comment (c): As z is a number and a number always evaluates to non-nil, therefore,

each of the two occurrences of ( t z ) in the definition of our-max-3 can be replaced
by just ( z ).

1.10 THE SPECIAL FORMS DO AND LET

The special form Do provides the power of iteration to LISP. We may recall from
our earlier studies that iterative constructs are very useful, specially for denoting long
sequences of actions by shorter code.
20
Also, LET is special form useful in LISP because, it facilitates the creation of local A.I. Languages-1:
variables and often yields code which is both compact and efficient. Let us first LISP
discuss the special form Do in detail.

The do construct has the following form:

(
( do
( ( var1 init1 step1 )
( var2 init2 step2 )
( vari initi stepi )
( varm initm stepi )
) ; this part initiates various variables
; also specifies the possible modifications to the value of var-i through step-i
( end-test ; test to see if Do loop

end-form1 ; is to be terminated

end-form-n return-value
)
body1 ; body of Do-loop
body2

body-n ; where each body i is an S-exp.

))

The above Do form is evaluated through the following sequence of steps:

Step 1: Variables var-i are initially bound to init-i for all i in parallel

Step 2: If the S-expr viz end-test is present, it is examined. If end-test evaluates to nil
then the following sub-steps are followed:

(i) Each of body-j is evaluated, and if in body-j any S-expr of the form (return value)
is encountered, do is exited and its value is the value in return value.

(ii) We should note that only utility of the body is for exiting or for side-effects.

(iii) Next iteration starts (only if end-test evaluated as nil) with binding of each of the
var-i to the value of step-i. If step-i is omitted, the var-i is left unchanged.

(iv) Repeat whole of step2 again if in step2, end-test evaluates to nil else go to step3

The next two steps are executed when end-test evaluates to non-nil.

Step 3: Each of end-form-i is evaluated, the utility of which is for exiting or side-
effects.

Step 4: Return-value is evaluated and is returned as value of DO loop.

To illustrate the applications of Do construct, we solve two problems using the

construct.
Example 1: to print the first n natural numbers, where n is a parameter to the
function, The required function in LISP is:

→ ( defun print-beginning-integers (n) 21

A.I. Programming ( do
Languages
(
( count 1 ( + 1 count ) )
)
( ( equal count n ) ’done )
( print count )
)
)

→ ( print-beginnning-integers 12 )

123456789101112 done
; here done is used to indicate the successful

; completion of the loop. The I/O function

; print shall be explained later.

Next we explain the LET construct:

As we have already mentioned that LET is used for creating local variables. The
purpose and use of LET may be explained through the simple example:

( defun explain−let ( x y )
( let
(
(x 1)
(y 2)
)
( print ’x = x )
( terpri )
( print ’ y = y)
( terpi )
)
( print ’x = x )
( print ’y = y )

The printing command ( terpri ) asks the printer to leave the line and start
printing on the next line.

Let us call explain–let with x and y respectively as 8 and 9

→ ( explain–let 8 9 ) ; we get

x=1
y=2
(∵ through let, we define a local loop in which x is 1 and y is 2. But, once execution
exits the loop, then x and y assume the assigned values.

x=8
y=9

Remarks: As in Do, the values of the variables within LET structure are bound in
parallel. If we wish to bind values in sequential order then we use LET *

Ex 5: Write a LISP program expo to compute i raise to power j where i and j are
natural numbers.
22
 A.I. Languages-1:
1.11 INPUT / OUTPUT PRIMITIVES LISP

In this section, some frequently used I/O primitives are introduced example:

(i) The read statement for input is explained through the following:
→ ( + 7 (read) );
→ 8 ; the value given by the user;
→ 15 ; the value returned by the system.
(ii) The primitive TERPRI directs the printer to start on a new line.
(iii) The primitive PRINT takes one argument. It prints its argument in the same
form in which it is received and also returns the argument as value of the print
statement.

Example :

→ (print ’( x y z u) ); returns two lines of (X Y Z U) as shown below.

( X Y Z U)
( X Y Z U)

One of the occurrences of (X Y Z U) is for the value returned by the function print
and the other occurrence is printed by the print statement.

Another Example:

→ ( print ’good morning’ ); the statement an execution returns the following two
;lines
’good morning’
’good morning’

(iv) The primitive prin1 is the same as print except that the new-line characters and
space are not provided

Example

(print ’left) (print ’right)

left
right
→ ( print ’left ) ( prin1 ’right )
left right
→

(v) The primitive princ : is the same as prin1 except it does not print the double-
quotation marks at of the beginning and end of its argument, if given, e.g.,

→ ( princ “good morning”)

good morning “good morning”
→

princ statement has eliminated the double quotes, but returned value is still having
double quotes.

(vi) Formatted Printing through the primitive FORMAT. LISP allows us to have
cleaner output through the primitive FORMAT which has the following syntax.

( format < destination > < string > arg1 arg2 ……) 23
A.I. Programming Here < destination > specifies where the output is to be directed, e.g., to the printer or
Languages
to the monitor or some other external file. Default value is generally the monitor. The
word < string > in the format clause indicates the desired output string which is mixed
up with format directives. The format directives specify how each argument is to be
represented. The order of occurrence of the directives is the same as the order in
which the arguments are to be printed. The character ∼ is used before each directive to
identify the directives. Most common directives are:

∼ % : indicates that new line is to be printed.

∼ A : is a placeholder for a value which will be printed as if print were used,
∼ S : is a placeholder for a value which will be printed as if prin1 is used,
∼ D : is a place holder for a value which must be an integer and which will be printed
as a decimal number,
∼ F : is a place holder for a value which must be a floating point number and will be
printed as a decimal floating point number,
∼ C : is a place holder for a value which will be printed as character output,

Next, field widths for appropriate argument values are specified by an integer between
tilde (i.e., ∼) and the directive, e.g., ∼ 3D indicates the integer field width is 3.

1.12 RECURSION IN LISP

Recursion: LISP expresses recursive computation in a very natural way.

Let us first recall below what is a recursive function:

Recursive function: is a function which calls itself repeatedly, but each call with
simpler arguments than the arguments used by the preceding call.

Definition of a recursive function requires

(i) a recursive step.
(ii) stopping condition for stopping the processing.

One of the most well-known example of recursive definition in Mathematics is that of

factorial, which in the following definition is named as fact and is defined as follows:

fact (1) = 1 (the stopping/termination condition)

fact (n) = n*fact (n-1) (the recursive step)

In LISP, the above function is expressed as

→ (defun fact (n)

( cond
(
( ( = n 1) 1 )
( t ( * n fact ( – n 1)
)
)
)
)
)

FACT

→ ( fact 5 )
24
 120 A.I. Languages-1:
Another simple example is given below to explain recursion in LISP: LISP

We define our own function LEN that returns the number of top-most elements in a
given list say L:

( defun LEN ( L )
( Cond
(
( ( null L ) 0 )
( t ( + 1 ( LEN ( Cdr L ) ) ) )
)
)
)
)

Ex 6: Write a function deep-length that counts the number of a atoms (not necessarily
distinct) in a given list. The atoms may be in a list which is a member of another list
which at some level occurs as an element of the given list. For example, for the list
L = ( 1 ( 2 ( 3 4 )) ( 5 ))
length L is three. However, deep-length of L is five.

1.13 ASSOCIATION LIST AND PROPERTY LIST

Association lists are useful tools to associate attributes and their values with objects.
For example, to describe a particular book viz. LISP by Winston & Horn published by
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company in 1984, we may use the representation:

( setq book ’ ( ( title ( LISP second edition ) )

( author ( Winston & Horn ) )
(year 1984 )
( publisher addison-wesley)
)
)

The value of the attribute title is a list viz. (LISP second edition) whereas the value of
the attribute year is 1984. The values of the attributes may be any S-expr, e.g.,
number, symbol or list. Formally we define.

Association List is a list of embedded sublists, in which first element of each sublist
is a key. In the example of book given above, the symbols title, author, year and
publisher are keys.

The procedure ASSOC: to retrieve values of keys or attributes, the procedure

ASSOC takes two arguments viz the key and the object-name and returns the list of
two element, the first element is the key and the second element is the associated
value of the key, e.g.

→ (ASSOC ’year book ); returns

( year 1984 )

For a given object, ASSOC looks down the sublist (each sublist representing key s
associated value of the key) starting from the first sublist in the list, and matches the
car of each sublist with the key given as first argument of ASSOC. If the two do not
25
A.I. Programming match, ASSOC goes further down to next sublist. However, if the key and the car of
Languages
the sublist match then whole of the sublist is returned.

Property List, and the primitives GET, PUTPROP and SETF

Another way of associating properties and their associated values to objects in LISP,
is through property lists. Considering again the earlier example of book with title as
LISP, author as Winston & Horn, Publisher as Addison-Wesley, year as 1984, we can
put this information in the database using the above-mentioned primitives as follows:

→ (putprop ’book ’LISP ’Title ) ; putprop returns the attribute values LISP

→ (putprop ’book ’ (Winston & Horn ) ’Author )

’ (Winston & Horn)

→ (putprop ’book ’AddisonWesley ’Publisher )

Addison-wesley

→ (putprop ’book 1984 ‘year )

1984

The general form of putprop statement in LISP is

( putprop < object – name – symbol > < attribute – value > < attribute – name > )

where < object – name – symbol > and < attribute – value > must be symbols and
< attribute –value > may be any S – expr.

The newer version of COMMON LISP avoid PUTPROP and instead use SETF.

The primitive SETF : SETF is like SETQ. However, SETF is more general than
SETQ. The primitive SETF also takes two arguments, but the first argument is
allowed to be an access function in addition to being an atom. An access function
includes car, cdr and get. Second argument to SETF is the value, as is in the case of
SETQ. The above-mentioned LISP statements using purtprop can equivalently be
replaced by the following statements using SETF and GET :

→ ( SETF ( GET ’book ’Title ) ’LISP )

LISP
→ ( SETF ( GET, book ’ Author ) ’ ( Winston & Horn ) )
( Winston & Horn )
→ ( SETF ( GET ’book ’Publisher ) ’Addison-Wesley )
Addison-Wesley
→ ( SETF ( GET ’book ’year ) 1984 )
1984

The general format for associating values to attributes of an object using SETF and
GET is

( SETF ( GET < object – name –symbol > < attribute – name > )
< attribute – value > )

SETF can also be used to replace values of car or cdr of a list as follows:

26 → ( SETQ L ’ ( x y z ) )
 (xyz) A.I. Languages-1:
→ ( SETF (Car L ) ’a ) LISP
(ayz)
→ ( SETF (Cdr L ) ’ ( u v w ) )
(auvw)

In general ( SETF ( car < list > ) < expr > ) replaces the car of < list > by < expr >

and ( SETF ( cdr < list > < expr > ) )

replaces the cdr of < list > by < expr >

This usage of SETF allows us to change the values of attributes, whenever required.

In order to retrieve values of attributes or properties, the primitive GET is used.

Assuming, we have already put the information about the book: LISP by Winston &
Horn in the database. Then the relevant information pieces may be retrieved as
follows:

→ ( GET ’book ’year )

1984
→ ( GET ’book ’Title )
LISP
→ ( GET ’book ’Author )
( Winston & Horn )

etc.

The general format of GET, in order to find the value of the attribute having name
as < attribute – name > of the object having name as < object – name >, is :

( GET < object – name > < attribute >)

If there is no value in the data-base for < attribute –name > and < object – name >, the
value nil is returned.

Note : When more than one SETF or PUTPROP are used to give different values to
the same attribute of a given object then the effect of only the latest remains. Earlier
values are overwritten. In order to change values of attributes, we write another
statement using SETF or PUTPROP. Thus, in continuation of our example about the
book entitled LISP by Winston & Horn, if in addition to the earlier statement, we give
the following statement:

→ ( SETF ( GET ’book ’year ) 1987 ) ; returns

the year of publication as 1987, replacing the year 1984.

Optional parameters: So far we have restricted to the definition of those functions

which have fixed number of arguments that are always evaluated. However, there are
situations, in which it may be desirable to define functions with variable number of
parameters. For example, we want to define a function exponentiate such that either
the value of base b is given or else it is assumed as 10. For this purpose, we use the
inbuilt function expt which returns mn for ( expt m, n ). Thus, exponentiate may
require one argument or two arguments. For such situations LISP provides a key word
&OPTIONAL, which when used in parameter-list indicates that the parameters listed 27
A.I. Programming after &OPTIONAL may or may not have arguments corresponding to them. If the
Languages
arguments corresponding to some parameters after &optional are present, the function
uses these in determining the output result, else there would be no error because of
their absence. For example, the function exponentiate as defined above can be
described in LISP as follows:

→ ( defun exponentiate ( n & optinal m )

( Cond
( ( null m ) ( expt 10 n ) )
( t ( expt m n) )
)
)
exponentiate
;exponentiate, in the previous line, is the value returned by the definition

It may be noted that if &optinal keyword had not been available and/or had we
defined exponentiate by replacing the parameter-list ( n & optional m ) by ( n m ),
then there would have been an error if m is not supplied assuming it to be 10.

The key word &rest

In order to explain the use of &rest, we consider the following example:

→ ( defun our-sum-3 ( n1 n2 & optinal n3)

(Cond
( ( null n3 ) ( + n1 n2 ) )
(t ( + n1 n2 n3 ) )
)
)

Our-sum-3 ; returned by the definition.

Let us make the following calls:

→ ( our-sum-3 5 6 )
→ (our-sum-3 ) 5 6 7 )
18
→ (our-sum-3 5689)
ERROR

The above ERROR occurred, because for correct response by our-sum-3, minimum
number of arguments in this case must be 2 ( i.e., number of parameters before
&optimal and maximum number in this case, must be 3 (i.e. number of all parameter
before or after &optimal ), but in the last call to our-sum-3, we supplied four
arguments viz. 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Now, it is not always possible to remember the exact number of optional parameters
and hence not always possible to check erroneous function calls. To remedy this
situation, LISP provides for the keyword &REST which is followed by exactly one
argument say ‘remaining’. Then if m denotes number of parameters before &optional
and n the number of parameters after &optional but before &rest and whenever k
arguments are supplied and k > m + n, then all the remaining ( k – ( m + n ) )
arguments are grouped into a list and bound to &rest. In order to explain the ideas
explained above, let us define a function say specialsum-3 as follows.

→ (defun specialsum-3 ( n1 n2 &optimal n3 &rest n4 )

( Cond ( ( and ( null n3 ) ( null n4 ) ) ( + n1 n2 ) )
28 ( ( null n4 ) ( + n1 n2 n3) )
 (t ( ( + n1 n2 n3 ) ( print n4) ) ) A.I. Languages-1:
) LISP
)
; the definition returns.
Special-sum-3

→ (special-sum-3 5 7)
12
→ ( special-sum-3 5 7 9 )
21
→ ( special-sum-3 5 7 9 11)
21 ( 11 )

→ ( special-sum-3 5 7 9 11 12 13 )
21 ( 11 12 13 )

1.14 LAMBDA EXPRESSION, APPLY, FUNCALL

AND MAPCAR

When a function is to be called only once in a program then we may not like to give a
name to the function in the definition of the function. In such a situation, instead of
the keyword DEFUN we use the keyword LAMBDA. Rest of the definition of the
function remains the same as it would have been under DEFUN. Suppose we need to
compute (x2 – y2)2, the following LAMBDA expression will accomplish the task:

→ (LAMBDA ( X Y )
(*(–(*XX )(*YY))
(–(*XX)(*YY))
)
)

Application of a LAMBDA expression is similar to that of application of a function

under normal definition through DEFUN, e.g.,

→ ( ( LAMBDA (XY)
(* (–( *XX)(*YY)
( * X X ) ( * Y Y)
)
)
) (3 4); returns
49

The functions APPLY and FUNCALL

APPLY takes two arguments, each of which is evaluated. The first argument, which
is either a function-name or LAMBDA expression, is applied to second argument
which is a list. FUNCALL is similar to the function APPLY with the difference that
arguments are supplied without boundary parentheses of a list. Function-names are
preferably quoted with #’ in stead of just quote.
Examples:
( APPLY #’* ( 2 3 ) )
6
→ (FUNCALL #’* 2 3 )
6
29
A.I. Programming For the earlier defined function our-sum-3 which returns sum of 2 or 3 arguments,
Languages
what ever number of arguments out of 2 or 3, are supplied. Let us consider

→ ( APPLY #’ our-sum-3 ( 4 5 ) )
9
→ ( FUNCALL #’ our-sum-3 4 5 6 )
15
→ ( APPLY #’ ( LAMBDA ( X Y ) ( * ( + x x ) ( + y y ) ) ) ( 3 4 ) )
48
→ ( funcall #’ ( LAMBDA ( X Y ) ( * ( + X X ) ( + Y Y ) ) ) 3 4 )
48
The Backquote facility : The backquote is just like quoted expression and evaluates
to itself except the following difference : Those subexpressions of the expression that
are preceded by a comma or by the comma followed by the symbol @ are evaluated
and substituted appropriately before returning the result. Let A be bound to
’ ( 3 x 4 ) then

→ ‘ ( A B C ) ; evaluates to
(ABC)

→ ‘ ( ,A B C ) ; evalutes to
((3x4)BC)

→ ‘ ( A ,A B ,@ A C ) ; evaluates to
(A(3x 4)B3x 4 c)

Explanation of evaluation of backquoted expressions: Any subexpression

which is preceded by a comma is evaluated and substituted by the value so obtained.
Further, if a subexpression is preceded by , @ then it is evaluated and splice
substituted. i.e., substitution after removing bounding parentheses, where a the result
of evaluation of the argument must be a list.

The function MAPCAR: MAPCAR is a useful function which is to be repeatedly

applied to a set of lists where each list constitutes one argument list for the function.
Let f be a function of arity k, i.e., the function f requires k arguments in one
application.

The application of mapcar is explained through the following examples.

→ ( mapcar # ’ + ’ ( 1 2 3 4 ) ’ ( 3 4 ) )
10 7
(i.e., elements of each of the two lists are added separately)
→ (mapcar #’ (lambda (x) ( + x 7) ) ’ ( 2 3 4 )
; returns
9 10 11
→ (mapcar #’ list’ (x y z ) (a b c) )
;returns
(x a) (y b) ( z c )

1.15 SYMBOL, OBJECT, VARIABLE AND

REPRESENTATION

In the contexts in which a symbol has or is expected to have some object or S – expr
associated with it, it is called a variable. The symbol book1 becomes a variable,
when associated with the object which represents a book entitled LISP, authored by
30
Winston & Horn in the year 1984. The association between the symbol and the object A.I. Languages-1:
may be achieved through the LISP statement: LISP

→ ( setq book1’ ( ( title LISP ) ( author ( Winoston & Horn ) )

( year 1984 ) ( printing first 1984 )
) ; returns
book1

The associated object may be referred to as the value of the symbol. The variable may
be considered as the ordered pair: (symbol, value).

Also, a symbol used in the parameter list of a function definition, though does not
have any associated value or object at the time of definition, yet is a variable because
it is expected to be associated with some object at the time of application of the
function.

Bound & Free Variables: A symbol that appears in the parameter list of a procedure,
is called a bound variable w.r.t the procedure. A symbol, that does not appear in the
parameter list of a procedure, is called a free variable w.r.t the procedure.

Representation of Symbols: In LISP environment, the link between a symbol and the
associated object is unique and is achieved through the following mechanism.

LISP system maintains a Symbol Table (in some part of the memory) in which each
symbol, when encountered for the first time, is entered alongwith some starting
address, say 3000, of some location in the memory where the associated object is
stored. We may note that some of the components of the object may be changed over
time, e.g., if the copies of book1 are again printed in the in the year 1988. In such a
case, the component ‘ (printing first 1984)’ of the object is changed by ‘ ( printing
second 1988)’. However, the entry (book1 3000) remains unchanged. Next time when
book1 occurs in a program, the LISP system searches through its possible occurrences
in the symbol table and on finding it there, does not attempt to associate with it
another address or location in memory. Further, the statements like,

( setq book2 ’ book1 ) and

( setq book3 ’ book1 )

will associate address 3000 ( i.e. the address associated with book1 ) with symbols
book2 and book3 as their address parts of (symbol, address) pairs. Thus, we may also
say that a variable is an ordered pair ( symbol, pointer ).

The Predicate EQ : EQ returns t if and only if the internal structures of its arguments
are identical. Hence, continuing with the earlier discussion, the value t is returned in
all the following three cases:

( EQ ’ book1 ’ book1 )
( EQ ’ book1 ’ book2 )
( EQ ’ book2 ’ book3 )

Internal Representation of Lists, cons-cells in memory and the data structure

Dotted Pair: We pointed out that in order to store symbols, LISP system marks a
section of memory, called symbol table and which is considered as composed of cells
to store (symbol, pointer ) pairs. The first component of each cell is interpreted as a
symbol and the second component as an address. Similarly, in order to store lists,
LISP system marks out a segment of memory constituting of what is known as cons-
cell. Each cons-cell is a pair (pointer, pointer), i.e., each cons-cell contents are
interpreted as pair of pointers or addresses. The first pointer, in the cons cell to a list 31
A.I. Programming say L, points to the location in memory where information about CAR of L can be
Languages
found and second component of a cons cell points to a location where information
about CDR of L can be found. The cons-cell may be diagrammatically represented as
in the diagrams below, where the left arrow points to CAR and right arrow points to
CDR of the list to be represented by the cons-cell. The CDR of a single element list is
nil and is represented by the cons-box, where we may call the boxes of the form as
cons boxes.

Example of representation of lists by cons cells

1. The list ( A B ) is represented by the cons cell structure:

B
2. The list ( ( A B ) C ) is represented by the cons cell structure:

A C

B
3. The list ( A ( B C ) ) is represented by the cons cell structure:

32
C
 A.I. Languages-1:
Remarks: The name cons in the cons-cell structures, is justified on the LISP
following grounds:

Let L1 be a list and A be an atom and we have LISP statement ( setq L ( Cons ’ A L1))
then L is represented by adding one cons cell in the memory as shown below:

A Structure
for L 1

Also if L2 is another list then, on the command, ( setq M ( Cons L2 L1) ) resultant list
M is obtained by adding one cons cell in memory as shown below:

M:

Structure for Structure for

L2 L1

It can be easily seen that using the Cons cells representation for lists, operation like
CAR, CDR, ATOM etc can be efficiently implemented.

Ex 7: Draw cons-cell structure for the list ( ( A B ) ( C D ) ).

The Data Structure: Dotted Pair

The cons-cell structure suggests that a cons-cell in memory may represent a LISP
object in which the CDR need not be a list but may be an atom or a symbol.

Dotted Pair: A LISP data structure pair is a structure like list with the difference that
CDR of a dotted pair may be an atom also. A dotted pair with CAR as symbol A and
CDR as symbol B is denoted by (A . B) with spaces around dot on both sides. Thus,
cons-box representation for dotted pair (A . B) is

A B

and ( CAR ’ ( A . B ) ) is the symbol A

and ( CDR ’ ( A . B ) ) is the symbol B.

1.16 DESTRUCTIVE UPDATES, RPLACA,

RPLACD & SETF

We have earlier discussed updates of attribute values in property lists through

PUTPROP and SETF. But, so far, we have not discussed primitives, in context of
general lists, which achieve destructive updates in parts of given lists. SETF may be
used for the purpose. However, first we introduce two mnemonics for replace CAR 33
A.I. Programming and for replace CDR. The mnemonic RPLACA is used for replace CAR and the
Languages
mnemonic RPLACD is used for replace CDR.

Now we explain the two primitives. Both RPLACA and RPLACD take two
arguments. For RPLACA, first argument is a non-empty list say bound to a symbol,
say, X and second is an arbitrary LISP object say bound to a symbol, say, Y. Then
(RPLACA X Y ) replaces ( Car X ) by Y in the given list and the resulting list is still
bound to X. For RPLACD, the first argument is again a non-empty list bound to the
symbol, say, X and the second argument also must be a list, say, bound to Y then
(RPLACD X Y ) replaces ( CDR X ) by Y and the resulting list is still bound to X.
Examples:

→ ( SETQ X ) ’( ( a b ) c d ) ; returns
((ab)cd )
→ ( SETQ Y 3 ) ; returns
3
→ ( REPLACA X Y ) ; returns
( 3 c d); Further if we give

→ ( SETQ Z ’ ( 3 7 9 ) ) ; returns
(379)
→ ( SETQ U ’( c e f ) g ) ) ; returns
((cef))
→ ( REPLACA Z U ); returns;
( ( ( c e f ) g ) 7 9 ); this list is bound to Z

→ ( SETQ V’( ( a b ) c ) ) ; returns

((ab)c)

→ ( REPLACD Z V ) ; returns
( ( (e e f ) g ) ( ( a b ) c ) )

The above two primitives viz RPLACA and RPLACD can be obtained from SETF as
follows:
( RPLACA L S ) is same as ( SETF ( CAR L ) S )
and ( RPLACD L S ) is same as (SETF ( CDR L ) S )

In general we can make changes to lists in arbitrary positions in stead of just to the (
CAR L ) and ( CDR L), as follows:

( RPLACA ) ( Cxxxxr L) S ) or ( SETF ( Caxxxxr L) ) S )

and ( RPLACD ( Cxxxxr L) S ) or (SETF ( Cdxxxxr L ) ) S )
where xxxx is a sequence made out of A’s and D’s.

Example :
→ ( SETQ X ’ ( ( a b ) ( c ( d e ) f ) ) ) ; returns
((ab)(c(de)f))

→ ( RPLACA ( Cdadr X) ’p )
( ( a b ) ( c p f ) ) ; still bound to X

→ (SETQ Z ’( ( a b ) ( c d e ) ) )
((ab) (cde))

→ (REPLACD (Cdadr Z ) ’( F G ) ) ; returns

((ab)( c d F G) )
34
Ex 8: Find A.I. Languages-1:
(i) (RPLACA ( Cdadr ’( ( u v w) ( s ( t u ) m ) ) ) ’(a b c) ) LISP
(ii) (RPLACD ( Cdadr ’( ( u v w ( s ( t u) m ) ) ) ’ (a b c) )

1.17 ARRAYS, STRINGS AND STRUCTURES

I. ARRAYS: LISP provides the primitive MAKE-ARRAY to create array structures.

To create an array structure of dimensionality n and dimensions
<dim–1>, …, <dim–n> the following syntax using MAKE-ARRAY is used:

(MAKE–ARRAY ’( <dim–1> <dim–2> … <dim–n>) )

For example to create an array structure named Matrix–3 with dimensionality 3 and
<dim–1>as 2, <dim–2> as 2 and <dim–3> as 3 of integers, the following LISP
statement is used:

→ ( SETQ Matrix–3 ( MAKE–ARRAY ’( 2 2 3 ) & KEY : integer ) )

; returns the name Matrix–3

The above statement creates an array Matrix–3 of 12 elements. The slots in Matrix–3
are empty and we will discuss how to fill values in the slots. The 12 slots in Matrix-3
are referred to as

Matrix–3 (0, 0, 0), Matrix–3 (0, 0, 1) Matrix–3 ( 0, 0, 2)

Matrix–3 (0, 1, 0), Matrix–3 (0, 1, 1), Matrix–3 (0, 1, 2)
Matrix–3 (1, 0, 0), Matrix–3 (1, 0, 1), Matrix–3 (1, 0, 2)
Matrix–3 (1, 1, 0), Matrix–3 (1, 1, 1), Matrix–3 (1, 1, 2)

The primitive AREF is used to refer to a particular slot in the array, e.g., .
( AREF Matrix–3 1 0 2) refers to the slot Matrix–3 ( 1, 0, 2)

In order to assign a value to Matrix–3 ( i, j, k ), the following statement is used:

→ ( SETF ( AREF Matrix–3 1 0 2 ) 10 ); assigns value 10 to the slot ( 1 , 0 , 2 ) of

Matrix–3

The above value-assigning statement can be easily used to give value say integer g to
( i, j, k )th element of Matrix–3 as

→ ( SETF ( AREF Matrix–3 i j k ) g )

Further, it can be generalised for any array in stead of Matrix–3.

In order to retrieve values from any slot, say ( i , j , k) of Matrix–3 we use the
following LISP statement:

→ (AREF Matrix–3 i j k)
; the value g is returned
; if g is the value stored at
; Matrix–3 ( i, j, k ) then g is returned

Next, we consider defining of strings in LISP:

II. A string is a one-dimensional array, whose elements are characters. MAKE-
ARRAY or MAKE-STRING, a new primitive may be used for the purpose, e.g.,
35
A.I. Programming → ( SETQ A (MAKE-ARRAY ’( 4 ) & KEY : character ) )
Languages
A ; creates a string-structure A capable of storing
; characters
or equivalently we can write the statement
→ (SETQ A ( MAKE-STRING 4 ) )

In order to store say ‘WORD’ in the string structure A

we can use either

( SETF ( AREF A 0 ) #\W )
( SETF ( AREF A 1) #\0 )
( SETF ( AREF A 2) #\ R )
( SETF ( AREF A 3) # \ D )
or

( SETF (AREF A “WORD”)

Note that the two-character sequence viz. # \ is used preceding a character to indicate
that the following is to be interpreted as character.

III. Structure: Next, we describe commands in LISP for

• defining Pascal’s record-like structures in LISP environment,
• assigning values to components of such a structure and
• retrieving values from the components of such a structure.

The primitive DEFSTRUCT is used to define structures. The syntax to create a

structure (without values assigned to components ) is

( DEFSTRUCT < structure-name > < slot-1 > … < slot-k> ).

The structure created by the above type of LISP statement will be named
< structure-name > and will have <slot-i>’s as slots. We may recall that ‘<entity>’
enclosed between angular brackets indicate place-holder for entity to be suitable
replaced. The above type of LISP statement automatically generates the keyword
constructor called MAKE – <structure-name> and also automatically creates the
selector functions as <structure–name> – <slot–i> for each i.

We explain the somewhat terse description above through an example of defining a

binary-tree structure. For this purpose, let us recall the definition of a binary tree: A
binary tree, is either empty or it consists of a node called the root together with two
binary trees called the left subtree and the right subtree of the root.

For this purpose, a node of binary tree will have three slots: left-tree, value, right-tree.
The left-tree and right-tree are pointers.

Using DEFSTRUCT, we create the structure, which we name as bin-tree through

LISP statement:
(DEFSTRUCT bin-tree left-tree value right-tree)
The in-built mechanisms automatically create the following:

i) Constructor function MAKE-bin-tree

ii) Selector function bin-tree-left-tree
iii) Selector function bin-tree-value and
iv) Selector function bin-tree-right-tree.

36
Using the above description let us create the following binary tree to be called T1. A.I. Languages-1:
The children and grand-children nodes are named as T2, T3 and T4. And a diagonally LISP
crossed cell indicates nil pointer.

T1: 3

T2: 2 5 :T3

7 :T4

The following sequence of LISP statements create the tree shown above:

→ (SETQ T4 (MAKE-bin-tree: left-tree nil : value 7 :right-tree nil ) )

;# S (nil 7 nil) is the value returned
; Note we can state : left-tree, : value, : right-tree in any order, e.g.

→ (SETQ T3 (MAKE-bin tree : value 5 : left-tree T4 : right-tree nil ) )

;#S (#S ( nil 7 nil) 5 nil) is the value returned.

→ (SETQ T2 (MAKE-bin-tree : right-tree nil : left-tree nil: value 2 ) )

;#S (nil 2 nil ) is the value returned

→ (SETQ T1 (MAKE-bin-tree: left-tree T2 : right-tree T3 : value 3 ) )

; the value returned is the following
# S (# S (nil 2 nil) 3 # S (# S (nil 7 nil) 5 nil) )

In the above the symbol #S indicates the fact that the part following # is a structure.
In order to access values of: left-tree, : right-tree or : value the selectors bin-tree-left-
tree, bin-tree-right-tree and bin-tree-value respectively are used, for example

→ ( bin-tree-value T1) ; returns

3
→ ( bin-tree-left-tree T1) ; returns
#S (nil 2 nil)

→ ( bin-tree-left-tree T1); returns

#S ( nil 2 nil)

→ (bin-tree-right-tree T1); returns

#S( #S (nil 7 nil) 5 nil)

Also if we may give the name of a structure then the whole of the structure would be
available, e.g.

→ T3; the following value is returned

#S ( #S (nil 7 nil) 5 nil )

→ T1; the following value is returned

# S ( #S ( nil 2 nil ) 3 # S( # S( nil 7 nil) 5 nil ) )

37
A.I. Programming Further, in order to change or even create value of any component, we use the
Languages
primitive SETF. For example, if we wish to change : value component of T2 to – 5 we
can use

→ ( SETF ( bin-tree-value T2) – 5 ); returns

;the following tree as

T1: 3

T2: –5 5 :T 3

If further, we want T1 to be more symmetrical having T3 as both : left-tree as well as

: right-tree, then we can use
→ (SETF ( bin-tree-left-tree T1) T3 ); returns T3 as value
#S ( #S ( nil 7 nil ) 5 nil)

The new shape of tree T1 after the sequence of two changes mentioned above is like:

T1: 3

T3: 5 5 :T3

T4: 7 T4: 7

Further if give the command

→ T1; the new structure returned is

#S ( #S (#S ( nil 7 nil) 5 nil) 3 #S ( #S ( nil 7 nil) 5 nil) )

1.18 SUMMARY

The programming language LISP is based on the functional paradigm of solving

problems using a computer system. The concepts of ‘paradigm of solving problem’,
‘functional paradigm’ and ‘imperative paradigm’ are briefly discussed in Section 1.0,
i.e., in the Introduction section. Elements of the syntax of the language LISP are
introduced in Section 1.2. The issues relating to structuring of data and representing
data in LISP are discussed in Section 1.3. How a LISP system evaluates a valid LISP
object is explained in the next section. Section 1.5 explains how primitive LISP
functions are evaluated. Primitive List manipulation functions are discussed in
Section 1.6. The next section discusses built-in predicates of LISP. The various logical
operators are discussed in Section 1.8. Some facilities to write complex programs in
38 LISP are provided in the form of special forms which use the special words DEFUN,
COND, DO and LET etc. These special forms are explained in Sections 1.9 and 1.10. A.I. Languages-1:
The input/output functions and facilities are discussed in Section 1.11. The LISP
concept/mechanism of recursion plays a very important role in programming in
general, and symbolic programming in particular. Recursion in LISP is discussed in
Section 1.12.

In order to define objects in terms of their attributes and attribute values, association
lists and property lists are used in LISP. These concepts are discussed in Section 1.13.
Some more general and robust facilities in LISP defining and applying functions in
the form of Lambda Expression, Apply, Funcall and Mapcar are discussed in
Section 1.14. The representation of symbols and associated/represented objects in
LISP environment and representation of operations on such representations are
discussed in the next three sections.

1.19 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS
Ex 1: (i) The variable x is bound to 5 and the variable y is bound to 7. Further the
value ( 5 + 5 ) ∗ ( 7 + 7) is evaluated to 140

(ii) The expression having a quote in the beginning itself is evaluated to

( – ( + (setq p 9) ( setq s 3) ) ( p ∗ s) ).
No binding of p to 9 and s to 3 takes place.

Ex 2: (i) The expression in the first round reduces to ( + 24 (– 1) 2 ) which reduces

to 25
(ii) The expression in the first round reduces to ( ∗ 5 0 11) which reduces to zero
(0).

Ex 3: (Defun ( X Y)
( cond ( = Y 0) ’infinity)
(t (/ X Y )))

Ex 4:
Stepwise explanation

1. x is associated with (a b) and (a b) is returned.

2. ’(c d) evaluates to ( c d)
3. through subst x is replace by list ( s t) and we get a new list
(u v( st))
4. through reverse, from the last list, we get ( ( s t) v u )
5. the append of three lists viz (a b), (c d) and ( (s t ( v u ) returns the list
(a b c d ( s t) v u )
6. Finally 7, the length as number of topmost elements, is returned.

Ex 5:
( defun expo ( i j )
( do
( answer i ( * i answer ) )
; initially answer is i and is
; multiplied in each iteration by i
(power j ( − power 1 ) )
(counter ( – j 1) (– counter 1 ) )
; initially power is j and in each iteration power is reduced by 1.
; counter is an auxiliary variable
) 39
A.I. Programming ( ( zerop counter ) answer )
Languages
)
)

→ ( expo 2 3 )
8
Remarks: The clause (power j ( – power 1) ) is actually not required. However, it is
introduced to explain. It can be deleted without affecting the overall (final) result. But
it has been introduced to explain an important point about do-loop. We may be
tempted to write the above function expo by replacing the clause ( counter (− j 1)
( − counter 1 ) ) by ( counter ( − j 1 ) ( − power 1 ) ) i.e. replacing last occurrence of
counter by power; because it is also being computed in the earlier clause. But this
replacement will be wrong, leading to incorrect result because of the fact that in Do
loop all the variables, viz answer, power, and counter in the above example are
computed in parallel, using values from the previous iteration/ initialization. Current
values are available only in the same clause. Therefore, if ‘power’ replaces ‘counter’
then previous value of power would be available for processing whereas we require
the current value.
In many situations, we need sequential computation of the variables in the loop. For
this purpose LISP Provides do*. Now, the function of Example 2 above may be
rewritten using the earlier computed values of power as is given below:
( defun expo ( i j )
( do* (
( answer i ( * i answer ) )
( power j (− power 1 ) )
(counter (− power 1 )
(− power 1 )
)
)
( ( zerop counter ) answer )
)
)
Ex 6: (defun deep-length (L)
( cond
(( null L ) 0)
(( list p ( car L )) ( + deep-length (car L )) (deep-length ( cdr L ))
( t ( + 1 ( cdr L )))
)
)

Ex 7: The list ( ( A B ) ( C D ) ) is represented by the cons cell structure

B
C
40

D
Ex 8: A.I. Languages-1:
(i) ( ( u v w ) ( s ( a b c) m ) ) LISP
(ii) ( ( u v w) (s ( t u ) a b c) )

1.20 FURTHER READINGS

1. Graham P. : ANSI Common Lisp Prentice Hall (1996).

2. Sangal R. : Prgramming Paradigms in LISP McGraw-Hill, Inc. (1990).
3. Patterson D.W.: Chapter 3 of Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Expert
Systems; Prentice-Hall of India (2001).

41
A.I. Programming
Languages UNIT 2 A. I. LANGUAGES-2: PROLOG
Structure Page Nos.

2.0 Introduction 42
2.1 Objectives 43
2.2 Foundations of Prolog 43
2.3 Notations in Prolog for Building Blocks 46
2.4 How Prolog System Solves Problems 50
2.5 Back Tracking 54
2.6 Data Types and Structures in Prolog 55
2.7 Operations on Lists in Prolog 57
2.8 The Equality Predicate ‘=’ 61
2.9 Arithmetic in Prolog 62
2.10 The Operator Cut 63
2.11 Cut and Fail 65
2.12 Summary 66
2.13 Solutions/Answers 67
2.14 Further Readings 70

2.0 INTRODUCTION

We mentioned in the previous unit that there are different styles of problem solving
with the help of a computer. For a given type of application, some style is more
appropriate than others. Further, for each style, some programming languages have
been developed to support it. In this context, we have already discussed two styles of
solving problems viz imperative style and functional style. Imperative style is
supported by a number of languages including C and FORTRAN. Functional style is
supported by, among others, the language LISP. The language LISP is more
appropriate for A. I. applications.

There is another style viz declarative style of problem solving. A declarative style is
non-procedural in the sense that a program written according to this style does not
state exactly how the computational process is to be carried out. Rather, a program
consists of mainly a number of declarations representing relevant facts and rules
concerning the problem domain. The solution to be discovered is also expressed as a
question to be answered or, to be more precise, a goal to be achieved. This
question/goal also forms a part of the PROLOG program that is intended to solve the
problem under consideration. The main technique, in this style, based on resolution
method suggested by Robinson (1965), is that of matching goals (to be discussed)
with facts and rules. The matching process generates new facts and goals. The
matching process is repeated for the whole set of goals, facts and rules, including the
newly generated ones. The process, terminates when either all the initial goals,
alongwith new goals generated later, are satisfied or when it may be judged or proved
that the goals in the original question are not satisfiable.

Logic programming is a special type of declarative style of programming, in which

the various program elements and constructs are expressed in the notations similar to
that of predicate logic. Two interesting features of logic programs are non-
determinism and backtracking. A non-deterministic program may find a number of
solutions, rather than just one, to a given problem. Backtracking mechanism allows
exploration of potential alternative directions for solutions, when some direction,
currently being investigated, fails to find an appropriate solution. The language
42
PROLOG, which sports Logic Programming style, has been found useful in A.I. A.I. Languages-2:
applications. In this unit, we have introduce the programming language PROLOG, PROLOG

2.1 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you should be able to:

• explain the declarative style and logic programming style of problem solving,
which form the basis of PROLOG programming;
• explain the difference between declarative style and imperative style, where the
later forms the basis of conventional programming languages like, FORTRAN,
Pascal, C etc.
• tell us the rules of syntax of PROLOG;
• to write PROLOG programs, using the syntax of the language;
• explain how PROLOG system solves a problem;
• explain the concept of backtracking and its use in solving problems;
• enumerate the various data types and data structures available in PROLOG, and
further be able to use the available types and structures in defining the data for a
program;
• enumerate and apply various PROLOG operations on lists;
• enumerate and use predicates in expressions, and
• explain the significance of the operator Cut and operator Fail and further should
be able to use the operators ‘cut’ and ‘fail’ in programs to solve problems.

2.2 FOUNDATIONS OF PROLOG

The programming language PROLOG derives its name from PROgramming in

LOGic
.
The fundamentals of PROLOG were developed in the early 1970’s by Alain
Colmerauer and Phillipe Roussel of the Artificial Intelligence group at the University
of Marseille together with Robert Kowalski of Department of Artificial Intelligence at
University of Edinbury, U.K. There are a number of dialects of PROLOG. Two most
important characteristics of PROLOG are as given below:

(i) The facts and rules are represented using a syntax similar to that of predicate
logic. These facts and rules constitute what is called PROLOG
database/knowledge base.

(ii) The process of problem solving through PROLOG is carried out mainly using an
in-built inferencing mechanism based on Robinson’s resolutions method.
Through the inferencing mechanism, in the process of meeting the initially given
goal(s), new facts and goals are generated which also become part of the
PROLOG database.

The syntax of PROLOG is based on Horn Clause, a special type of clause in

predicate logic. We know that a Clause is a predicate logic expression of the form
p1 ∨ p2…..∨ pi ∨ …..pr, where each pi is a literal, and ‘∨’ denotes disjunction.
Further a literal q is of the form p or ~ p (negation of p) where p is an atomic
symbol. A Horn Clause is a clause that has at most one positive literal, i.e., an
atom.

43
A.I. Programming There is some minor difference between the predicate logic notation and notation
Languages
used in PROLOG. The formula of predicate logic P ∧ Q ∧ R → S is written as

S: - P, Q, R.

(note the full stop following the last symbol R)

Where the symbol obtained from writing ‘:’ (colon) followed by ‘-’ (hyphen) is
read as ‘if ’. Further the conjunction symbol is replaced by ‘,’ (Comma).
Repeating, the symbol ‘:-’ is read as ‘if’ and comma on R.H.S stands for
conjunction.
Summarizing, the predicate logic clause P ∧ Q ∧ R → S is equivalently
represented in PROLOG as S: - P, Q, R. (Note the full stop at the end)

Problem solving style using PROLOG requires statements of the relevant facts
that are true in the problem domain and rules that are valid, again, in the domain
of the problem under consideration.

A fact is a proposition, i.e., it is a sentence to which a truth value TRUE is

assigned. (the only other truth value is FALSE). Facts are about various properties
of objects of the problem domain and about expected-to-be useful relations
between objects of the problem domain.

Examples of the statements that may be facts are:

1. Mohan is tall.
In this case is_tall is a property and if Mohan is actually tall (by some
criteria), then the fact may be stated as
is_tall (mohan).

(the reason for starting the name Mohan with lower-case ‘m’ and not with
upper-case letter ‘M’ is that any sequence of letters starting with an upper-case
letter, is treated, in PROLOG, as a variable, where the names like Mohan etc.
denote a particular person and, hence, denote a constant. Details are given later
on.

2. Anuj is father of Gopal,

if true, may be stated as:
father (anuj, gopal).

3. Ram and Sita are parents of Kush,

if true, may be stated as
parents (kush, ram, sita).

4. Gold is a precious metal

may be stated as:
is_precious (gold).

5. The integer 5 is greater than the integer 4

may be stated as:
is_greater (5, 4).

6. Aslam is richer than John,

may be stated as
is_richer (aslam, john).

44
 7. Mohan is tall and Aslam is richer than John A.I. Languages-2:
may be stated , using conjunct notations of predicate logic, as PROLOG
is_tall (mohan) ∧ is_richer (aslam, john).

The above statements show that facts are constituted of the following types of
entities viz

(i) Objects (or rather object names) like, Mohan, Ram, Gold etc. In
PROLOG names of the objects are called atoms.

(ii) Numerals like, 14, 36.3 etc. But numerals are also names of course, that
of numbers. However, generally, numerals are called numbers, though,
slightly incorrectly.
Also, a constant is either an atom or a number, and

(iii) Predicates or relation names like, father, parent, is_precious, is_ richer
and is_greater etc. In a PROLOG statement.

Predicates are also called Functors in PROLOG

Further, the following type of entities will be introduced soon:

(iv) Variables

8. On the other hand, there are facts such as:

If x is father of y and y is father of z then x is grand_father of z,

which are better stated in general terms, in stead of being stated though innumerable
number of facts in which x’s are given specific names of persons, y’s specific names
of their respective fathers and z’s specific names of respective grand-fathers.

Similarly, in stead of stating innumerable number of facts about the relation of

sister as

Anita is sister of Anuj.

Sabina is sister of Aslam.
Jane is sister of Johan.,
.
.
. ,
we may use the general statement involving variables, viz, X, Y, M and F, in the
form of the following rule:

X is sister of Y if X is a female and X and Y have the same parents M and F.

The above rule may be stated in PROLOG as:

is_sister-of (X, Y):- female(X), parents (X, F, M), parents (Y, F, M).

From the above discussion, it is now clear that knowledge of a problem domain
can be stated in terms of facts and rules. Further, facts and rules can be stated in
terms of

(i) Atoms (which represent object names) like, Mohan, Ram, Gold etc.
(ii) numbers

45
A.I. Programming (iii) Variables like, X, Y and Z. A variable may be thought of as something that
Languages
stands for some object from a set but, it is not known for which particular
object.
(iv) Predicates or relation names like, father, parent, is-precious, is_richer and
is_greater etc. and
(v) Comments: A string of characters strings generally enclosed between the pair
of signs, viz, ‘/*’ and ‘*/’, denotes a comment in PROLOG. The comments are
ignored by PROLOG system.

(vi) Atomic formula or structure (atomic formula is different from atom)

Out of the eight examples of statements which were considered a while ago, the first
six do not involve any of the logical operators, viz,
~ (negation), ∧ (conjunction), ∨ (disjunction) → (implication) and ↔ (bi-
implication).

Such statements which do not contain any logical operators, are called atomic
formulae. In PROLOG, atomic formulae are called structures. In general, a
structure is of the form:
functor (parameter list)
where functor is a predicate and parameter list is list of atoms, numbers variables and
even other structures. We will discuss structure again under data structures of
PROLOG.
Terms: functors, structures and constants including numbers are called terms.

In a logical language, the atoms, numbers, predicates, variables and atomic formulas
are basic building blocks for expression of facts and rules constituting knowledge of
the domain under consideration. And, as mentioned earlier, in logic programming
style of problem solving, this knowledge plays very important role in solving
problems.

2.3 NOTATIONS IN PROLOG FOR BUILDING

BLOCKS

Alphabet Set of a Language:

In any written language, whether natural or formal, the various linguistic constructs
like words expressions, statements etc. are formed from the elements of a set of
characters. This set is called alphabet set of the language.

The alphabet set of PROLOG is:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (upper-case letters)

a b c d ef gh ij kl m n o p q r s t u v w x yz (lower-case letters)
0 1 2 345 6 789 (numbers)
+ – * / \ ^< >= ‘ ~ : . ? @ # $ &
! ” %( )’ | { } [ ] - ; ,

For each type of terms, viz, numbers, atoms, variables and structures, there are
different rules to build the type of terms. Next we discuss these rules.

Constants in PROLOG represent specific objects and specific relationships.

Constants are of two types, viz., numbers and atoms.

46
Numbers: How numbers are represented in PROLOG is illustrated through the A.I. Languages-2:
following examples of representation of numbers: PROLOG
8 7 – 3.58 0 87.6e2 35.03e –12
In the above, the “e” notation is used to denote a power of 10. For example, 87.6 e 2
denotes the number 87.6 x 102 or 8760. The term 35.03e–12 denotes 35.03 x 10–12
Atom: an atom is represented by
(i) either a string in which the first symbol is a lower-case letter and other
characters in the string are letters, digits and underscores (but no sign
character)
(ii) a string or a sequence of characters from the alphabet set (including sign
characters) enclosed between apostrophes.
(iii) all special symbols like “?-” and “:-” are also atoms in PROLOG

Examples of Atoms
(i) circle (ii) b (iii) =(equal to sign) (iv) _(underscore)
(v) ‘→’ (vi) _beta (vii) mohan (viii) 3
(ix) abdul_kalam(uses underscore)
(x)‘abdul-kalam’
(uses hyphen. Hyphen is not allowed to be a part of an atom, but within single quotes
all character of the alphabet are allowed)
(xi) ‘Anand Prakash’
(the blank symbol is not allowed within a single atom.) But the whole sequence of
characters in ‘Anand Prakash’ including single quotes, represents a single atom.
The following are not atoms
(i) 3mohan (starts with a number)
(ii) abdul-kalam (has hyphen in-between)
(iii) Abdul_kalam (starts with a capital letter)

Predicate: Predicate have the same notations as atoms

Variables: The following notations are used for variables in PROLOG:
(i) A string of letters, digits and underscores that begins with an uppercase letter.
(ii) any sequence of letters, digits and underscores which begins with an
underscore, e.g,
_result
(iii) The symbol “_” (underscore) alone.
Underscore denotes a special type of variable, called anonimous variable. For
example, if we want to know if there is anyone who likes Mohan, without being
interested in who likes Mohan, then we may use the following statement:
?-likes (_ , mohan).
The difference between the behaviours of other variables like ‘X’ and ‘_’ is explained
by the following two queries.
In the query
?-likes (X, X).
the two occurrences of X denote the same person, hence, if first occurrence of X is
associated with Ankit then second occurrence of X is automatically associated with
Ankit. Thus, the above statement in this case says ‘Ankit like himself’. However, in
the following query, different occurrences of “-” may be associated with different
constants:
?- likes (-, -).
The query above asks to find someone who likes someone, the second someone may
be different from the first someone. Thus, for
?- likes (-,-).
The PROLOG system, may respond as
‘Ankit likes Suresh’, where first occurrence of ‘- ’ is associated with Ankit and
the second occurrence of ‘-’ is associated with ‘Suresh’.

47
A.I. Programming Structure: As mentioned earlier, a structure is of the form:
Languages
Predicate (parameter list)
where parameter list consists of atoms and variables separated by commas .

Term: We have already mentioned that a term is either a constant or a structure. And,
we have also already discussed representations of constants and structures.

Fact: A simple statement (i.e., statement not involving logical operators: ~ ∧ ∨ →

and ↔) is represented by a structure followed by a full-stop.
Example
is_sister(anita, ankur).
(states the fact that Anita is a sister of Ankur).
owns (mohan, book).
(states the fact that mohan owns a book)

Fact with Compound Statement: For expressing facts and relations, the syntax of
PROLOG does not allow arbitrary clauses but only Horn Clauses. However, in
PROLOG goals may be conjuncted. And, we know a Horn Clause can have at most
one positive literal. Therefore, the following single (non-atomic) statement of
predicate calculus

is_tall (mohan) ∧ is_richer (aslam, john)

has to be expressed as two Prolog statements as follows:

is_tall (mohan).
is_richer (aslam, john).

(note the dot at the end of each statement)

Head & Body of a Rule

In the rule
a4:- a1, a2, a3, a5.
a4 is the Head of the rule and the R.H.S of ‘:-’ , i.e., ‘a1, a2, a3, a5’ is the body of the
rule.

Repeating what has already been said.

The Head of a rule represents a goal to be achieved and the Body represents one or
more of the subgoals (each represented by single (atomic) structure) each of which
must be achieved if the goal represented by the Head can be said to have been
achieved.

Rule Statements: In general, a rule in PROLOG is of the form:

Head:- Body.
where Head is a (single) structure and Body is a finite sequence of structures separated
by commas.

Query/Question Statements:

We mentioned earlier, computer programming in PROLOG consists of:

• specifying facts,
• defining rules, and
• asking questions,
about objects and their relationships
48
We have already discussed PROLOG notation for specifying facts and defining rules. A.I. Languages-2:
Next, we discuss PROLOG representation of questions. The PROLOG representation PROLOG
of questions is almost the same as that for facts. The only difference in the
representations is that representation of a fact when preceded by the symbol ‘?-’
(question mark followed by hyphen) becomes the representation of a question. For
example, the statement
is_tall (mohan).
represents the fact which when expressed in English becomes ‘Mohan is tall’.
However, the following PROLOG notation
?- is_tal (mohan).
denotes the question which when expressed in English becomes: ‘Is Mohan tall?’

We mentioned earlier that for representing facts and rules in PROLOG, we are
restricted to using only Horn Clauses. However, the solving of a problem using a
PROLOG system, requires asking questions, any one of which may be an atomic goal
or may be a conjunct of more than one atomic goals. In the later case, the conjunct of
atomic goals representing the (composite) question is represented in Prolog by
writing the atomic goals separated by commas.
For example, if we want to know whether ‘Mohan is tall and Aslam is richer than
John?’ then the question may be stated in PROLOG as

?- is_tall (mohan), richer (aslam, john).

Some interpretations of question forms in PROLOG

Let us consider the rule:
X is sister of Y if X is a female and X and Y have the same parents M and F.
The above rule may be stated in PROLOG as:
is_sister of (X, Y):- female(X), parents (X, F, M), parents (Y, F, M).
Case (i) Then the question in PROLOG
?- is_sister (jane, john).

represents the question (in English): Is Jane sister of John?

Case (ii) Then the question in PROLOG.

?-is_sister (X, john).
represents the question:
Who (represent by upper-case letter X) are John’s sisters, if any?
Rather, the above PROLOG statement is a sort of the following command:
Find the names (represents by upper-case letter X) of (all) sisters of John.

Case (iii) Further, the PROLOG question:

?-is_sister (jane, X).

represents the command:

Find the names (represented by the upper-case letter X) of all siblings (brothers and
sisters) of jane.

Case (iv) Still further, the PROLOG question:

?-is_sister (X, Y).
represents the command:
Find all pairs (represented by pair (X, Y) of, persons in which the first person is a
sister of the second person in the pair, where second person may be a male or a
female.

A PROLOG program consists of a finite sequence of facts, rules and a query or goal
statement.
49
A.I. Programming In order to discuss solutions of problems with a PROLOG system, in addition to what
Languages
we have discussed so far we need to discuss in some detail representation of
arithmetic facts, rules and goals. Also, we need to discuss in some details data
structures in PROLOG. These topics will be taken up later on. Next, we discuss how
a PROLOG system solves a problem.

2.4 HOW PROLOG SYSTEM SOLVES

PROBLEMS?

We have mentioned earlier also that solution of a problem through PROLOG system
depends on

(i) (contents of) PROLOG database or knowledge base. PROLOG database

consists of facts and rules.

(ii) PROLOG inferencing system, which mainly consists of three mechanisms viz
(i) Backtracking,
(ii) Unification,
(iii) Resolution.

If a PROLOG database does not contain sufficient relevant facts and rules in respect
of a particular query, then the PROLOG system will say ‘fail’ or ‘no’, even if the facts
in the query, be true in everyday life.

For example: Suppose that ‘Sita is a sister of Mohan’ is a fact in the real world.
However, if in the database, we are not given any of the following:
(i) is_sister (sita, mohan).
(ii) parents (sita, m, f).
(iii) parents (mohan, m, f).
(iv) mother (sita, m) and mother (mohan, m).
(v) father (sita, f) and father (mohan, f).
More generally, if we are not given any set of statements or relations from which we
can conclude that Sita is sister of Mohan, then PROLOG system would answer the
query:
?- is_sister (sita, moha).

as something like: “Sita is a sister of Mohan” is not true.

Further, even if all the statements given under (i) to (v) above are in the database, but
the following rule
(vi) is_sister (X, Y):- female (X),
parents (X, M, F), parents (Y, M, F).

is not given in the PROLOG base then also, the system would answer as something
like: “Sita is a sister of Mohan” is not true.

Further, even if all the statements given under (ii) and (iii) and even rule (vi) are in the
database, but some statement equivalent to the fact female (sita).

is not given, then also the system would answer as something like:

“Sita is a sister of Mohan” is not true.

50
Let us Assume the PROLOG database is complete in the sense that the database A.I. Languages-2:
contains all the required facts and rules about the real world that are sufficient to PROLOG
answer any relevant query. Then, we discuss how the PROLOG system solves a
problem under consideration. In order to explain the in-built mechanism of PROLOG
system, we start with the particular database given below and some queries and then
generalize the results of our discussions.

Given Database
(i) female (sita).
(ii) female (zarina).
(iii) female (sabina)
(iv) female (jane).
(v) is_sister (sita, sarita).
(vi) is_sister (anita, anil).
(vii) parents (sita, luxmi, raj).
(viii) parents (sarita, luxmi, raj).
(ix) parents (sabina, roshnara, Kasim).
(x) parents (isaac, mary, albert).
(xi) parents (aslam, roshnara, Kasim).
(xii) parents (zarina, roshnara, Kasim).
(xiii) father (jane, albert).
(xiv) father (john,albert).
(xv) father (Phillips, albert)
(xvi) mother (jane, mary).
(xvii) mother (john, mary).
(xviii) mother (phillps, ann).

(jane is half sister of Phillips and according to the definition of the PROLOG
database, jane is not a sister of Phillips.)

(xix) is_sister (X, Y):- female (X),

parents (X, M, F), parents (Y, M, F).

(xx) is_sister (X, Y):- female (X), mother (X, M),

mother (Y, M), father (X, F),
father (Y, F).
The last rule could have been replaced by the following rule:

(xxi) parents (X, Y, Z):- mother (X, Y), father (X, Z)

But to explain some important points we consider rule (xx) and do not consider the
last rule.

Now, through a number of query examples, we illustrate the way in which a

PROLOG system solves problems.

Query No. 1 For the database given above, consider the query:

?-is_sister (anita, anil).

The PROLOG system starts from the top of the database and matches the functor
is_sister of the query with the functor female of the statement which do not match
(both being constants must be identical for matching). Then PROLOG system passes
to the next statement and attempts to match is_sister with the functor also female of
the second statement in the database. In this case also, the corresponding functors do

51
A.I. Programming not match. Similarly, functor in the query does not match the functor in each of the
Languages
next two statements.

The PROLOG system passes to next (i.e., fifth) statement. The functors in the query
and the third statement are identical. Hence, the query system attempts to match, one
by one, the rest of the parts of the query with the corresponding parts of the fifth
statement. The first argument viz anita of the query does not match (being constants,
are required to be identical for matching) to the first argument viz sita of the fifth
statement.
Hence, the PROLOG system passes to sixth statement in the database. The various
components of the query match (in this case are actually identical) to the
corresponding components of the sixth statement. Hence, the query is answered as
‘yes’.

Query No. 2 With the same database, consider the query

?- is_sister (Sabina, aslam).

The PROLOG system attempts to match the functor is_sister of the query with
funtors, one by one, of the facts and rules of the database. The first possibility of
match is in Fact (v) which also has functor is_sister. However, the first argument of
the functor in Fact (v) is sita which does not match sabina, the corresponding
argument. Hence, the PROLOG system attempts to match with Fact (vi) which also
does not match the query. The PROLOG system is not able to find any appropriate
matching upto fact (xviii).

However, the functor is_sister in the query matches the functor is_sister of the
L. H. S. of the Rule (xix). In other words, PROLOG system attempts to match the
constant sabina given in the query with the variable X given in the rule (xix). Here
matching takes a different meaning called unification.

Unification of two terms, out of which at least one is a variable (i.e., the first letter
of the term is an upper case letter), is defined as follows:

(i) If the term other than the variable term is a constant, then the constant value is
temporarily associated with the variable. And further throughout the statement or
rule, the variable is temporarily replaced by the constant.

(ii) If both the terms are variables, then both are temporarily made synonym in the
sense any value associated with one variable will be assumed to be associated
temporarily with the other variable.

In this case, the variable temporarily associated with the constant sabina for all
occurrence of X in rule (xix).

Next, PROLOG system attempts to match second arguments of the functor is_sister of
the query and of L. H. S. of rule (xix). Again this matching is a case of unification of
Y being temporarily associated with the constant aslam through out the rule (xix).

Thus, in this case, rule (xix) takes the following form:

is_sister (sabina, aslam):- female (sabina), parents (sabina, M, F), parents

(aslam, M, F).

52
And, we know the symbol ‘:-’ stands for ‘if ’. Thus, in order to satisfy the fact (or to A.I. Languages-2:
answer whether) sabina is sister of aslam, the PROLOG system need to check three PROLOG
subgoals viz, female (sabina), parents (sabina, M, F) and parents (aslam, M, F).

Before starting to work on these three subgoals, the PROLOG system marks the
rule (xix) for future reference or for backtracking (to be explained) to some
earlier fact or rule.
The first subgoal: female (sabina) is trivially matched with fact (iii).
In view of the fact that except sabina the other two arguments in the next (sub)goal viz
parents (sabina, M, F) are variables, the subgoal parents (sabina, M, F) is actually a
sort of question of the form:
Who are the parents of sabina?

For the satisfaction of this subgoal, the PROLOG system again starts the exercise of
matching/unification from the top of the database, i.e, from the first statement in the
database. The possibilities are with facts (vii), (viii),….., (xii), in which the functor
parents of the subgoal occurs as the functor of the facts (vii), (viii),….., (xii).
However, the first arguments of the functors in (vii) and (viii) do not match the first
argument of parents in the subgoal. Hence the PROLOG system proceeds further to
Fact (ix) for matching. At this stage the subgoal is
parents(sabina, M, F).
and the fact (ix) is
parents (sabina, roshnara, Kasim).

As explained earlier, M and F, being upper case letters, represent variables. Hence, the
exercise of matching becomes exercise of unification. From the way we have
explained earlier, the constant roshnara gets temporarily (for the discussion of rule
(xix) only) gets associated with the variable M and the constant kasim gets associated
with the variable F. As a consequence, the next goal parents (aslam, M, F) becomes
the (sub) goal parents (aslam, roshnara, kasim). To satisfy this subgoal, the PROLOG
system again starts the process of matching from the first statement in the PROLOG
database. Ultimately, after failure of matching with the first eight facts in the database,
subgoal is satisfied, because of matching with the fact (ix) in the database.

The PROLOG system answers the query with ‘yes’.

Remarks: In respect of the above database, the relation of is_sister is not reflexive
(i.e, is_sister (X, X) is not true for all numbers of the database), i.e., no male is his
own sister. However, for the set of all females, the relation is reflexive.

Remarks: In respect of the above database, the relation of is_sister is also not
symmetric (i.e., if is_sister (X, Y) is true then it is not necessary that is_sister (Y, X)
must be true). Any female X may be a sister of a male Y, but the reverse is not true,
because the condition female (Y) will not be satisfied. But the relation is symmetric
within the set of all females.

Remarks: However, the relation of is_sister is (fully) transitive (i.e., if is_sister (X, Y)
is true and if is_sister (Y, Z) is true, then is_sister (X, Z) must be true)

Ex 1: Query No. 3 With the same database, discuss how the following query is
answered by the Prolog system:
?- is_sister (aslam, sabina).
Ex 2: Query No 4. With the same database, discuss how the following query is
answered by the Prolog system:
?- is_sister (jane, john)

53
A.I. Programming Ex 3: Query No. 5 With the same database, discuss how the following query is
Languages
answered by the Prolog system:
?- is_sister (jane, Phillips)

2.5 BACKTRACKING

The concept of backtracking is quite significant in PROLOG, specially in view of the

fact that it provides a powerful tool in searching alternative directions, when one of
the directions being pursued for finding a solution, leads to a failure. Bactracking is
also useful when to a query, there are more than one possible solutions. First, we
illustrate the concept through an example and then explain the general idea of
backtracking.

Example 1: For the database given earlier consider the query

?- is_sister (sabina, Y), is_sister (Y, zarina).

The query when translated in English becomes: ‘Find the names (denoted by Y) of all
those persons for whom sabina is a sister and further who (denoted by Y) is a sister of
zarina.’

In order to answer the above query, the first solution which the PROLOG system
comes with after searching the database is : ‘Associate sabina with Y’, i.e., sabina is
one of the possible answers to the query (which is a conjunct of two propositions). In
other words, associate Y with sabina, which, according to the facts and rules given in
the database, satisfies is_sister (sabina, sabina) and is_sister (sabina, zarina).

If we are interested in more than one answers, which are possible in this case, then,
after the answer ‘sabina’ the user should type the symbol ‘;’ (i.e., type semi-colon).
Typing a semi-colon followed by return’ serves as a direction to PROLOG system to
search the database from the beginning once again for an alternative solution.

In order to prevent the PROLOG system from attempting to find the same
answer: sabina again, the system puts markers – one on Rule (xix) and after that
on Fact (ix) (in that order).

Once the instruction from user through semi-colon is received to find another solution,
the system proceeds to satisfy Rule (xix) from Fact (x) (including) onwards. Then
through Fact (xi), for the first occurrence of Y, aslam is associated. The variable X is
already associated with constant sabina. Then aslam replaces Y in the rule (xix).
Next, PROLOG system attempts to satisfy the second subgoal which, at present, is of
the form:
is_sister (aslam, zarina).

For satisfying this goal, the PROLOG system searches the database from the top
again. Again rule (xix) is to be used. For satisfying L.H.S. of (xix) the subgoal on
R.H.S. of (xix) need to be satisfied. The first subgoal on R. H. S. of (xix) is to satisfy
the fact: female (aslam), which is not satisfied.

At this stage, the PROLOG system goes back to the association i.e. aslam to Y, and
removes this association of Y with aslam. Next, the PROLOG system attempts to
associate some other value to Y, further from the point where Y was associated with
aslam. This is what is meant by Backtracking.

54
Next, through Fact (xii), zarina is associated with Y and sabina is already associated A.I. Languages-2:
with with X. Thus, the subgoal to be searched becomes is_sister (zarina, zarina). This PROLOG
goal can be satisfied, because, three subgoals for this goal, viz, female (zarina),
parents (zarina, M, F) (where zarina is associated with X) and parents (zarina, M, F)
(where zarina is associated with Y) can be easily seen to be satisfiable from the
database. Hence, the second answer which the system gives is zarina.

Again, the user may seek for another answer to the query by typing ‘;’. The system
has already marked the fact (xii) in the database while finding the answer: zarina.
Therefore, for another answer, the PROLOG system starts from the next statement,
i.e, Fact (xiii) to search. It can be easily seen that the PROLOG system will not find
any more answers. Hence, it returns ‘fail’ or ‘NO’.

2.6 DATA TYPES AND STRUCTURES IN

PROLOG

We have already discussed the concepts of atom and number. These are the only two
elementary data types in PROLOG. We also mentioned how atoms and numbers are
represented in PROLOG.

We will discuss briefly: relations between numbers, operations on numbers and

statements about numbers later. The discussion is being postponed in view of the fact
that main goal of PROLOG is symbolic processing rather than numeric processing.

We next discuss how symbolic data is structured out of the two elementary data types
viz. atoms and numbers. PROLOG has mainly two data structures:
(i) List
(ii) Structure.

To begin with, we consider the data structure: Structure

Structure

We have already discussed the concept of structure, particularly, in context of

representing facts, rules and queries. A structures in PROLOG is of the form:
(predicate (list-of-terms),
where predicate is an atom and list-of-terms is a list of terms.

A fact is represented in PROLOG by simply putting a full stop at the end of

appropriate structure. Similarly, a rule or a query can be obtained from appropriate
structures.

Here we discuss briefly structure from another perspective, viz, that of

representing complex data. Structure in this respect is like record structure of other
programming languages.
Structure is a recursive concept, i.e., in the representation predicate (list-of-terms), a
term itself may be a structure again. Of course, a term may also be a constant or a
variable. For example, an employee may be defined as
employee (name, designation, age, gross-pay, address)
but then name may be further structured as

Name (first-name, middle-name, last-name)

further first-name may be written, for example, as

55
A.I. Programming (first-name mohan)
Languages
Thus, the information about an employee Mohan may be written in PROLOG as a fact
using a (complex) structure:

employee (name (first_name mohan), (middle-name lal),

(last_name sharma)),
(designation assistant_registrar),
(age 43), (gross_pay 35000
(address delhi).

Similarly address may be further structured, for example, as

address ( (house-number 139),

(street khari-baoli)
(area chandni-chowk)
(city delhi) )

A query in order to know the gross-pay of Mohan may be given as:

?_ employee (name (mohan), _ , _ ), _ , _ ) (gross_pay X)).
It will return 3500. In the above query, the underscores may represent many different
variables.

Ex 4: Give the information about the book: Computer Networks, Fourth Edition by
Andrew S. Tanenbaum published by Prentice Hall PTR in the year 2003 as a structure
in PROLOG. Further, write a query in PROLOG to know the name of the author,
assuming the author’s name is not given

Example 2: The following simple sentence:

Mohan eats banana
may be represented in PROLOG as

sentence ((noun mohan), (verb_phrase (verb eats), (noun banana))).

In general, the structure of a sentence of the form given above may be expressed in
PROLOG as

Sentence ((noun N1), (verbphrase ( verb v), (noun N2) ).

Further, A query of the form

?_sentence ((noun mohan), (verbphrase (verb eats), (noun X) ) )

tells us about what Mohan eats as follows:

(noun banana)

Next we consider the data structure: List

List: The list is a common data structure which is built-in in almost all programming
languages, specially programming languages meant for non-numeric processing.

Informally, list is an ordered sequence of elements and can have any length (this is
how a list differs from the data structure array; array has a fixed length). The
elements of a list may be any terms (i.e., constants, variables and structures) and even
other lists. Thus, list is a recursive concept.

Formally, a list in PROLOG may be defined recursively as follows:

56
 A.I. Languages-2:
(i) [ ], representing the empty list, is a list, PROLOG
(ii) [ e1 , e2 ,…… en ] is a list if each of ei is a term, a list or an expression
(to be defined).

Examples of Lists: [ ], [1,2,3], [1, [2, 3]]

(note the last two are different lists and also note that the last list has two elements viz
1 and [2,3]

Also, [3, X, [a, [b, X + Y] ] ] is a list

provided X + Y is defined. For example, X and Y are numbers, then as we shall see
later that X + Y is a valid expression.

Expression is a sequence of terms and operators formed according to syntactic rules

of the language. For example, X + Y * Z may be an expression, if X, Y and Z are
numbers and if infix notation for operations is used.

However, if prefix notation is used, then X + Y * Z is not an expression, but +X∗YZ

be may an expression.

Also [_ , _, Y] is a list of three elements, out of which, first two are ‘don’t care’ or
anonymous variables.

2.7 OPERATIONS ON LISTS IN PROLOG

I. The operation denoted by the vertical bar, i.e. ‘|’ is used to associate Head and Tail
of a list with two variables as described below:

(i) [X |Y] = [a, b, c]

then X is associated with the element a, the first element of the list and Y is
associated with the list [ b, c ], obtained from the given list by removing its first
element, if any.

(ii) [X |Y] = [ [a, b] , c] ]

then X is associated with the list [a, b], the first element of the list on R.H.S. and
Y is associated with [c].

(iii) [X |Y] = [ [a, b, c] ] then

X = [a, b, c] and Y = [ ]

(iv) [X |Y] = [ a, [b, c] ]

then X is associated with a and Y is associated with [ [ b, c] ]

(v) [X|Y] = [ a, b, [c] ] then

then X is associated with a and Y is associated with [ b, [c]]

(vi) The operator ‘|’ is not defined for the list [ ], having no elements

57
A.I. Programming (vii) [a + b , c + d] = [X, Y]
Languages
then X is associated with a + b and Y is associated with c + d
(Note the difference in the response because vertical bar is replaced by comma)

II. Member Function the function is used to determine whether a given argument X
is a member of a given list L. Though the member function is a built-in function in
almost every implementation of PROLOG, yet the following simple (recursive)
program in PROLOG for member achieves the required effect:

member(X, [X| _ ]. (i)

member (X, [_ |Y]):- member (X, [Y]). (ii)

Definition of member under (i) above says that if first argument of member is Head of
the second argument, then predicate member is true. If not so, then, go to definition
under (ii). The definition of member under (ii) above says that, in order to find out
whether first argument X is a member of second argument then find out whether X is
a member of the list obtained from the second argument by deleting the first element
of the second argument. From the above definition, it is clear that the case
member (X, [ ]) is not a part of the definition. Hence, the system returns FALSE.
Next, we discuss example to explain how the PROLOG system responds to the queries
involving the member function.

Example 3:

?-member (pascal, [prolog, fortran, pascal, cobol])

The PROLOG system first attempts to verify(i) in the definition of ‘member’, i.e.,
system matches pascal with the Head of the given list [prolog, fortran, pascal, cobol].
i.e., with prolog. The two constants are not identical, hence, (i) fails. Therefore, the
PROLOG system uses the rule (ii) of the definition to solve the problem. According to
rule (ii) the system attempts to check whether pascal is a member of the tail [fortran,
pascal, cobol] of the given list.

Again fact (i) of the definition is applied to the new list, i.e., [fortran, pascal, cobol] to
check whether pascal belongs to it. As pascal does not match the Head, i.e, fortran of
the new list. Hence, rule (ii) is applied to the new list. By rule (ii), pascal is a member
of the list [fortran, pascal, cobol], if pascal is a member of the tail [pascal, cobol] of
the current list.
Again fact (i) is applied to check whether pascal is a member of the current list
[pascal, cobol]. According to fact (i) for pascal to be a member of the current list
pascal should be Head of the current list, which is actually true. Hence, the
PROLOG system returns ‘yes’.

The above procedure may be concisely expressed as follows:

Goal X [– | Y] Comment

1. pascal [prolog|fortran, pascal, cobol] pascal does

not match
prolog
hence apply
rule (ii)

2. pascal [fortran, pascal, cobol] by rule (ii)

3. pascal [fortran|pascal, cobol] using fact (i)

58
 pascal is A.I. Languages-2:
not identical PROLOG
to head of
the list
Hence apply
rule (ii)

4. pascal [pascal, cobol]

5. pascal [pascal|cobol] (again apply

fact (i))
Head of the current list is identical with pascal, hence, the system responds with a
‘yes’.

Ex 5: Explain how the PROLOG system responds to the following query:

?-member (pascal, [prolog, fortran, cobol]).

III. APPEND function is also generally, a built-in function in PROLOG. However,

we can see how a simple program in PROLOG can be written for the function.

The append function takes two lists and returns a single list such that the elements of
the first list followed by elements of the second list constitute the elements of the
returned list. For example

(i) append ([a, b] [ c , X, Y]) returns the list

[a, b, c, X, Y].
(ii) append ([a, [b, c] ], [ [ c, X], Y]) returns the list
[a, [b, c], [c, X], Y]
(iii) append ([ ], [a, b, c]) returns the list
[a, b, c].
(iv) append ( [a, b, c], [ ]) also returns the list
[a, b, c].

The append function in PROLOG may be written as:

append ([ ], X, X). (i)

append ([Head|Tail], Y, [Head|Z]:- append ([Tail], Y, Z). (ii)

Explanation: The above PROLOG program states that append takes three arguments,
each of which should be a list. The result of appending the elements of the lists in the
first and second arguments, is stored in the list represented by third argument.

Further, the result of application of (i) of the definition of append to an empty list in
first argument with a list X in second argument is the same list X as given in second
argument, but written in third argument.

However, if the first argument is not [ ] then apply rule (ii) above.
According to rule (ii) above, Head of the list in first argument becomes Head of the
resultant list (i.e., of the third argument) and the tail of the resultant list is obtained by
appending tail i.e., [tail] of the first argument to the list given as second argument of
append. Executing append according to the above definition is a recursive process. In
each successive step, the size of the list in the first argument is reduced by one and
finally the list in the first argument becomes [ ]. In the last case, fact (i) is applicable
and the process terminates.
59
A.I. Programming
Languages
Next, we explain how PROLOG system responds to a query involving append.

Example 4: Let us consider the query

?-append ([prolog, lisp], [C, fortran], Z).

As first list is not [ ], therefore the system associates prolog with Head and [lisp] with
Tail. Then by rule (ii) prolog becomes the Head of the resultant list and after that
PROLOG system attempts to append the list [lisp] with [C, fortran] and the result will
form the tail of the originally required resultant list. Next, list is the Head of new first
argument and [ ] is the tail of the new first argument. However, second argument
remains unchanged. The result of the second append is a list whose first element is
prolog, second element is lisp and the rest of the elements of the resultant list will be
obtained by appending [ ] to [C, fortran]. In this case however rule (i) is applicable
which returns [C, fortran] as the result of append [ ] to [C, fortran], and which will
form the tail of the resultant list. Finally, the resultant list is [prolog, lisp, C, fortran]

Next, we consider another list function.

IV. prefix (X, Z) function which returns true if X is a sublist of Z, such that X is
either [ ] or X contains any number of consecutive elements of the list Z starting from
the first element of Z onwards. Otherwise, prefix (X, Z) returns ‘No’ or ‘False’.
Further explain, justify and trace your program with an example.
The PROLOG program prefix is just one statement program:

prefix (X, Z): - append (X, Y, Z).

where, we have already defined append as

append ( [ ], X, X]). (i)
append ([Head | Tail], Y, [Head | Z]):- append ([Tail], Y, Z). (ii)

Explanation: The one-line program, returns true, if by appending any list Y to X we

get Z. Further, next two-statement program append says that append, a function of
three arguments X, Y, Z returns Z as a list in which first, all the elements of X occur
preserving their original order in X. The last element of X when placed in Z is
followed by elements of Y, again preserving their order in Y.

Further explanation may be given with the following example query:

?-prefix ([a, b], [a, b, c]).

returns yes. The processing for the response, by the PROLOG system may be
described as follows:

For satisfying the query, the rule becomes

prefix ([a, b], [a, b, c]):- append ([a, b], Y, [a, b, c])
Next, the system need to satisfy the goal:
append ([a, b], Y, [a, b, c].
First fact of append is not applicable as [a, b] is not [ ]. The rule (ii) takes the form
append ([a | b], Y , [a | b, c]):-append ([a], Y, [b, c]).
Which on another application of rule (ii) takes the form
append ([a |], Y, [ c]):- append ([ ], Y, [c]).
Y is associated with [c]. The PROLOG system responds with
Y = [c]

60
Let us consider another query: A.I. Languages-2:
PROLOG
?-prefix (X, [a, b, c]).

In response to the query the PROLOG system, first returns X as [ ], then if the user
gives ( ; ) to find another answer, then PROLOG system returns X as the list [a]. If,
further another answer is required then PROLOG system returns X as the list [a, b]. If
still another answer is required, the answer [a, b, c] is returned. Finally, if still another
response is required by the user, then the system responds with a ‘No’.

Ex 6: Another Example query

?-prefix ([a, c], [a, b, c]

Explain the sequence of steps of processing by PROLOG system.

Ex 7: Write a PROLOG program suffix (Y, Z) which returns true if ‘Y is a sublist of

Z such that either Y is [ ] or Y contains any number of consecutive elements of Z
starting anywhere in the list but the last element of Y must be the last element of Z.
Further, explain, justify and trace your program with an example.

2.8 THE EQUALITY PREDICATE ‘=’

Let Term1 and Term2 be two terms of PROLOG, where a term may be a constant, a
variable or a structure. Then the success or failure of the goal
?-Term1 = Term2.
is discussed below:

Case I: Both Term1 and Term2 are constants and, further, if both are identical then
the goal succeeds, and, if not identical, then the goal fails.
Examples: The query
?-mohan = mohan succeeds
?-1287 = 1287 succeeds
?-program = programme fails
?- 1287 =1289 fails.

Case II: One of the terms is a variable and if the variable is not instantiated then the
goal always succeeds
For example
?-brother (mohan, sita) = X.
Then the goal succeeds and the variable X is instantiated to the term
brother (mohan, sita)

Case III: One of the terms is a variable and the variable is instantiated:
Then apply ‘=’ recursively to the case which is obtained by replacing the
variable by what is its instantiation. For example, consider the query
?-X = tree.
And X is already instantiated to tree, then, replace X by tree in the given query, which
takes the new form:
?tree = tree
On encountering this new query, PROLOG system returns success. However, if X is
already instantiated to any other constant say flower, then the new query becomes:
?-flower = tree.
Applying Case I above, we get Fail.
Case IV: If both terms are variables, say, the query is of the form:
61
A.I. Programming ?-X = Y
Languages
then if
(a) both are uninstantiated the query succeeds, but, if during further processing
one of X or Y gets instantiated to some term then other variable also gets
instantiated to the same term.
(b) If one or both are instantiated, then replace X and/or Y by their respective
instantiations to generate a new query and apply ‘=’ to the new query.

Case V: Both terms are structures: Two structures satisfy ‘=’ if they have the same
functor and the same number of components and, further, if the definition of ‘=’is
applied recursively to the corresponding components, then each pair of corresponding
components satisfies ‘=’.

For example:

?-brother (mohan, X) = brother (Y, sita).

Then the above goal succeeds and X is instantiated to sita and Y is instantiated to
mohan

Similarly the following goal also succeeds

?-p(Q, r, S, T, u, v) = p(q, r, s, W, U, V).
because, first of all, the functors, i.e., p on the two sides of ‘=’ are identical. Next,
success of ‘=’ for the terms at corresponding positions is discussed below:
variable Q is instantiated to q, the variable S to s, U to u and the variable V to v.
Further, the variables T and W are, though, not instantiated, yet they become co-
referred variables in the sense that if one of these is instantiated to some constant then
the other also gets instantiated to the same constant.

Exercise 8: Discuss success/failure of each of the following queries:

(i) ?-g(X, a(b, c) ) = g (Z, a (Z, c))

(ii) ?-letter(H) = word (letter)
(iii) ?-g(X, X) = g(a, b).
(iv) ?- noun (alpha) = Noun.
(v) ?-noun (alpha) = noun.

2.9 ARITHMETICS IN PROLOG

The language PROLOG has been designed mainly for symbolic processing for A.I
applications. However, some facilities for numeric processing are also included in
PROLOG. For this purpose, the arithmetic operations viz
+ (addition), – (substraction), * (multiplication), / (division) and ∧
(exponentiation)
are built-in and are used in infix notation.

Further relational operators viz

< (less than), > (greater than), = (equal to), = < (greater than or equal to), > = (less
than or equal to) have their usual meanings and infix notation is used in expressions
using these relational operators. The symbol for ‘not equal to’ is /=
Please note the notation for ‘less than or equal to’ and ‘greater than or equal to’

62
The ‘is’ operator A.I. Languages-2:
It may be noted that in PROLOG, the expression ‘3 + 7’ is not the same as the PROLOG
number 10. The operation of ‘+’ does not execute automatically. For the purpose of
execution of an operation, PROLOG provides the operator ‘is’.

Thus, in response to the query

?- X is 3 + 7.
the variable X gets instantiated to 10
and the prolog system responds as
X = 10
Yes

In order to explain numerical programming in PROLOG, let us consider the

PROLOG program for factorial:
factorial (0, 1).
factorial (Number, Result):- Number > 0, New is Number – 1, factorial (New,
Partial),
Result is Number * Partial.

Note: In the above definition, each of Number, New, Partial and Result, denotes a
variable.

Explanation of PROLOG program for factorial: If the given number is 0, then its
factorial is 1. Further, result of computation for factorial of any number Number will
be associated with the variable Result and the goal can be achieved through the
following four subgoals:

(i) Number > 0 should be true,

(ii) The number Number – 1 is calculated through the operator ‘is’ and is associated
with variable New,
(iii) Factorial of the number (Number – 1) through the operator ‘is’, i.e., of the
number New, is recursively calculated and the result of the calculation is
associated with the variable Partial
(iv) Finally, through the operator ‘is’, the product of the Number with Partial, (the
result of the factorial of New (i.e. of Number – 1)) is calculated and associated
with Result.

2.10 THE OPERATOR CUT

In some situations, as discussed by the following example, if the goal is met once, the
problem is taken as solved without need for iterations any more.

Example: It is required to check whether an element is a member of a list X, where,

say X = {c, d, a, b, a, c}, then, if we test the elements of X from left to right for
equality with a, then the third element in the list matches a and once that happens, we
are not interested in any more occurrences of a in the list X. Thus in such a situation,
it is required that the PROLOG system to stop any further computation.

However, we know that PROLOG system attempts to re-satisfy a goal, even after
satisfaction of the goal once. For example, for the following one statement PROLOG
program
prefix (X, Z):- append (X, Y, Z).
if the query is
?-prefix (X, [a, b]).,
then first X is associates with [ ] as X = [ ] as an answer to the query.
63
A.I. Programming In the next iteration, the PROLOG system associates the list [a] to X, i.e., .X = [a].
Languages
In the still next iteration, the PROLOG system responds with
X = [a, b].
And finally, the system responds with a ‘no’.

The PROLOG system, provides a special mechanism or function called ‘cut’ by

which, if required, the subgoals on the right-hand side of a rule may be prevented
from being tried for more than once, if all subgoals succeed once. The operator cut is
denoted as ! (the exclamation mark) and inserted at a place where the interruption for
not retrying is to be inserted.

Example 5: Through the following general example we explain how PROLOG

system behaves in the presence of cut denoted by ! when inserted on the R. H. S of a
rule.

Consider the rule

trial: - a, b, c, !, d, e, f, g.

The above rule says predicate trial succeeds if the subgoals on R.H.S. succeed. The
PROLOG system may backtrack between subgoals a, b and c as long as it is required
by the system answer the query, for the predicates a, b and c. The change in the
behaviour of PROLOG system due to the presence of ‘!’ occurs only after the subgoal
c succeeds and PROLOG system encounters the cut symbol ‘!’. PROLOG system
always succeeds on the cut operator represented by ‘!’. And hence PROLOG
system attempts to satisfy the subgoal d. Further, if d succeeds then backtracking may
occur between d, e, f and g.

In the process, it is possible that several backtrackings may occur between a, b and c
and several (independent) backtrackings may occur between d, e, f and g. However,
once d fails and crosses on the left to the operator !, then no more attempts will be
made to re-satisfy c on the left of the operator !.

Example 6: We define below the membership for a set (in a set each element occurs
only once). Hence, once a particular element is found to occur then there is no need
for further testing, for the occurrence of the element in a set. The predicate member, in
this sense, may be defined as
member (X, [X | – ]):- !. (i)
member (X, [_| Y]: - member (X, Y). (ii)

The statement (i) above says that if the element X is the Head of the list (i.e., X is the
first element of the list) then the R.H.S. must succeed. However, R.H.S. consists of
only the cut symbol ‘!’ which is always true. Further, in the case when the operator is
the cut symbol then PROLOG system is not allowed to go to its Left. Hence, the
PROLOG system after succeeding on ‘!’ exits program execution because of the
restriction that the system is not allowed to backtrack from ‘!’.

Example 7: One of the possible PROLOG programs for finding maximum of two
given numbers is the following two-statement program:
max (X, Y, X):- X > = Y. (i)
/* third argument is for the variable supposed to be associated with the result */
max (X, Y, Y): - X < Y. (ii)

But we know that if X > = Y then X is the maximum of the two, otherwise Y is the
maximum. In other words, the comparison X < Y is not required if the first rule fails.
This wastage of effort may be saved by using the following program for maximum, in
stead of the one given through (i) and (ii) above.

64
The more efficient program for the required solution is A.I. Languages-2:
max (X, Y, X): - X > = Y, !. PROLOG
max (X, Y, Y).

Example 8: To write a PROLOG program that adds an element X to a given set L

(i.e., L does not contain any duplicate elements). Therefore, if X ∈ L, then nothing
needs to be done, else, a new list L1 may be returned in which X is the Head of L1 and
additionally contains all the elements of L and no other elements.

Thus the program may be written as

add (X, L, L): - member (X, L), !.
add (X, L, [X | L]).

Next, we see how the procedure add behaves on various arguments.

?-add (c, [d, f], L)
/* the system responds with */
L = [c, d, f]

?-add (X, [d, f], L)

/* the system after executing only the first statement returns */
L = [d, f]
X=d

Example: In order to explain the use of cut, we write a program to find the
factorial(N) using cut as follows:
fact (N, 1) :- N < = 1, !
fact (N, F):- M is N – 1, !
fact (M, F1),
F is F1 * N.

2.11 CUT AND FAIL

Before discussion of the cut and fail combination, let us first discuss the predicate fail.
The predicate fail wherever occurs always fails and initiates backtracking. For
example, Let number denote a predicate such that number (X) is true whenever X is a
number, else it fails. Further, suppose sum (X, Y, Z) associates with Z the sum of the
numbers X and Y. We define a function add (X, Y, Z) which is similar to sum (X, Y,
Z), except that the function add first verifies that each of X and Y is a number.
Then add can be written as
add (X, Y, Z):- number (X), number (Y), sum (X, Y, Z).
add (X, Y, Z):- fail.

Cut & fail

Example: Suppose, we want to write a program to calculate tax payable by a person

for a given income. However, according to the law of a country, a foreigner is not
required to pay tax. Then one of the possible (incorrect) programs may be written as:
tax (Name, Income, Tax):- foreigner(Name),fail.
tax (Name, Income, Tax):-……….
tax (Name, Income, Tax):-……….
.
.
.

65
A.I. Programming Except for the first one, all others rules are left unspecified. However, these other
Languages
rules do not involve the predicate foreigner but may depend upon income,
concession/rebate etc.

Now suppose Alberts is a foreigner. Then According to the first rule foreigner
(alberts) succeeds and then the predicate fail makes the goal on L.H.S not to succeed.
Hence PROLOG system backtracks and attempts the second and later rules which do
not involve foreigner.

Hence, some of the later goals may succeed, despite the fact that the tax for albert
should not be calculated. However, the error can be rectified by using cut. The
following programme outline gives the correct result in the case of foreigners:
tax (Name, Income, Tax):- foreigner (Name), !, fail.
tax (Name, Income, Tax):-……….
tax (Name, Income, Tax):-……….
.
.
.

Because of the presence of cut in the first rule before fail, if foreigner (name)
succeeds, no backtracking takes place after returning to cut from the execution of fail.
Hence, If foreigner (name) succeeds, the program execution stops after returning back
to ‘!’.
However, if foreigner (Name) fails, then processing by PROLOG system continues
from the second rule onwards, according to normal rules of PROLOG execution.

2.12 SUMMARY

The programming language PROLOG is based on Declarative paradigm and Logic

Programming paradigm of solving problems. These paradigms are quite different
from the normally used paradigm viz imperative paradigm of solving problems. The
issues about these paradigms are discuss in the Introduction to the unit, i.e., in
Section 2.0.

In Section 2.2 the basic concepts of PROLOG, including those of atom, predicate,
variable, atomic formula, goal and fact etc. are discussed and defined in English. The
syntax for various elements and constructs of PROLOG including for the above-
mentioned concepts and also for the concepts of structure, term, rule, query, goal,
subgoal and program etc are (formally) defined in Section 2.3.

A problem in PROLOG is defined by

(i) defining a database and
(ii) a query representing the goal to be achieved.

The concept of database is defined in Section 2.4. However, Section 2.4 is mainly
devoted to explaining how a PROLOG system solves a problem where the problem is
defined to the system in the way discussed above. In the process of explanation,
important concepts like matching and unification are introduced and defined.

Alongwith matching and unification, another mechanism viz backtrakcing play a

significant role in problem solving by PROLOG system. The concept of
backtracking is explained in Section 2.5.

66
We know built-in data types and data structures play an important role in any A.I. Languages-2:
programming environment which is generally based on some problem solving PROLOG
style/paradigm including the imperative style which is the dominant style of solving
problems using computer. Data types and data structures play a significant role in
problem solving in PROLOG environment also and are discussed in Section 2.6.
Prolog has basically two (elementary) data types viz atom and number. Also,
PROLOG has mainly two data structures viz List and Structure.

The operations available in PROLOG, for data structure List are discussed in Section
2.7. The predicate equal (denoted as ‘=’) which plays an important role in PROLOG,
specially in matching and unification, is discussed in Section 2.8.

PROLOG is mainly a symbol processing language. But, in view of the fact that even
for the problems that require for their solutions dominantly symbol processing, some
numeric processing may also be required. For this purpose, the arithmetic facilities
built in PROLOG are discussed and defined in Section 2.9. Recursion and iteration
are among major mechanism of PROLOG problem solving process. However, in
order to check undesirable repetitions (through recursion or iteration) PROLOG
system provides for two very important predicates viz Cut and Fail. These predicate
are discussed in Sections 2.10 and 2.11.

2.13 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS

Ex 1: The goal fails, because, after matching with either rule (xix) or rule (xx) of the
query, one of the subgoals generated is female (aslam). But this sub-goal can not be
satisfied by the facts and other rules in the database.

Ex 2: As in the previous query, the PROLOG system while attempting to match and
then rejecting the previous facts and rules, reaches rule (xix). And, as in the previous
query, requires to satisfy two subgoals, which after appropriate unification, become

parents(jane, M, F).
parents (john, M, F).

But, the first of these fails and hence the whole of rule (xix) itself is taken as not
matching and is abandoned for the next rule/fact in the database. The next rule (xx)

is_sister (X, Y):- female (X), mother (X, M), father (X, F)
mother (Y, M), father (Y, F).

has functor is_sister in the goal and hence matches the functor of the goal. As
explained earlier, matching becomes the exercise of unification of the goal, i.e., of

is_sister (jane, john) with

is_sister (X, Y), which is the goal of the rule (xx).

Through unification, variable X is temporarily associated throughout rule (xx) with

constant jane, and variable Y with constant john throughout rule (xx).
In the process, R.H.S. of rule (xx) generates the following five (new) subgoals viz

female (jane).
mother (jane, M).
mother (john, M).
father (jane, F).
father (john, F).
67
A.I. Programming First of these subgoals is easily satisfied by the Fact (iv) of the database. Second of
Languages
these subgoals viz mother (jane, M) is a sort of question of the form: Who is jane’s
mother?.

Fact (xvi) in the database tells us that mary is mother of jane, and hence, the variable
M temporarily (for the whole of rule (xx)) gets associated with the constant mary.
Thus, the next subgoal ‘mother (john, M).’ becomes the goal ‘mother (john, mary).’
which is given as Fact (xvii) and hence is satisfied.

Fourth subgoal father (jane, F) is equivalent to the question: ‘Who is janes Father?’
The Fact (xiii) in the database associates to variable F the constant albert for the
whole of rule (xx). In the light of this association, the last subgoal becomes father
(john, albert). But this goal is given as Fact (xiv) in the database and hence is
satisfied. The PROLOG system answers the query as ‘yes’.

Ex 3: The PROLOG system proceeds as in previous query and generates five

subgoals, viz,

female (jane).
mother (jane, M).
mother (phillips, M)
father (jane, F).
father (phillips, F).

As, in the case of previous query, while satisfying subgoal mother (jane, M), the
variable M is associated with mary for all the subgoals. Hence the subgoal mother
(phillips, M) becomes mother (phillips, mary). But there is no fact that matches the
last subgoal. Hence the query fails.
The PROLOG system respeonds with ‘No’.

Ex 4: book ((title computer_networks), (edition fourth),

(author (first_name Andrew),
(middle_initial S), (last_name tanenbaum)
)
(year 2003), (publisher prentice_hall_ptr)).

For the following query:

?_book ((tittle computer_networks), (edition fourth), X, (year 2003), (publisher

prentice_hall_ptr) ).
The system returns the name of the author as (author ((first_name Andrew),
(middle_initial, (last_name tanenbaum)).

Ex 5: As discussed in the preceding Example 3, the PROLOG system takes similar

steps upto Step 4 above, except the constant prolog does not occur in the list under [– |
Y]. From step 5 onwards the procedure adopted by PROLOG system is as follows

Goal X [– | Y] Comment
5. pascal [cobol |] fact (i) not satisfied. Hence
apply rule (ii)
6. pascal [ ] cannot be satisfied. The
system says the goal cannot
be satisfied.

Ex 6: The PROLOG system processes the query as follows:

Using the only rule for prefix, the system instantiates variables to get
68
 prefix ([a, c], [a, b, c]):- append ([a, c], Y, [a, b, c]). A.I. Languages-2:
,i.e., in order to satisfy the query, the system has a new goal viz PROLOG
append ([a, c], Y, [a, b, c]).
for which the value of Y, if it exists, is to be found. If no such value exists, then the
system returns: No
Next the rule in the recursive definition of append gives
Append ([a|c], Y, [a|b, c]):- append ([c], Y, [b, c])
which when written as ([c|], Y, [b|c]) and when matched with append ([Head|Tail], Y,
and [Head|Z] is not able to associate any value to Head. Hence PROLOG system
returns: No

Ex 7: The suffix PROLOG program is just one statement program:-

suffix (Y, Z):- append (X, Y, Z).

where we have already defined append as
append ([ ], X , X]. (i)
append ([Head|Tail], Y, [Head|Z]):- append (Tail, Y, Z) (ii)

Explanation The only statement in the program, states that the statement: ‘The list Y
is a suffix of list Z’ is true if there is a list X to which if Y is appended then the list Z is
obtained.

The process generated by the program is explained through the following

examples:

Example query

?-suffix (Y, [a, b, c]).

Then through the rule in the definition, we get

suffix (Y, [a, b, c]):-append (X, Y, [a, b, c]).
Applying rule (ii) of append, we get the subgoal given on R.H.S. above is satisfied by
associating X to [ ], Y to [a, b, c].
Therefore the system returns yes with
Y = [a, b, c]
If the user desires another answer by a typing ‘;’ then the system applies rule (ii) of
append to
Append [(Head|Tail), Y, [a|b, c]):-append (Tail, Y, [b, c]).
and ‘a’ is associated to Head.
Again to satisfy the new goal given on R.H.S above, we get through the application of
rule (ii) of append, the system associates [b, c] to Y and returns
Y = [b, c]
Similarly, through another iteration, Y = [c] is returned.

Through still another iteration, Y = [ ] is returned, And, finally, if another iteration is

desired by the user, then ‘No’ is returned.

Ex 8: (i) succeeds, because, first of all the two variables X and Z become co-referred
variables. Then Z gets instantiated to c and hence X also gets instantiated to c

(ii) fails, because, the two predicates/functors do not equal.

(iii) also fails, because the variable X gets instantiated to the constant a but then
system can not instantiate the second occurrence of X to some other constant, in
this particular case, to the constant b.

69
A.I. Programming (iv) succeeds because the R.H.S. is a variable. The variable Noun is associated to the
Languages
constant noun (alpha)

(v) fails, both sides of ‘=’ are constants but not identical:

2.14 FURTHER READINGS

1. Clocksin, W.F. & Mellish, C.S. : Programming in Prolog (Fifth Edition), Springer
(2003).
2. Clocksin, W.F. & Mellish, C.S. : Programming in Prolog (Third Edition), Narosa
Publishing House (1981).
3. Tucker, A. & Noonan, R. : Programming Languages: Principles and Paradigms,
Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited (2002).
4. Sebesta, R. W. : Concepts of Programming Languages, Pearson Education Asia
(2002).

70
Applications of Artificial
Intelligence UNIT 1 EXPERT SYSTEMS
Structure Page Nos.

1.0 Introduction 5
1.1 Objectives 5
1.2 An Introduction to Expert Systems 6
1.3 Concept of Planning, Representing and using Domain Knowledge 7
1.4 Knowledge Representation Schemes 7
1.4.1 Semantic Networks
1.4.2 Frames
1.4.3 Proposition and Predicate Logic
1.4.4 Rule Based Systems
1.4.4.1 Forward Chaining Systems
1.4.4.2 Backward Chaining Systems
1.4.4.3 Probability Certainty Factors in Rule Based Systems
1.5 Examples of Expert Systems: MYCIN, COMPASS 24
1.6 Expert System Building Tools 25
1.6.1 Expert System Shells
1.6.1.1 Knowledge Base
1.6.1.2 Knowledge Acquisition Subsystem (Example: COMPASS)
1.6.1.3 Inference Engine
1.6.1.4 Explanation Sub-system (Example: MYCIN)
1.6.1.5 User Interface
1.6.1.6 An Expert System shell: EMYCIN
1.7 Some Application Areas of Expert Systems 32
1.8 Summary 32
1.9 Solutions/Answers 33
1.10 Further Readings 35

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Computer Science is the study of how to create models that can be represented in and
executed by some computing equipment. A number of new types of problems are
being solved almost everyday by developing relevant models of the domains of the
problems under consideration. One of the major problems which humanity encounters
is in respect of scarcity of human experts to handle problems from various domains of
human experience relating to domains including domains those of health, education,
economic welfare, natural resources and the environment. In this respect, the task for
a computer scientist is to create, in addition to a model of the problem domain, a
model of an expert of the domain as problem solver who is highly skilled in solving
problems from the domain under consideration. The field of Expert Systems is
concerned with creating such models. The task includes activities related to eliciting
information from the experts in the domain in respect of how they solve the problems,
and activities related to codifying that information generally in the form of rules. This
unit discusses such issues about the design and development of an expert system.

1.1 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you should be able to:

• discuss the various knowledge representation scheme;
• tell about some of the well-known expert systems;
• enumerate and use of various tools for building expert systems;
• explain the various expert system shells, and
• discuss various application areas for expert systems.
5
 Expert Systems
1.2 AN INTRODUCTION TO EXPERT SYSTEMS

First of all we must understand that an expert system is nothing but a computer
program or a set of computer programs which contains the knowledge and some
inference capability of an expert, most generally a human expert, in a particular
domain. As expert system is supposed to contain the capability to lead to some
conclusion based on the inputs provided, information it already contains and its
processing capability, an expert system belongs to the branch of Computer Science
called Artificial Intelligence.

Mere possessing an algorithm for solving a problem is not sufficient for a program to
be termed an expert system, it must also possess knowledge i.e., if there is an expert
system for a particular domain or area and if it is fed with a number of questions
regarding that domain then sooner or later we can expect that these questions will be
answered. So we can say that the knowledge contained by an expert system must
contribute towards solving the problems for which it has been designed.

Also knowledge in a expert system must be regarding a specific domain. As a human

being cannot be an expert in every area of life, similarly, an expert system which tries
to simulate the capabilities of an expert also works in a particular domain. Otherwise
it may be require to possess potentially infinite amount of knowledge and processing
that knowledge in finite amount of time is an impossible task.

Taking into consideration all the points which have been discussed above, let us try to
give one of the many possible definitions of an Expert System:

An Expert System is a computer program that possesses or represents knowledge in a

particular domain, has the capability of processing/ manipulating or reasoning with
this knowledge with a view to solving a problem, giving some achieving or to achieve
some specific goal.

An expert system may or may not provide the complete expertise or functionality of a
human expert but it must be able to assist a human expert in fast decision making. The
program might interact with a human expert or with a customer directly.

Let us discuss some of the basic properties of an expert system:

ƒ It tries to simulate human reasoning capability about a specific domain rather

than the domain itself. This feature separates expert systems from some other
familiar programs that use mathematical modeling or computer animation. In an
expert system the focus is to emulate an expert’s knowledge and problem solving
capabilities and if possible, at a faster rate than a human expert.
ƒ It perform reasoning over the acquired knowledge, rather than merely performing
some calculations or performing data retrieval.
ƒ It can solve problems by using heuristic or approximate models which, unlike
other algorithmic solutions are not guaranteed to succeed.

AI programs that achieve expert-level competence in solving problems in different

domains are more called knowledge based systems. A knowledge-based system is
any system which performs a job or task by applying rules of thumb to a symbolic
representation of knowledge, instead of employing mostly algorithmic or statistical
methods. Often the term expert systems is reserved for programs whose knowledge
base contains the knowledge used by human experts, in contrast to knowledge
gathered from textbooks or non-experts. But more often than not, the two terms,
expert systems and knowledge-based systems are taken us synonyms. Together
6
Applications of Artificial they represent the most widespread type of AI application. The area of human
Intelligence intellectual endeavour to be captured in an expert system is sometimes called the task
domain. Task refers to some goal-oriented, problem-solving activity. Domain refers
to the area within which the task is being performed. Some of the typical tasks are
diagnosis, planning, scheduling, configuration and design. For example, a program
capable of conversing about the weather would be a knowledge-based system, even if
that program did not have any expertise in meteorology, but an expert system must be
able to perform weather forecasting.

Building a expert system is known as knowledge engineering and its practitioners

are called knowledge engineers. It is the job of the knowledge engineer to ensure to
make sure that the computer has all the knowledge needed to solve a problem. The
knowledge engineer must choose one or more forms in which to represent the
required knowledge i.e., s/he must choose one or more knowledge representation
schemes (A number of knowledge representing schemes like semantic nets, frames,
predicate logic and rule based systems have been discussed above. We would be
sticking to rule based representation scheme for our discussion on expert systems).
S/he must also ensure that the computer can use the knowledge efficiently by selecting
from a handful of reasoning methods.

1.3 CONCEPT OF PLANNING, REPRESENTING

AND USING DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE

From our everyday experience, we know that in order to solve difficult problems, we
need to do some sort of planning. Informally, we can say that Planning is the process
that exploits the structure of the problem under consideration for designing a sequence
of actions in order to solve the problem under consideration.

The knowledge of nature and structure of the problem domain is essential for planning
a solution of the problem under consideration. For the purpose of planning, the
problem environments are divided into two categories, viz., classical planning
environments and non-classical planning environments. The classical planning
environments/domains are fully observable, deterministic, finite, static and discrete.
On the other hand, non-classical planning environments may be only partially
observable and/or stochastic. In this unit, we discuss planning only for classical
environments.

1.4 KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION SCHEMES

One of the underlying assumptions in Artificial Intelligence is that intelligent

behaviour can be achieved through the manipulation of symbol structures
(representing bits of knowledge). One of the main issues in AI is to find appropriate
representation of problem elements and available actions as symbol structures so that
the representation can be used to intelligently solve problems. In AI, an important
criteria about knowledge representation schemes or languages is that they should
support inference. For intelligent action, the inferencing capability is essential in
view of the fact that we can’t represent explicitly everything that the system might
ever need to know–somethings have to be left implicit, to be inferred/deduced by
the system as and when needed in problem solving.

In general, a good knowledge representation scheme should have the following

features:

7
• It should allow us to express the knowledge we wish to represent in the language. Expert Systems
For example, the mathematical statement: Every symmetric and transitive
relation on a domain, need not be reflexive is not expressible in First Order
Logic.
• It should allow new knowledge to be inferred from a basic set of facts, as
discussed above.
• It should have well-defined syntax and semantics.

Some popular knowledge representation schemes are:

ƒ Semantic networks,
ƒ Frames,
ƒ First order logic, and,
ƒ Rule-based systems.

As semantic networks, frames and predicate logic have been discussed in previous
blocks so we will discuss these briefly here. We will discuss the rule-based systems
in detail.

1.4.1 Semantic Networks

Semantic Network representations provide a structured knowledge representation.

In such a network, parts of knowledge are clustered into semantic groups. In semantic
networks, the concepts and entities/objects of the problem domain are represented by
nodes and relationships between these entities are shown by arrows, generally, by
directed arrows. In view of the fact that semantic network representation is a
pictorial depiction of objects, their attributes and the relationships that exist between
these objects and other entities. A semantic net is just a graph, where the nodes in the
graph represent concepts, and the arcs are labeled and represent binary relationships
between concepts. These networks provide a more natural way, as compared to other
representation schemes, for mapping to and from a natural language.

For example, the fact (a piece of knowledge): Mohan struck Nita in the garden with
a sharp knife last week, is represented by the semantic network shown in Figure 4.1.

struck

past of
time agent
last week strike Mohan

instrument
place
object knife

garden

Nita
property of

sharp

Figure 1.1 Semantic Network of the Fact in Bold

8
Applications of Artificial
Intelligence
The two most important relations between concepts are (i) subclass relation between a
class and its superclass, and (ii) instance relation between an object and its class.
Other relations may be has-part, color etc. As mentioned earlier, relations are
indicated by labeled arcs.

As information in semantic networks is clustered together through relational

links, the knowledge required for the performance of some task is generally available
within short spatial span of the semantic network. This type of knowledge
organisation in some way, resembles the way knowledge is stored and retrieved by
human beings.

Subclass and instance relations allow us to use inheritance to infer new

facts/relations from the explicitly represented ones. We have already mentioned that
the graphical portrayal of knowledge in semantic networks, being visual, is easier
than other representation schemes for the human beings to comprehend. This fact
helps the human beings to guide the expert system, whenever required. This is perhaps
the reason for the popularity of semantic networks.

Exercise 1: Draw a semantic network for the following English statement:

Mohan struck Nita and Nita’s mother struck Mohan.

1.4.2 Frames

Frames are a variant of semantic networks that are one of the popular ways of
representing non-procedural knowledge in an expert system. In a frame, all the
information relevant to a particular concept is stored in a single complex entity, called
a frame. Frames look like the data structure, record. Frames support inheritance. They
are often used to capture knowledge about typical objects or events, such as a car, or
even a mathematical object like rectangle. As mentioned earlier, a frame is a
structured object and different names like Schema, Script, Prototype, and even Object
are used in stead of frame, in computer science literature.

We may represent some knowledge about a lion in frames as follows:

Mammal :
Subclass : Animal
warm_blooded : yes

Lion :
subclass : Mammal
eating-habbit : carnivorous
size : medium

Raja :
instance : Lion
colour : dull-Yellow
owner : Amar Circus

Sheru :
instance : Lion
size : small

9
A particular frame (such as Lion) has a number of attributes or slots such as eating- Expert Systems
habit and size. Each of these slots may be filled with particular values, such as the
eating-habit for lion may be filled up as carnivorous.

Sometimes a slot contains additional information such as how to apply or use the slot
values. Typically, a slot contains information such as (attribute, value) pairs, default
values, conditions for filling a slot, pointers to other related frames, and also
procedures that are activated when needed for different purposes.

In the case of frame representation of knowledge, inheritance is simple if an object

has a single parent class, and if each slot takes a single value. For example, if a
mammal is warm blooded then automatically a lion being a mammal will also be
warm blooded.

But in case of multiple inheritance i.e., in case of an object having more than one
parent class, we have to decide which parent to inherit from. For example, a lion may
inherit from “wild animals” or “circus animals”. In general, both the slots and slot
values may themselves be frames and so on.

Frame systems are pretty complex and sophisticated knowledge representation

tools. This representation has become so popular that special high level frame based
representation languages have been developed. Most of these languages use LISP as
the host language. It is also possible to represent frame-like structures using object
oriented programming languages, extensions to the programming language LISP.

Exercise 2: Define a frame for the entity date which consists of day, month and year.
each of which is a number with restrictions which are well-known. Also a procedure
named compute-day-of-week is already defined.

1.4.3 Proposition and Predicate Logic

Symbolic logic may be thought of as a formal language, which incorporates a precise

system for reasoning and deduction. Propositional logic and predicate logic are two
well-known forms of symbolic logic. Propositional logic deals with propositions or
statements.

A proposition or a statement is a sentence, which can be assigned a truth-value true or

false. For example, the statement:

The sun rises in the west, has a truth value false.

On the other hand, none of the following sentences can be assigned a truth-value, and
hence none of these, is a statement or proposition:

(i) Ram must exercise regularly. (Imperative sentence)

(ii) Who was the first Prime Minister of India? (Interrogative sentence)
(iii) Please, give me that book. (Imperative sentence)
(iv) Hurry! We have won the trophy. (Exclamatory sentence).

Generally, the following steps are followed for solving problems using
propositional logic, where the problems are expressed in English and are such that
these can be solved using propositional logic (PL):

a) First problem statements in English are translated to formulae of Propositional

logic

10
Applications of Artificial b) Next, some of the rules of inference in PL including the ones mentioned
Intelligence below, are used to solve the problem, if, at all, the problem under
consideration is solvable by PL.

Some of the rules of Inference of Propositional Logic:

(i) Modus Ponens P

P→Q
Q
(The above notation is interpreted as: if we are given the two formulae P and
P→Q of the propositional logic, then conclude the formula Q. In other words, if
both the formulae P and P→Q are assumed to be true, then by modus ponens, we
can assume the statement Q also as true.)

(ii) Chain Rule

P→Q
Q→R
P→R
(iii) Transposition
P→ Q
∼ Q→ ∼P
Example

Given the following three statements:

(i) Matter always existed
(ii) If there is God, then God created the universe
(iii) If God created the universe, then matter did not always exist.

To show the truth of the statement: There is no God.

Solution:
Let us denote the atomic statements in the argument given above as follows:
M: Matter always existed
TG: There is God
GU: God created the universe.
Then the given statements in English, become respectively the formulae of PL:
(i) M
(ii) TG→GU
(iii) GU→ ∼ M
(iv) To show ∼ TG
Applying transposition to (iii) we get
(v) M→ ∼GU
using (i) and (v) and applying Modus Ponens, we get
(vi) ∼GU
Again, applying transposition to (ii) we get
(vii) ∼GU→ ∼TG
Applying Modus Ponens to (vi) and (vii) we get
(viii) ∼TG
The formula (viii) is the same as formula (iv) which was required to be proved.

Exercise 3: Using prepositional logic, show that, if the following statements are
assumed to be true:
(i) There is a moral law.
(ii) If there is a moral law, then someone gave it.
11
(iii) If someone gave the moral law, then there is God. Expert Systems
then the following statement is also true:
(iv) There is God.

The trouble with propositional logic is that it is unable to describe properties of

objects and also it lacks the structure to express relations that exist among two or more
entities. Further, propositional logic does not allow us to make generalised statements
about classes of similar objects. However, in many situations, the explicit knowledge
of relations between objects and generalised statements about classes of similar
objects, are essentially required to solve problems. Thus, propositional logic has
serious limitations while reasoning for solving real-world problems. For example, let
us look at the following statements:

(i) All children more than 12 years old must exercise regularly.
(ii) Ram is more than 12 years old.

Now ‘these statements should be sufficient enough to allow us to conclude: Ram must
exercise regularly. However, in propositional logic, each of the above statement is
indecomposable and may be respectively denoted by P and Q. Further, whatever is
said inside each statement is presumed to be not visible. Therefore, if we use the
language of propositional logic, we are just given two symbols, viz., P and Q,
representing respectively the two given statements. However, from just two
propositional formulae P and Q, it is not possible to conclude the above mentioned
statement viz., Ram must exercise regularly. To draw the desired conclusion with a
valid inference rule, it would be necessary to use some other language, including some
extension of propositional logic.

Predicate Logic, and more specifically, First Order Predicate Logic (FOPL) is an
extension of propositional logic, which was developed to extend the expressiveness of
propositional logic. In addition to just propositions of propositional logic, the
predicate logic uses predicates, functions, and variables together with variable
quantifiers (Universal and Existential quantifiers) to express knowledge.

We already have defined the structure of formulae of FOPL and also have explained
the procedure for finding the meaning of formulae in FOPL. Though, we have already
explained how to solve problems using FOPL, yet just for recalling the procedure for
solving problems using FOPL, we will consider below one example.

In this context, we may recall the inference rules of FOPL. The inference rules of PL
including Modus Ponens, Chain Rule and Rule of Transposition are valid in FOPL
also after suitable modifications by which formulae of PL are replaced by formulae of
FOPL.

In addition to these inference rules, the following four inference rules of FOPL, that
will be called Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4, have no corresponding rules in PL. In the following F
denotes a predicate and x a variable/parameter:

~ (∃x) F ( x) (∀x) ~ F ( x)
Q1: and
(∀x) ~ F ( x) ~ (∃x) F ( x)

The first of the above rules under Q1, says:

From negation of there exists x F (x), we can infer for all x not of F (x)

12
Applications of Artificial ~ (∀x) F ( x) (∃x) ~ F ( x)
Intelligence Q2: and
(∃x) ~ F ( x) ~ (∀x) F ( x)

The first of the above rules under Q2, says:

From negation of for all x F (x), we can infer there exists x such that not of F (x)

(∀x) F ( x)
Q3: , where a is (any) arbitrary element of the domain of F
F (a)
The rule Q3 is called universal instantiation

F (a ), for arbitrary a
Q⎢ 3 :
(∀x) F ( x)

The rule is called universal generalisation

( ∃x ) F ( x )
Q4: , where a is a particular (not arbitrary) constant.
F (a )

This rule is also called existential instantiation:

⎜ F (a) for some a

Q 4:
( ∃x ) F ( x )
The rule is called existential generalisation

Steps for using Predicate Calculus as a Language for Representing

Knowledge

Step 1: Conceptualization: First of all, all the relevant entities and the relations that
exist between these entities are explicitly enumerated. Some of the implicit facts like
‘a person dead once is dead forever’ have to be explicated.

Step 2: Nomenclature and Translation: Giving appropriate names to the objects and
relations. And then translating the given sentences given in English to formulae in
FOPL.

Appropriate names are essential in order to guide a reasoning system based on FOPL.
It is well-established that no reasoning system is complete. In other words, a reasoning
system may need help in arriving at desired conclusion.

Step 3: Finding appropriate sequence of reasoning steps, involving selection of

appropriate rule and appropriate FOPL formulae to which the selected rule is to be
applied, to reach the conclusion.

While solving problems with FOPL, generally, the proof technique is proof by
contradiction. Under this technique, the negation of what is to be proved is also taken
as one of the assumptions. Then from the given assumptions alongwith the new
assumption, we derive a contradiction, i.e., using inference rules, we derive a
statement which is negation of either an assumption or is negation of some earlier
derived formula.

Next, we give an example to illustrate how FOPL can be used to solve problems
expressed in English and which are solvable by using FOPL. However, the proposed
solution does not use the above-mentioned method of contradiction.

13
Example Expert Systems

We are given the statements:

(i) No feeling of pain is publically observable

(ii) All chemical processes are publically observable
We are to prove that
(iii) No feeling of pain is a chemical process

Solution:

For translating the given statements (i), (ii) & (iii), let us use the notation:

F(x): x is an instance of feeling of pain

O(x): x is an entity that is publically observable
C(x): x is a chemical process.

Then (i), (ii) and (iii) in FOPL can be equivalently expressed as

(i) (∀x) ( F(x)→ ∼ O(x) )
(ii) (∀x) ( C(x)→ O(x) )

To prove
(iii) (∀x) ( F(x)→ ∼ C(x) )

From (i) using generalized instantiation, we get

(iv) F(a)→ ∼ O(a) for any arbitrary a.

Similarly, from (ii), using generalized instantiation, we get

(v) C(b) → O(b) for any arbitrary b.

From (iv) using transposition rule, we get

(vi) O(a)→ ∼ F(a) for any arbitrary a

As b is arbitrary in (v), therefore we can rewrite (v) as

(vii) C(a) → O(a) for any arbitrary a
From (vii) and (vi) and using chain rule, we get
(viii) C(a)→ ∼ F(a) for any arbitrary a

But as a is arbitrary in (viii), by generalized quantification, we get

(ix) (∀x) ( C(x)→ ∼ F(x))

But (ix) is the same as (iii), which was required to be proved.

Problems with FOPL as a system of knowledge representation and reasoning:

FOPL is not capable of easily representing some kinds of information including
information pieces involving

(i) properties of relations. For example, the mathematical statement:

Any relation which is symmetric & transitive may not be reflexive
is not expressible in FOPL.
(ii) linguistic variables like hot, tall, sweat.
For example: It is very cold today,
can not be appropriately expressed in FOPL.
(iii) different belief systems.
For example, s/he know that he thinks India will win the match, but I think India will
lose,
also, can not be appropriately expressed in FOPL.
14
Applications of Artificial Some shortcomings in predicate calculus
Intelligence
Now, after having studied predicate logic as a knowledge representation scheme, we
ask ourselves the inevitable question, whether it can be used to solve real world
problems and to what extent.

Before we try to answer the above question, let us review some of the properties of
logic reasoning systems including predicate calculus. We must remember that three
important properties of any logical reasoning system are soundness, completeness and
tractability. To be confident that an inferred conclusion is true we require soundness.
To be confident that inference will eventually produce any true conclusion, we require
completeness. To be confident that inference is feasible, we require tractability.

Now, as we have discussed above also, in predicate calculus resolution refutation as

an inference procedure is sound and complete. Because in case that the well formed
formula which is to be proved is not logically followed or entailed by the set of well
formed formulas which are to be used as premises, the resolution refutation
procedure might never terminate. Thus, resolution refutation is not a full decision
procedure. Also there is not other procedure that has this property or that is fully
decidable. So predicate calculus is semi-decidable (semi-decidable means that if the
set of input (well formed formulas) do not lead to the conclusion then the procedure
will never stop or terminate).

But the situation is worse than this, as even on problems for which resolution
refutation terminates, the procedure is NP-hard – as is any sound and complete
inference procedure for the first-order predicate calculus i.e., it may take
exponentially large time to reach a conclusion.

How to tackle these problems:

People who have done research in Artificial Intelligence have shown various ways:
First, they say that we should not insist on the property of soundness of inference
rules. Now what does it mean – basically it means that sometimes or occasionally our
rules might prove an “untrue formula”.

Second, they say that we should not insist on the property of completeness i.e., to
allow use of procedures that are not guaranteed to find proofs of true formulas.

Third, they also suggest that we could use a language that is less expressive that the
predicate calculus. For example, a language in which everything is expressed using
only Horn Clauses ( Horn clauses are those which have at most one positive literal).

1.4.4 Rule Based Systems

Rather than representing knowledge in a declarative and somewhat static way (as a set
of statements, each of which is true), rule-based systems represent knowledge in terms
of a set of rules each of which specifies the conclusion that could be reached or
derived under given conditions or in different situations. A rule-based system consists
of
(i) Rule base, which is a set of IF-THEN rules,
(ii) A bunch of facts, and
(iii) Some interpreter of the facts and rules which is a mechanism which decides
which rule to apply based on the set of available facts. The interpreter also
initiates the action suggested by the rule selected for application.

15
 Expert Systems
A Rule-base may be of the form:
R1: If A is an animal and A barks, than A is a dog
F1: Rocky is an animal
F2: Rocky Barks
The rule-interpreter, after scanning the above rule-base may conclude: Rocky is a dog.
After this interpretation, the rule-base becomes

R1: If A is an animal and A barks, then A is a dog

F1: Rocky is an animal
F2: Rocky Barks
F3: Rocky is a dog.
There are two broad kinds of rule-based systems:
forward chaining systems,
and backward chaining systems.

In a forward chaining system we start with the initial facts, and keep using the rules
to draw new intermediate conclusions (or take certain actions) given those facts. The
process terminates when the final conclusion is established. In a backward chaining
system, we start with some goal statements, which are intended to be established and
keep looking for rules that would allow us to conclude, setting new sub-goals in the
process of reaching the ultimate goal. In the next round, the subgoals become the new
goals to be established. The process terminates when in this process all the subgoals
are given fact. Forward chaining systems are primarily data-driven, while backward
chaining systems are goal-driven. We will discuss each in detail.

Next, we discuss in detail some of the issues involved in a rule-based system.

Advantages of Rule-base

A basic principle of rule-based system is that each rule is an independent piece of

knowledge. In an IF-THEN rule, the IF-part contains all the conditions for the
application of the rule under consideration. THEN-part tells the action to be taken by
the interpreter. The interpreter need not search any where else except within the rule
itself for the conditions required for application of the rule.

Another important consequence of the above-mentioned characteristic of a rule-based

system is that no rule can call upon any other and hence rules are ignorant and hence
independent, of each other. This gives a highly modular structure to the rule-based
systems. Because of the highly modular structure of the rule-base, the rule-based
system addition, deletion and modification of a rule can be done without any danger
side effects.

Disadvantages

The main problem with the rule-based systems is that when the rule-base grows and
becomes very large, then checking (i) whether a new rule intended to be added is
redundant, i.e., it is already covered by some of the earlier rules. Still worse, as the
rule- base grows, checking the consistency of the rule-base also becomes quite
difficult. By consistency, we mean there may be two rules having similar conditions,
the actions by the two rules conflict with each other.

Let us first define working memory, before we study forward and backward chaining
systems.

Working Memory: A working is a representation, in which

16
Applications of Artificial • lexically, there are application –specific symbols.
Intelligence
• structurally, assertions are list of application-specific
symbols.
• semantically, assertions denote facts.
• assertions can be added or removed from working memory.

1.4.4.1 Forward Chaining Systems

In a forward chaining system the facts in the system are represented in a working
memory which is continually updated, so on the basis of a rule which is currently
being applied, the number of facts may either increase or decrease. Rules in the
system represent possible actions to be taken when specified conditions hold on items
in the working memory–they are sometimes called condition-action or antecedent-
consequent rules. The conditions are usually patterns that must match items in the
working memory, while the actions usually involve adding or deleting items from the
working memory. So we can say that in forward chaining proceeds forward,
beginning with facts, chaining through rules, and finally establishing the goal.
Forward chaining systems usually represent rules in standard implicational form, with
an antecedent or condition part consisting of positive literals, and a consequent or
conclusion part consisting of a positive literal.

The interpreter controls the application of the rules, given the working memory, thus
controlling the system’s activity. It is based on a cycle of activity sometimes known as
a recognize-act cycle. The system first checks to find all the rules whose condition
parts are satisfied i.e., the those rules which are applicable, given the current state of
working memory (A rule is applicable if each of the literals in its antecedent i.e., the
condition part can be unified with a corresponding fact using consistent substitutions.
This restricted form of unification is called pattern matching). It then selects one and
performs the actions in the action part of the rule which may involve addition or
deleting of facts. The actions will result in a new i.e., updated working memory, and
the cycle starts again (When more than one rule is applicable, then some sort of
external conflict resolution scheme is used to decide which rule will be applied. But
when there are a large numbers of rules and facts then the number of unifications that
must be tried becomes prohibitive or difficult). This cycle will be repeated until either
there is no rule which fires, or the required goal is reached.

Rule-based systems vary greatly in their details and syntax, let us take the
following example in which we use forward chaining :

Example

Let us assume that the working memory initially contains the following facts :

(day monday)
(at-home ram)
(does-not-like ram)

Let, the existing set of rules are:

R1 : IF (day monday)
THEN ADD to working memory the fact : (working-with ram)

R2 : IF (day monday)
THEN ADD to working memory the fact : (talking-to ram)
17
 R3 : IF (talking-to X) AND (working-with X) Expert Systems
THEN ADD to working memory the fact : (busy-at-work X)

R4 : IF (busy-at-work X) OR (at-office X)
THEN ADD to working memory the fact : (not-at-home X)

R5 : IF (not-at-home X)
THEN DELETE from working memory the fact : (happy X)

R6 : IF (working-with X)
THEN DELETE from working memory the fact : (does-not-like X)

Now to start the process of inference through forward chaining, the rule based
system will first search for all the rule/s whose antecedent part/s are satisfied by the
current set of facts in the working memory. For example, in this example, we can see
that the rules R1 and R2 are satisfied, so the system will chose one of them using its
conflict resolution strategies. Let the rule R1 is chosen. So (working-with ram) is
added to the working memory (after substituting “ram” in place of X). So working
memory now looks like:

(working-with ram)
(day monday)
(at-home ram)
(does-not-like ram)

Now this cycle begins again, the system looks for rules that are satisfied, it finds rule
R2 and R6. Let the system chooses rule R2. So now (taking-to ram) is added to
working memory. So now working memory contains following:

(talking-to ram)
(working-with ram)
(day monday)
(at-home ram)
(does-not-like ram)

Now in the next cycle, rule R3 fires, so now (busy-at-work ram) is added to working
memory, which now looks like:

(busy-at-work ram)
(talking-to ram)
(working-with ram)
(day monday)
(at-home ram)
(does-not-like ram)

Now antecedent parts of rules R4 and R6 are satisfied. Let rule R4 fires, so (not-at-
home, ram) is added to working memory which now looks like :

(not-at-home ram)
18
Applications of Artificial (busy-at-work ram)
Intelligence
(talking-to ram)
(working-with ram)
(day monday)
(at-home ram)
(does-not-like ram)
In the next cycle, rule R5 fires so (at-home ram) is removed from the working
memory :

(not-at-home ram)
(busy-at-work ram)
(talking-to ram)
(working-with ram)
(day monday)
(does-not-like ram)
The forward chining will continue like this. But we have to be sure of one thing, that
the ordering of the rules firing is important. A change in the ordering sequence of
rules firing may result in a different working memory.

Some of the conflict resolution strategies which are used to decide which rule to fire
are given below:

• Don’t fire a rule twice on the same data.

• Fire rules on more recent working memory elements before older ones. This
allows the system to follow through a single chain of reasoning, rather than
keeping on drawing new conclusions from old data.
• Fire rules with more specific preconditions before ones with more general
preconditions. This allows us to deal with non-standard cases.

These strategies may help in getting reasonable behavior from a forward chaining
system, but the most important thing is how should we write the rules. They
should be carefully constructed, with the preconditions specifying as precisely as
possible when different rules should fire. Otherwise we will have little idea or control
of what will happen.

1.4.4.2 Backward Chaining Systems

In forward chining systems we have seen how rule-based systems are used to draw
new conclusions from existing data and then add these conclusions to a working
memory. The forward chaining approach is most useful when we know all the
initial facts, but we don’t have much idea what the conclusion might be.

If we know what the conclusion would be, or have some specific hypothesis to test,
forward chaining systems may be inefficient. In forward chaining we keep on moving
ahead until no more rules apply or we have added our hypothesis to the working
memory. But in the process the system is likely to do a lot of additional and irrelevant
work, adding uninteresting or irrelevant conclusions to working memory. Let us say
that in the example discussed before, suppose we want to find out whether “ram is at
home”. We could repeatedly fire rules, updating the working memory, checking each
time whether (at-home ram) is found in the new working memory. But maybe we
19
had a whole batch of rules for drawing conclusions about what happens when I’m Expert Systems
working, or what happens on Monday–we really don’t care about this, so would rather
only have to draw the conclusions that are relevant to the goal.

This can be done by backward chaining from the goal state or on some hypothesized
state that we are interested in. This is essentially how Prolog works. Given a goal state
to try and prove, for example (at-home ram), the system will first check to see if the
goal matches the initial facts given. If it does, then that goal succeeds. If it doesn’t the
system will look for rules whose conclusions i.e., actions match the goal. One such
rule will be chosen, and the system will then try to prove any facts in the
preconditions of the rule using the same procedure, setting these as new goals to
prove. We should note that a backward chaining system does not need to update
a working memory. Instead it needs to keep track of what goals it needs to prove its
main hypothesis. So we can say that in a backward chaining system, the reasoning
proceeds “backward”, beginning with the goal to be established, chaining
through rules, and finally anchoring in facts.

Although, in principle same set of rules can be used for both forward and backward
chaining. However, in backward chaining, in practice we may choose to write the
rules slightly differently. In backward chaining we are concerned with matching the
conclusion of a rule against some goal that we are trying to prove. So the ‘then or
consequent’ part of the rule is usually not expressed as an action to take (e.g.,
add/delete), but as a state which will be true if the premises are true.

To learn more, let us take a different example in which we use backward chaining
(The system is used to identify an animal based on its properties stored in the working
memory):

Example

1. Let us assume that the working memory initially contains the following facts:

(has-hair raja) representing the fact “raja has hair”

(big-mouth raja) representing the fact “raja has a big mouth”
(long-pointed-teeth raja) representing the fact “raja has long pointed teeth”
(claws raja) representing the fact “raja has claws”

Let, the existing set of rules are:

1. IF (gives-milk X)
THEN (mammal X)

2. IF (has-hair X)
THEN (mammal X)

3. IF (mammal X) AND (eats-meat X)

THEN (carnivorous X)

4. IF (mammal X) AND (long-pointed-teeth X) AND (claws X)

THEN (carnivorous X)

5. IF (mammal X) AND (does-not-eat-meat X)

THEN (herbivorous X)

6. IF (carnivorous X) AND (dark-spots X)

20
Applications of Artificial THEN (cheetah, X)
Intelligence
7. IF (herbivorous X) AND (long-legs X) AND (long-neck X) AND (dark-spots X)
THEN (giraffe, X)
8. IF (carnivorous X) AND (big-mouth X)
THEN (lion, X)

9. IF (herbivorous X) AND (long-trunk X) AND (big-size X)

THEN (elephant, X)

10. IF (herbivorous, X) AND (white-color X) AND ((black-strips X)

THEN (zebra, X)

Now to start the process of inference through backward chaining, the rule
based system will first form a hypothesis and then it will use the antecedent –
consequent rules (previously called condition – action rules) to work backward
toward hypothesis supporting assertions or facts.

Let us take the initial hypothesis that “raja is a lion” and then reason
about whether this hypothesis is viable using backward chaining approach explained
below :

¾ The system searches a rule, which has the initial hypothesis in the consequent part
that someone i.e., raja is a lion, which it finds in rule 8.

¾ The system moves from consequent to antecedent part of rule 8 and it finds the
first condition i.e., the first part of antecedent which says that “raja must be a
carnivorous”.

¾ Next the system searches for a rule whose consequent part declares that someone
i.e., “raja is a carnivorous”, two rules are found i.e., rule 3 and rule 4. We assume
that the system tries rule 3 first.

¾ To satisfy the consequent part of rule 3 which now has become the system’s new
hypothesis, the system moves to the first part of antecedent which says that X i.e.,
raja has to be mammal.

¾ So a new sub-goal is created in which the system has to check that “raja is a
mammal”. It does so by hypothesizing it and tries to find a rule having a
consequent that someone or X is a mammal. Again the system finds two rules,
rule 1 and rule 2. Let us assume that the system tries rule 1 first.

¾ In rule 1, the system now moves to the first antecedent part which says that X
i.e., raja must give milk for it to be a mammal. The system cannot tell this
because this hypothesis is neither supported by any of the rules and also it is not
found among the existing facts in the working memory. So the system abandons
rule 1 and try to use rule 2 to establish that “raja is a mammal”.

¾ In rule 2, it moves to the antecedent which says that X i.e., raja must have hair for
it to be a mammal. The system already knows this as it is one of the facts in
working memory. So the antecedent part of rule 2 is satisfied and so the
consequent that “raja is a mammal” is established.

¾ Now the system backtracks to the rule 3 whose first antecedent part is satisfied. In
second condition of antecedent if finds its new sub-goal and in turn forms a new
hypothesis that X i.e., raja eats meat.

21
¾ The system tries to find a supporting rule or an assertion in the working memory Expert Systems
which says that “raja eats meat” but it finds none. So the system abandons the rule
3 and try to use rule 4 to establish that “raja is carnivorous”.

¾ In rule 4, the first part of antecedent says that raja must be a mammal for it to be
carnivorous. The system already knows that “raja is a mammal” because it was
already established when trying to satisfy the antecedents in rule 3.

¾ The system now moves to second part of antecedent in rule 4 and finds a new
sub-goal in which the system must check that X i.e., raja has long-pointed-teeth
which now becomes the new hypothesis. This is already established as “ raja has
long-pointed-teeth” is one of the assertions of the working memory.

¾ In third part of antecedent in rule 4 the system’s new hypothesis is that “raja has
claws”. This also is already established because it is also one the assertions in the
working memory.

¾ Now as all the parts of the antecedent in rule 4 are established so its consequent
i.e., “raja is carnivorous” is established.

¾ The system now backtracks to rule 8 where in the second part of the antecedent
says that X i.e., raja must have a big-mouth which now becomes the new
hypothesis. This is already established because the system has an assertion that
“raja has a big mouth”.

¾ Now as the whole antecedent of rule 8 is satisfied so the system concludes that
“raja is a lion”.

We have seen that the system was able to work backward through the antecedent –
consequent rules, using desired conclusions to decide that what assertions it should
look for and ultimately establishing the initial hypothesis.

How to choose the type of chaining among forward or backward chaining for a
given problem ?

Many of the rule based deduction systems can chain either forward or backward, but
which of these approaches is better for a given problem is the point of discussion.

First, let us learn some basic things about rules i.e., how a rule relates its input/s
(i.e., facts) to output/s (i.e., conclusion). Whenever in a rule, a particular set of facts
can lead to many conclusions, the rule is said to have a high degree of fan out, and a
strong candidate of backward chaining for its processing. On the other hand,
whenever the rules are such that a particular hypothesis can lead to many questions for
the hypothesis to be established, the rule is said to have a high degree of fan in, and a
high degree of fan in is a strong candidate of forward chaining.

To summarize, the following points should help in choosing the type of chaining for
reasoning purpose :

• If the set of facts, either we already have or we may establish, can lead to a large
number of conclusions or outputs , but the number of ways or input paths to reach
that particular conclusion in which we are interested is small, then the degree of
fan out is more than degree of fan in. In such case, backward chaining is the
preferred choice.

22
Applications of Artificial • But, if the number of ways or input paths to reach the particular conclusion in
Intelligence which we are interested is large, but the number of conclusions that we can reach
using the facts through that rule is small, then the degree of fan in is more than
the degree of fan out. In such case, forward chaining is the preferred choice.

• For case where the degree of fan out and fan in are approximately same, then
in case if not many facts are available and the problem is check if one of the
many possible conclusions is true, backward chaining is the preferred choice.

1.4.4.3 Probability Certainty Factors in Rule Based System

Rule based systems usually work in domains where conclusions are rarely certain,
even when we are careful enough to try and include everything we can think of in the
antecedent or condition parts of rules.

Sources of Uncertainty

Two important sources of uncertainty in rule based systems are:

9 The theory of the domain may be vague or incomplete so the methods to generate
exact or accurate knowledge are not known.
9 Case data may be imprecise or unreliable and evidence may be missing or in
conflict.

So even though methods to generate exact knowledge are known but they are
impractical due to lack or data, imprecision or data or problems related to data
collection.

So rule based deduction system developers often build some sort of certainty or
probability computing procedure on and above the normal condition-action format
of rules. Certainty computing procedures attach a probability between 0 and 1 with
each assertion or fact. Each probability reflects how certain an assertion is, whereas
certainty factor of 0 indicates that the assertion is definitely false and certainty factor
of 1 indicates that the assertion is definitely true.

Example 1: In the example discussed above the assertion (ram at-home) may have a
certainty factor, say 0.7 attached to it.

Example 2: In MYCIN a rule based expert system (which we will discuss later), a
rule in which statements which link evidence to hypotheses are expressed as decision
criteria, may look like :

IF patient has symptoms s1,s2,s3 and s4

AND certain background conditions t1,t2 and t3 hold
THEN the patient has disease d6 with certainty 0.75

For detailed discussion on certainty factors, the reader may refer to probability theory,
fuzzy sets, possibility theory, Dempster-Shafter Theory etc.

Exercise 4

In the “Animal Identifier System” discussed above use forward chaining to try to
identify the animal called “raja”.

23
 Expert Systems
1.5 EXAMPLES OF EXPERT SYSTEMS: MYCIN,
COMPASS

The first expert system we choose as and example is MYCIN, which is of the earliest
developed expert systems. As another example of and expert system we briefly
discuss COMPASS.

MYCIN (An expert system)

Like every one else, we are also tempted to discuss MYCIN, one of the earliest
designed expert systems in Stanford University in 1970s.

MYCIN’s job was to diagnose and recommend treatment for certain blood infections.
To do the proper diagnosis, it is required to grow cultures of the infecting organism
which is a very time consuming process and sometime patient is in a critical state. So,
doctors have to come up with quick guesses about likely problems from the available
data, and use these guesses to provide a treatment where drugs are given which should
deal with any type of problem.

So MYCIN was developed in order to explore how human experts make these rough
(but important) guesses based on partial information. Sometimes the problem takes
another shape, that an expert doctor may not available every-time every-where, in that
situation also and expert system like MYCIN would be handy.

MYCIN represented its knowledge as a set of IF-THEN rules with certainty factors.
One of the MYCIN rule could be like :

IF infection is primary-bacteremia AND the site of the culture is one of the sterile
sites
AND the suspected portal of entry is the gastrointestinal tract
THEN there is suggestive evidence (0.8) that bacteroid infection occurred.

The 0.8 is the certainty that the conclusion will be true given the evidence. If the
evidence is uncertain the certainties of the pieces of evidence will be combined with
the certainty of the rule to give the certainty of the conclusion.

MYCIN has been written in Lisp, and its rules are formally represented as lisp
expressions. The action part of the rule could just be a conclusion about the problem
being solved, or it could be another lisp expression.

MYCIN is mainly a goal-directed system, using the backward chaining reasoning

approach. However, to increase it reasoning power and efficiency MYCIN also uses
various heuristics to control the search for a solution.

One of the strategy used by MYCIN is to first ask the user a number of predefined
questions that are most common and which allow the system to rule out totally
unlikely diagnoses. Once these questions have been asked, the system can then focus
on particular and more specific possible blood disorders. It then uses backward
chaining approach to try and prove each one. This strategy avoids a lot of
unnecessary search, and is similar to the way a doctor tries to diagnose a patient.

The other strategies are related to the sequence in which rules are invoked. One of the
strategy is simple i.e., given a possible rule to use, MYCIN first checks all the
antecedents of the rule to see if any are known to be false. If yes, then there is no point
24
Applications of Artificial using the rule. The other strategies are mainly related to the certainty factors.
Intelligence MYCIN first find the rules that have greater degree of certainty of conclusions, and
abandons its search once the certainties involved get below a minimum threshold, say,
0.2.

There are three main stages to the interaction with MYCIN. In the first stage, initial
data about the case is gathered so the system can come up with a broad diagnosis. In
the second more directed questions are asked to test specific hypotheses. At the end of
this section it proposes a diagnosis. In the third stage it asks questions to determine an
appropriate treatment, on the basis of the diagnosis and facts related to the patient.
After that it recommends some treatment. At any stage the user can ask why a
question was asked or how a conclusion was reached, and if a particular treatment is
recommended the user can ask if alternative treatments are possible.

MYCIN has been popular in expert system’s research, but it also had a number of
problems or shortcomings because of which a number of its derivatives like
NEOMYCIN developed.

COMPASS (An expert system)

Before we discuss this let us understand the functionality of telephone company’s

switch. A telephone company’s switch is a complex device whose circuitry may
encompass a large part of a building. The goals of switch maintenance are to minimize
the number of calls to be rerouted due to bad connections and to ensure that faults are
repaired quickly. Bad connections caused due to failure of connection between two
telephone lines.

COMPASS is an expert system which checks error messages derived from the
switch’s self test routines, look for open circuits, reduces the time of operation of
components etc. To find the cause of a switch problem, it looks at a series of such
messages and then uses it expertise. The system can suggest the running of additional
tests, or the replacement of a particular component, for example, a relay or printed
circuit board.

As expertise in this area was scarce, so it was a fit case for taking help an expert
system like COMPASS (We will discuss later, how knowledge acquisition is done in
COMPASS).

1.6 EXPERT SYSTEM BUILDING TOOLS

Expert system tools are designed to provide an environment for development of expert
systems mainly through the approach of prototyping.

The expert systems development process is normally a mixture of prototyping and

other incremental development models of software engineering rather than the
conventional “waterfall model”. Although using incremental development has a
problem of integrating new functionality with the earlier version of expert system but
the expert system development environments try to solve this problem by using
modular representations of knowledge (some of the representation schemes like
frames, rule based systems etc. have already been discussed above).

Software tools for development of expert systems mainly fall into the following
Categories:

25
• Expert System Shells: These are basically a set of program and to be more Expert Systems
specific - abstractions over one or more applications programs. One of the major
examples is EMYCIN which is the rule interpreter of the famous expert system
called MYCIN (a medical diagnostic system). EMYCIN also constitutes related
data structures like knowledge tables and indexing mechanism over these tables.
Some recent versions of EMYCIN like M.4 is a very sophisticated shell which
combine the backward chaining of EMYCIN with frame – like data structures.

• High Level Programming Languages : These languages are basically used to

provide a higher level of abstraction by hiding the implementation details because
of which the programmer need not worry about efficiency of storing, accessing
and manipulating data. One of the good examples is OPS5 rule language. But
many of such languages are research tools and may not available commercially.

• Multiple programming environments : These provide a set of software modules

to allow the user to use and mix a number of different styles of artificial
intelligence programming. One of the examples is called LOOPS which combines
rule based and object – oriented approaches of knowledge representation.

We will now keep our focus on “Expert System Shells”.

1.6.1 Expert System Shells

An expert system tool, or shell, is a software development environment containing the

basic components of expert systems. Associated with a shell is a prescribed method
for building applications by configuring and instantiating these components.

Expert system shells are basically used for the purpose of allowing non-programmers
to take advantage of the already developed templates or shells and which have
evolved because of the efforts of some pioneers in programming who have solved
similar problems before. The core components of an expert systems are the knowledge
base and the reasoning engine.

A generic expert system shell is shown below :

Expert System Shell

Knowledge Knowledge Inference Explanation
Expert Acquisition Base Engine Subsystem User User
Subsystem (Reason- Inter-
ing) face

Figure 1.2: Components of Expert System Tool (Shell)

As we can see in the figure above, the shell includes the inference engine, a
knowledge acquisition subsystem, an explanation subsystem and a user interface.
When faced with a new problem in any given domain, we can find a shell which can
provide the right support for that problem, so all we need is the knowledge of an
expert. There are many commercial expert system shells available now, each one
adequate for a different range of problems. Taking help of expert system shells to
develop expert systems greatly reduces the cost and the time of development as
compared to developing the expert system from the scratch.

Let us now discuss the components of a generic expert system shell. We will discuss
about:
26
Applications of Artificial • Knowledge Base
Intelligence
• Knowledge Acquisition Subsystem
• Inference Engine
• Explanation Subsystem
• User Interface

1.6.1.1 Knowledge Base

It contains facts and heuristic knowledge. Developers try to use a uniform

representation of knowledge as for as possible. There are many knowledge
representation schemes for expressing knowledge about the application domain and
some advance expert system shells use both frames (objects) and IF-THEN rules. In
PROLOG the knowledge is represented as logical statements.

1.6.1.2 Knowledge Acquisition Subsystem

The process of capturing and transformation of potentially useful information for a

given problem from any knowledge source (which may be a human expert) to a
program in the format required by that program is the job of a knowledge acquisition
subsystem. So we can say that these subsystem to help experts build knowledge bases.

As an expert may not be a computer literate, so capturing information includes

interviewing, preparing questionnaires etc. which is a very slow and time consuming
process. So collecting knowledge needed to solve problems and build the
knowledge base has always been the biggest bottleneck in developing expert
systems.

Some of the reasons behind the difficulty in collecting information are given below :

o The facts and rules or principles of different domains cannot easily be

converted into a mathematical or a deterministic model, the properties of which
are known. For example a teacher knows how to motivate the students but
putting down on the paper, the exact reasons, causes and other factor affecting
students is not easy as they vary with individual students.

o Different domains have their own terminology and it is very difficult for experts
to communicate exactly their knowledge in a normal language.

o Capturing the facts and principles alone is not sufficient to solve problems. For
example, experts in particular domains which information is important for
specific judgments, which information sources are reliable and how problems
can be simplified, which is based on personal experience. Capturing such
knowledge is very difficult.

o Commonsense knowledge found in humans continues to be very difficult to

capture, although systems are being made to capture it.

The idea of automated knowledge capturing has also been gaining momentum. Infact
“machine learning” is one of the important research area for sometime now. The
goal is that, a computing system or machine could be enabled to learn in order to solve
problems like the way human do it.

Example (Knowledge acquisition in COMPASS).

As we already know that COMPASS is an expert system which was build for proper
maintenance and troubleshooting of telephone company’s switches.
27
Now, for knowledge acquisition, knowledge from a human expert is elicited. An Expert Systems
expert explains the problem solving technique and a knowledge engineers then
converts it into and if-then-rule. The human expert then checks if the rule has the
correct logic and if a change is needed then the knowledge engineer reformulates the
rule.

Sometimes, it is easier to troubleshoot the rules with pencil and paper (i.e., hand
simulation), at least the first time than directly implementing the rule and changing
them again and again.

Let us summarize the knowledge acquisition cycle of COMPASS :

• Extract knowledge from a human expert.

• Document the extracted knowledge.
• Test the new knowledge using following steps:

ƒ Let the expert analyze the new data.

ƒ Analyze the same data using pencil and paper using the documented
knowledge.
ƒ Compare the results of the expert’s opinion with the conclusion of the
analysis using pencil and paper.
ƒ If there is a difference in the results, then find the rules which are the cause
of discrepancy and then go back to rule 1 to gather more knowledge form
the expert to solve the problem.
Otherwise, exit the loop.

1.6.1.3 Inference Engine

An inference engine is used to perform reasoning with both the expert knowledge
which is extracted from an expert and most commonly a human expert) and data
which is specific to the problem being solved. Expert knowledge is mostly in the form
of a set of IF-THEN rules. The case specific data includes the data provided by the
user and also partial conclusions (along with their certainty factors) based on this data.
In a normal forward chaining rule-based system, the case specific data is the elements
in the working memory.

Developing expert systems involve knowing how knowledge is accessed and used
during the search for a solution. Knowledge about what is known and, when and
how to use it is commonly called meta-knowledge. In solving problems, a certain
level of planning, scheduling and controlling is required regarding what questions to
be asked and when, what is to be checked and so on.

Different strategies for using domain-specific knowledge have great effects on the
performance characteristics of programs, and also on the way in which a program
finds or searches a solution among possible alternatives. Most knowledge
representations schemes are used under a variety of reasoning methods and research is
going on in this area.

1.6.1.4 Explanation Subsystem (Example MYCIN)

An explanation subsystem allows the program to explain its reasoning to the user. The
explanation can range from how the final or intermediate solutions were arrived at to
justifying the need for additional data.

Explanation subsystems are important from the following points of view :

28
Applications of Artificial (i) Proper use of knowledge: There must be some for the satisfaction of
Intelligence knowledge engineers that the knowledge is applied properly even at the time of
development of a prototype.
(ii) Correctness of conclusions: User’s need to satisfy themselves that the
conclusions produced by the system are correct.
(iii) Execution trace: In order to judge that the knowledge elicitation is proceeding
smoothly and successfully, a complete trace of program execution is required.
(iv) Knowledge of program behavior: For proper maintenance and debugging, the
knowledge of program behavior is necessary for the programmers.
(v) Suitability of reasoning approach: Explanation subsystems are necessary to
ensure that reasoning technique applied is suitable to the particular domain.

Explanation in expert systems deals with the issue of control because the reasoning
steps used by the programs will depend on how it searches for a solution.

Explanation subsystems are also related to evaluation as by checking the outputs

produced by a system and after examining the trace of its actions performed while
reasoning, it can be decided that whether or not a system is producing the right answer
for right reasons. Without a good explanation subsystem, an expert will be unable to
judge the system’s performance or will be unable to find ways to improve it.

To give an idea of how an explanation subsystem works, let us have a simple

example:

Example:

Suppose there is a simple rule based system to diagnose the problems in a car.

Let the system has following rules :

R1: IF engine-gets-petrol AND engine-turns-over
THEN spark-plug-fault

R2: IF NOT engine-turns-over AND NOT lights-come-on

THEN battery-problem

R3: IF NOT engine-turns-over AND lights-come-on

THEN starter-not-working

R4: IF fuel-tank-has-petrol
THEN engine-gets-petrol

We also assume that the system has no initial facts.

Explanation subsystems allow the user to ask why it asked a particular question, and
how it reached some conclusion. These questions are answered by referring to the
system goals, the rules being used, and any existing problem data.

Now let us focus on the example given above to see the explanation facilities
provided, which involve a dialogue involving why and how questions and their
explanations.

System : Does the fuel tank has gas?

User : Yes.

29
 Expert Systems
System : Does the engine turns over?
User : No

System : Do lights come on?

User : Why?

System : I am trying to prove that there is a battery problem. It has been

established
that the engine does not turns over. Therefore if it is not the case that the
lights
come on, then there is a battery problem.
Is it true that the lights come on?
User : No.

System : I conclude that there is a battery problem.

User : How?

System : This follows from Rule 2:

IF NOT engine-turns-over AND NOT lights-come-on was given by the
user.

Providing such an explanation facility involves stating what rules are used in reaching
conclusions, and using these records to compose explanations like the ones above.
Giving simple explanations like those above is not very difficult, and is quite useful.

Explanation facilities in expert systems are sometimes not used, and sometimes they
are not easily accepted by their users. There are a whole lot of reasons for this. One
reason is that the explanations just reference the “surface” knowledge encoded in the
rules, rather than providing the “deep” knowledge about the domain which originally
motivated the rules but which is usually not represented. So, the system will say that it
concluded something because of rule 5, but not explain what rule 5 intends to say. In
the example given below, maybe the user needs to understand that both the lights and
the starter use the battery, which is the underlying purpose of the second rule in this
example. Another reason for the frequent failure of explanation facilities is the fact
that, if the user fails to understand or accept the explanation, the system can’t re-
explain in another way (as people can). Explanation generation is a fairly large area of
research, concerned with effective communication i.e., how to present things so that
people are really satisfied with the explanation, and what implications does this have
for how we represent the underlying knowledge.

Explanation Subsystem in MYCIN (An overview)

MYCIN is one of the first popular expert systems made for the purpose of medical
diagnosis. Let us have a look at how the explanation subsystem in MYCIN works :
To explain the reasoning for deciding on a particular medical parameter’s or
symptom’s value, it retrieves a set of rules and their conclusions. It allows the user to
ask questions or queries during a consultation.

To answer the questions the system relies on its ability to display a rule invoked at any
point during the consultation and also recording the order of rule invocations and
associating them with particular events (like particular questions).

As the system using backward chaining so most of the questions belong to “Why” or
“How” category. To answer “Why” questions, the system looks up the hierarchy (i.e.,
tree) of rules to see which goals the system is trying to achieve and to answer “Why”

30
Applications of Artificial questions, the system must look down the hierarchy (i.e., tree) to find out that which
Intelligence sub-goals were satisfied to achieve the goal.

We can see that explanation process is nothing but a search problem requiring tree
traversal.

As MYCIN keeps track of the goal to sub-goal sequence of the computation, so it can
answer questions like:

“Why did you ask that if the stain of the organism is gram negative ?”

In response to this, the system would quote the rules which states “gram negative
staining” may be in conjunction with other conditions and would state that what it was
trying to achieve.

Similarly, if there is “How” question like:

“How do say that Organism-2 might be proteus ?”

In its reply, MYCIN would state the rules that were applied in reaching this
conclusions and their degree of certainty and what was the last question asked etc.

Thus we can see that because of the backward chaining approach, the system is able to
answer “Why” and “How” questions satisfactorily. But the rule application would not
be easy if the chains of reasoning are long.

1.6.1.5 User interface

It is used to communicate with the user. The user interface is generally not a part of
the expert system technology, and was not given much attention in the past. However,
it is now widely accepted that the user interface can make a critical difference in the
utility of a system regardless of the system’s performance.

Now as an example, let us discuss and expert system shell called EMYCIN.

1.6.1.6 EMYCIN (An expert system shell)

EMYCIN provides a domain-independent framework or template for constructing and

running any consultation programs. EMYCIN stands for “Empty MYCIN” or
“Essential MYCIN” because it basically constitutes a MYCIN system minus its
domain-specific medical knowledge. However, EMYCIN is something more than this,
as it offers a number of software tools for helping expert system designers in building
and debugging performance programs.

Some characteristics of EMYCIN are:

• It constitutes an abbreviated rule language, which uses ALGOL-like notation and

which is easier than LISP and is more concise than the English subset used by
MYCIN.
• It uses backward chaining which is similar to MYCIN.
• It indexes rules, in-turn organising them into groups, based on the parameters
which are being referenced.
• It has an interface for system designer which provides tools for displaying,
editing and partitioning rules, editing knowledge held in tables, and also running
rule sets on sets of problems. As part of system designer’s interface, EMYCIN

31
 also included a knowledge editor (a program) called TEIRESIAS whose job was Expert Systems
to provide help for the development and maintenance of large knowledge bases.
• It also has a user interface which allows the user to communicate with the system
smoothly.

1.7 SOME APPLICATION AREAS OF EXPERT

SYSTEMS

The scope of applications of expert systems technology to practical problems is so

wide that it is very difficult to characterize them. The applications find their way into
most of the areas of knowledge work. Some of the main categories of applications or
an expert system are given below.

• Diagnosis and Troubleshooting: This class comprises systems that deduce faults
and suggest corrective actions for a malfunctioning device or process. Medical
diagnosis was one of the first knowledge areas to which ES technology was
applied, but use of expert systems for solving and diagnosis of engineered systems
has become common.

• Planning and Scheduling: Systems that fall into this class analyze a set of one or
more potentially complex and interacting goals in order to determine a set of
actions to achieve those goal. This class of expert systems has great commercial
potential. Examples include scheduling of flights, personnel, manufacturing
process planning etc.

• Process Monitoring and Control: Systems falling in this class analyze real-
time data from physical devices with the goal of noticing errors, predicting
trends, and controlling for both optimality and failure correction. Examples of
real-time systems that actively monitor processes are found in the steel making
and oil refining industries.

• Financial Decision Making: The financial services industry has also been using
expert system techniques. Expert systems belonging to this category act as
advisors, risk analyzers etc.

• Knowledge Publishing: This is a relatively new, but also potentially explosive

area. The primary function of the expert system is to deliver knowledge that is
relevant to the user’s problem, in the context of the user’s problem.

• Design and Manufacturing: These systems assist in the design of physical

devices and processes, ranging from high-level conceptual design of abstract
entities all the way to factory floor configuration of manufacturing processes.

1.8 SUMMARY

In this unit, we have discussed various issues in respect of expert systems. To begin
with, in section 1.2 we define the concept of ‘expert system’. In view of the fact that
an expert system contains knowledge of a specific domain, in section 1.4, we discuss
various schemes for representing the knowledge of a domain. Section 1.5 contains
examples of some well-known expert systems. Tools for building expert systems are
discussed in section 1.6. Finally, applications of expert systems are explained in
section 1.7.
32
Applications of Artificial
Intelligence 1.9 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS

Ex. 1) In this case, it is not the same ‘strike’ action but two strike actions which are
involved in the sentence. Therefore, we use ‘strike’ to denote a generic action
of striking whereas ‘strike-1’ and ‘strike-2’ are its instances or members.
Thus, we get the semantic network.

Strike-1 instance Strike instance Strike-2

agent
agent
past of
object
Nita Mohan struck X

Mother-of

past of

struck

Ex. 2) (date
(day (integer (1….31)))
(month (integer (1…..12)))
(year (integer (1…..10000)))
(day-of-the-week (set (Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun)))
(procedure (compute day-of-the-week (day month year))),

Where the procedure day-of-the-week takes three arguments.

Some problems in Semantic Networks and Frames:

There are problems in expressing certain kinds of knowledge when either semantic
networks or frames are used for knowledge representation. For example, it is difficult
although not impossible to express disjunctions and hence implications, negations,
and general non-taxonomic knowledge (i.e., non-hierarchical knowledge) in these
representations.

Ex. 3) In order to translate in PL, let us use the symbols:

ML: There is a Moral Law
SG: Someone Gave it (the word ‘it’ stands for moral law)
TG: There is God.
Using these symbols, the statements (i) to (iv) become the formulae (i) to (iv) of PL
as given below:
(i) ML
(ii) ML→SG
(iii) SG→TG and
33
 (iv) TG Expert Systems

Applying Modus Ponens to formulae (i) and (ii) we get the formula
(v) SG
Applying Modus Ponens to (v) and (iii), we get
(vi) TG
But formula (vi) is the same as (iv), which is required to be established. Hence the
proof.

Ex. 4) Initially, the working memory contains the following assertions :

(has-hair raja) representing the fact “raja has hair”

(big-mouth raja) representing the fact “raja has a big mouth”
(long-pointed-teeth raja) representing the fact “raja has long pointed
teeth”
(claws raja) representing the fact “raja has claws”

We start with one of the assertions about “raja” from the working memory.

Let us choose the first assertion : (raja has-hair)

Now we take this assertion and try to match the antecedent part of a rule. In the rule
2, the antecedent part is satisfied by substituting “raja” in place of X. So the
consequent (mammal X) is established by replacing “raja” in place of X.

The working memory is now updated by adding the assertion (mammal raja).
So the working memory now looks like:

(mammal raja)
(has-hair raja)
(big-mouth raja)
(long-pointed-teeth raja)
(claws raja)

Now we try to match assertion (mammal raja) to the antecedent part of a rule. The
first rule whose antecedent part supports the assertion is rule 3. So the control moves
to the second part of rule 3, which says that (eats-meat X), but this is not found in any
of the assertions present in working memory, so rule 3 fails.

Now, the system tries to find another rule which matches assertion (mammal raja), it
find rule 4 whose first part of antecedent supports this. So the control moves to the
second part of the antecedent in rule 4, which says that something i.e., X must have
pointed teeth. This fact is present in the working memory in the form of assertion
(long-pointed-teeth raja) so the control now moves to the third antecedent part of rule
4 i.e., something i.e., X must have claws. We can see that this is supported by the
assertion (claws raja) in the working memory. Now, as the whole antecedent of rule 4
is satisfied so the consequent of rule 4 is established and the working memory is
updated by the addition of the assertion (carnivorous raja), after substituting “raja” in
place of X.

So the working now looks like:

(carnivorous raja)
34
Applications of Artificial (mammal raja)
Intelligence
(has-hair raja)
(big-mouth raja)
(long-pointed-teeth raja)
(claws raja)

Now in the next step, the system tries to match the assertion (carnivorous raja) with
one of the rules in working memory. The first rule whose antecedent part matches this
assertion is rule 6. Now as the first part of the antecedent in rule 6 matches with the
assertion, the control moves to the second part of the antecedent i.e., X has dark spots.
There is no assertion in working memory which supports this, so the rule 6 is aborted.

The system now tries to match with the next rule which matches the assertion
(carnivorous raja). It finds rule 8 whose first part of antecedent matches with the
assertion. So the control moves to the second part of the antecedent of rule 8 which
says that something i.e., X must have big mouth. Now this is already present in the
working memory in the form of assertion (big-mouth raja) so the second part and
ultimately the whole antecedent of rule 8 is satisfied.

And, so the consequent part of rule 8 is established and the working memory is
updated by the addition of the assertion (lion raja), after substituting “raja” in place of
X.

The working memory now looks like:

(lion raja)
(carnivorous raja)
(mammal raja)
(has-hair raja)
(big-mouth raja)
(long-pointed-teeth raja)
(claws raja)

Hence, as the goal to be achieved i.e., “raja is a lion” is now part of the working
memory in the form of assertion (lion raja), so the goal is established and processing
stops.

1.10 FURTHER READINGS

1. Russell S. & Norvig P., Artificial Intelligence A Modern Approach (Second

Edition) (Pearson Education, 2003).

2. Patterson D. W: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems

(Prentice Hall of India, 2001).

35
 Applications of Artificial
Intelligence
UNIT 2 INTELLIGENT AGENTS
Structure Page Nos.

2.0 Introduction 36
2.1 Objectives 37
2.2 Definitions 37
2.3 Agents and Rationality 39
2.3.1 Rationality vs. Omniscience
2.3.2 Autonomy and learning capability of the agent
2.2.3 Example: A boundary following robot
2.4 Task Environment of Agents 42
2.4.1 PEAS (Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors)
2.4.2 Example An Automated Public Road Transport Driver
2.4.3 Different Types of Task Environments
2.4.3.1 Fully Observable vs. Partially Observable Environment
2.4.3.2 Static vs. Dynamic Environment
2.4.3.3 Deterministic vs. Stochastic Environment
2.4.3.4 Episodic vs. Sequential Environment
2.4.3.5 Single agent vs. Multi-agent Environment
2.4.3.6 Discrete Vs. Continuous Environment
2.4.4 Some Examples of Task Environments
2.4.4.1 Crossword Puzzle
2.4.4.2 Medical Diagnosis
2.4.4.3 Playing Tic-tac-toe
2.4.4.4 Playing Chess
2.4.4.5 Automobile Driver Agent
2.5 The Structure of Agents 49
2.5.1 SR (Simple Reflex) Agents
2.5.2 Model Based reflex Agents
2.5.3 Goal-based Agents
2.5.4 Utility-based Agents
2.5.5
Learning Agents
2.6 Different Forms of Learning in Agents 56
2.7 Summary 58
2.8 Solutions/Answers 58
2.9 Further Readings 58

2.0 INTRODUCTION

Since the time immemorial, we, the human beings, have always toyed with the idea of
having some sort of slaves or agents, which would act as per our command,
irrespective of the shape they take, as long as they do the job for which they have been
designed or acquired. With the passage of time, human beings have developed
different kinds of machines, where each machine has been intended to perform
specific operation or a set of operations. However, with the development of the
computer, human aspirations have increased manifolds as it has allowed us to think
of and actually implement non-human agents, which would show some level of
independence and intelligence. Robot, one of the most popular non-human agents, is
a machine capable of perceiving the environment it is in, and further capable of taking
some action or of performing some job either on its own or after taking some
command.

Despite their perceived benefits, the dominant public image of the artificially
embodied intelligent machines is more as potentially dangerous than potentially
beneficial machines to the human race. The mankind is worried about the potentially
dangerous capabilities of the robots to be designed and developed in the future.
36
Intelligent Agents Actually, any technology is a double-edged sword. For example, the Internet along
with World Wide Web, on one hand, allows us to acquire information at the click of a
button, but, at the same time, the Internet provides an environment in which a number
of children (and, of course, the adults also) become addicts to downloading
pornographic material. Similarly, the development of non-human agents might not
be without its tradeoffs. For example, the more intelligent the robots are designed
and developed, the more are the chances of a robot pursuing its own agenda than its
master’s, and more are the chances of a robot even attempting to destroy others to
become more successful. Some intellectuals even think that, not in very distant future,
there might be robots capable of enslaving the human beings, though designed and
developed by the human beings themselves. Such concerns are not baseless. However,
the (software) agents developed till today and the ones to be developed in the near
future are expected to have very limited capabilities to match the kind of intelligence
required for such behaviour.

In respect of the design and development of intelligent agents, with the passage of
time, the momentum seems to have shifted from hardware to software, the letter being
thought of as a major source of intelligence. But, obviously, some sort of hardware is
essentially needed as a home to the intelligent agent.

2.1 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit, you should be able to:

• define the concept of an agent;
• explain the concepts of a ‘rational agent’ and ‘rationality’;
• tell about the various task environments, for which the use of agents is appropriate
to solve problems from;
• explain the structure of an agent, and
• discuss various forms of used for agents to learn.

2.2 DEFINITIONS
An agent may be thought of as an entity that acts, generally on behalf of someone
else. More precisely, an agent is an entity that perceives its environment through
sensors and acts on the environment through actuators. Some experts in the field
require an agent to be additionally autonomous and goal directed also.

A percept may be thought of as an input to the agent through its censors, over a unit
of time, sufficient enough to make some sense from the input.

Percept sequence is a sequence of percepts, generally long enough to allow the agent
to initiate some action.

In order to further have an idea about what a computer agent is, let us consider one of
the first definitions of agent, which was coined by John McCarthy and his friends at
MIT.

A software agent is a system which, when given a goal to be achieved, could carry
out the details of the appropriate (computer) operations and further, in case it gets
stuck, it can ask for advice and can receive it from humans, may even evaluate the
appropriateness of the advice and then act suitably.

Essentially, a computer agent is a computer software that additionally has the

following attributes:
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 Applications of Artificial
Intelligence
(i) it has autonomous control i.e., it operates under its own control
(ii) it is perceptive, i.e., it is capable of perceiving its own environment
(iii) it persists over a long period of time
(iv) it is adaptive to changes in the environment and
(v) it is capable of taking over others’ goals.

As the concept of (software) agent is of relatively recent origin, different pioneers and
other experts have been conceiving and using the term in different ways. There are
two distinct but related approaches for defining an agent. The first approach treats an
agent as an ascription i.e., the perception of a person (which includes expectations
and points of view) whereas the other approach defines an agent on the basis of the
description of the properties that the agent to be designed is expected to possess.

Let us first discuss the definition of agent according to first approach. Among the
people who consider an agent as an ascription, a popular slogan is “Agent is that
agent does”. In everyday context, an agent is expected to act on behalf of someone
to carry out a particular task, which has been delegated to it. But to perform its task
successfully, the agent must have knowledge about the domain in which it is operating
and also about the properties of its current user in question. In the course of normal
life, we hire different agents for different jobs based on the required expertise for each
job. Similarly, a non-human intelligent agent also is imbedded with required
expertise of the domain as per requirements of the job under consideration. For
example, a football-playing agent would be different from an email-managing
agent, although both will have the common attribute of modeling their user.
According to the second approach, an agent is defined as an entity, which functions
continuously and autonomously, in a particular environment, which may have other
agents also. By continuity and autonomy of an agent, it is meant that the agent
must be able to carry out its job in a flexible and intelligent fashion and further is
expected to adapt to the changes in its environment without requiring constant human
guidance or intervention. Ideally, an agent that functions continuously in an
environment over a long period of time would also learn from its experience. In
addition, we expect an agent, which lives in a multi-agent environment, to be able to
communicate and cooperate with them, and perhaps move from place to place in
doing so.
According to the second approach to defining agent, an agent is supposed to
possess some or all of the following properties:

ƒ Reactivity: The ability of sensing the environment and then acting accordingly.
ƒ Autonomy: The ability of moving towards its goal, changing its moves or
strategy, if required, without much human intervention.
ƒ Communicating ability: The ability to communicate with other agents and
humans.
ƒ Ability to coexist by cooperating: The ability to work in a multi-agent
environment to achieve a common goal.
ƒ Ability to adapt to a new situation: Ability to learn, change and adapt to the
situations in the world around it.
ƒ Ability to draw inferences: The ability to infer or conclude facts, which may be
useful, but are not available directly.
ƒ Temporal continuity: The ability to work over long periods of time.
ƒ Personality: Ability to impersonate or simulate someone, on whose behalf the
agent is acting.
ƒ Mobility: Ability to move from one environment to another.

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Intelligent Agents
2.3 AGENTS AND RATIONALITY

Further, a rational agent is an agent that acts in a manner that achieves best outcome
in an environment with certain outcomes. In an uncertain environment, a rational
agent through its actions attempts the best-expected outcome.

It may be noted that correct inferencing is one of the several possible mechanisms for
achieving rationality. However, sometimes a rational action is also possible without
inferencing. For example, removing hand when a very hot utensil is touched
unintentionally is an example of rationality based on reflex action instead of based on
inferencing.

We discuss the concepts of rationality and rational agent in some more detail.

Attempting to take always the correct action, possibly but not necessarily involving
logical reasoning, is only one part of being rational. Further, if a perfectly correct
action or inference is not possible then taking an approximately correct, but, optimal
action under the circumstances is a part of rationality.

Like other attributes, we need some performance measure (i.e., the criteria to judge
the performance or success in respect of the task to be performed) to judge rationality.
A good performance measure for rationality must be:

ƒ Objective in nature
ƒ It must be measurable or observable and
ƒ It must be decided by the designer of the agent keeping in mind the problem or the
set of problems for handling which the agent is designed.

In summary, rationality depends on:

ƒ The performance measure chosen to judge the agent’s activities.

ƒ The agent’s knowledge of the current environment or of the world in which it
exists. The better the knowledge of the environment, the more will be probability
of the agent taking an appropriate action.
ƒ The length of the percept sequence of the agent. In the case of a longer percept
sequence, the agent can take advantage of its earlier decisions or actions for
similar kind of situations.
ƒ The set of actions available to the agent.

From the previous discussion, we know that a rational agent should take an action,
which would correct its performance measure on the basis of its knowledge of the
world around it and the percept sequence.

By the rationality of an agent, we do not mean it to be always successful or it to be

omniscient. Rationality is concerned with the agent’s capabilities for information
gathering, exploration and learning from its environment and experience and is also
concerned with the autonomy of the agent.

2.3.1 Rationality vs. Omniscience

The basic difference between being rational and being omniscient is that
rationality deals with trying to maximize the output on the basis of current input,
environmental conditions, available actions and past experience whereas being
omniscient means having knowledge of everything, including knowledge of the future
i.e., what will be the output or outcome of its action. Obviously being omniscient is
next to impossible.
39
 Applications of Artificial
In this context, let us consider the following scenario: Sohan is going to the nearby Intelligence
grocery shop, but unfortunately when Sohan is passing through the crossing suddenly
a police party comes at that place chasing a terrorist and attempts to shoot the terrorist
but unfortunately the bullet hits Sohan and he is injured.

Now the question is: Is Sohan irrational in moving through that place. The answer is
no, because the human agent Sohan has no idea, nor is expected to have an idea, of
what is going to happen at that place in the near future. Obviously, Sohan is not
omniscient but, from this incident can not be said to be irrational.

2.3.2 Autonomy and Learning Capability of the Agent

Autonomy means the dependence of the agent own its on percepts (what it perceives
or receives from the environment through senses) rather than the prior knowledge of
its designer. In other words, an agent is autonomous if it is capable of learning from
its experience and has not to depend upon its prior knowledge which may either be not
complete or be not correct or both. Greater the autonomy more flexible and more
rational the agent is expected to be. So we can say that a rational agent should be
autonomous because it should be able to learn to compensate for the incomplete or
incorrect prior knowledge provided by the designer. In the initial stage of its
operations, the agent may not, rather should not, have complete autonomy. This is
desirable, in view of the fact that in the initial stage, the agent is yet to acquire
knowledge of the environment should use the experience and knowledge of the
designer. But, as the agent gains experience of its environment, its behavior should
become more and more independent of its prior knowledge provided to it by its
designer.

Learning means the agent can update its knowledge based on its experience and
changes in the environment, for the purpose of taking better actions in future.
Although the designer might feed some prior knowledge of the environment in the
agent but, as mentioned earlier, as the environment might change with the passage of
time, therefore, feeding complete knowledge in the agent, at the beginning of the
operations is neither possible nor desirable. Obviously, there could be some extreme
cases in which environment is static, i.e., does not change with time, but such cases
are rare. In such rare cases, however, giving complete information about the
environment may be desirable. So, in general, in order to update itself, the agent
should have the learning capability to update its knowledge with the passage of time.

2.3.3 Example (A boundary following robot)

Let us consider the first example of an agent, which is a robot that follows a
boundary wall.

The definition of the problem, to solve, which an agent is to be designed, consists in

giving details of

(i) The perception capabilities that are to be available to the agent

(ii) The actions that the agent would be able to perform
(iii) The environment in which the agent is expected to perform the task or solve the
problem.

Environment and tasks

The robot is assumed to be enclosed in a room, which is perceived as a two-

dimensional grid-space. The room is enclosed on all sides by walls high enough not to
allow the robot to escape. The room may have some immovable objects. For the
purpose of movement of the robot, the room is supposed to be divided into cells, in
40
Intelligent Agents the sense that at one time, the robot occupies only one cell and does not have its parts
spread over two or more cells. To be capable of boundary-following behavior, the
robot must be able to sense whether or not certain cells are free for it to possibly
occupy in the next move. The only action it is able to take is to move from the
currently occupied cell to any one of the unoccupied surrounding cells, e.g., to c1,
c2,….c8 as shown in the following diagram.

Outer boundary

C1 C2 C3
C8 C4
C7 C6 C5 X

LEGEND: robot Solid Unmovable

Object

Possible positions of the robot

Figure 2.1: A Boundary Following Robot

The sensory input about the surrounding cells can be represented in the form of an
8-tuple vector say <c1,c2,c3,c4,c5,c6,c7,c8> where each ci is a binary number i.e., ci
is either a 0 for representing a free cell or a 1 for representing the fact that the cell is
occupied by some object. If, at some stage, the robot is in the cell represented by X,
as shown in Figure 2.1, then the sense vector would be <0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,1>. It may be
noted that the corner and the boundary cells may not have exact eight surrounding
cells. However, for such cells, the missing neighbouring cell may be treated as
occupied. For example, for the cell y of Figure 2.1, the neighbouring cells to the left
of the cell y do not exist. However, we assume these cells exist but are occupied.
Thus, if the robot is in position Y of Figure 2.1 then the sense vector for the robot is
<1,0,0,0,0,0,1,1>.

Also, the robot performs only one type of action i.e., it can move in one of the free
cells adjacent to it. In case the robot attempts to move to a cell, which is not free, the
action will have no effect i.e., there will be no action.

On the basis of the properties of the environment in which the robot is operating, it is
the job of the designer to develop an algorithm for the process that converts
robot’s precept sequences (which in this case is the sensory input c1 to c8) into
corresponding actions. Let us divide the task of determining the action the agent
should take on the basis of the sensory inputs into two phases, viz., perception phase
and action phase.

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 Applications of Artificial
Perception Phase: Intelligence

There is an enclosed space, which we call a room. The room is thought of as divided
into cells. A cell has just enough space for the robot to be accommodated. Further, at
any time, robot, except during transition, can not lie across two cells.

ƒ Placement of the agent in some cell of the room is essentially random.

ƒ Agent is to perform boundary following.
ƒ The sensory input for the robot consists of the binary values c1, c2,…,c8 in the
eight cells adjacent to the position occupied by the robot. Because there are 8
adjacent cells, so the possible combinations of these values is 28 i.e., 256
combinations. The movement of the robot to any one of the unoccupied/free
surrounding cells depends upon the robot’s environmental conditions. For
example, if the (traffic) signal to the right is green and some cells on the right of
the cell currently occupied by the robots, are free then move to the uppermost
cell of free cells to the right. For example,

B
A C

D
if A is the cell currently occupied by the robot and the cell B is occupied by some
object, but cells C and D are free. And, further, signal on the right is green, then the
robot moves to cell C. However, if both B and C are occupied, than the robot moves
to cell D. These environmental conditions are determined in terms of what we call
features. For the current problem, let us assume that there are 4 binary valued
features of the agent, namely f1, f2, f3 and f4 and these features are used to
calculate the action to be taken by the agent.

The rules for assigning binary values to features may be assumed to be as given
below:

IF c2 = 1 OR c3 = 0 THEN f1 = 1 ELSE f1 = 0.
IF c4 = 0 OR c5 = 1 THEN f2 = 1 ELSE f2 = 0.
IF c6 = 1 OR c7 = 1 THEN f3 = 1 ELSE f3 = 0.
IF c8 = 1 OR c1 = 1 THEN f4 = 1 ELSE f4 = 0.
Action Phase:
After calculating the values of the feature set of the robot, a pre-defined function is
used to determine boundary following action of the robot (i.e., the movement to one of
the surrounding cell). In addition to specified actions determined by the features and
the pre-defined function, there may be a default action of movement to a surrounding
free cell. The default action may be executed when no action is possible.

In order to illustrate the type of possible actions, let us consider an example of

specifying the rules for different actions to be performed by the robot:

Action 1: IF f1 = 0 AND f2 = 0 AND f3 = 0 AND f4 = 0

THEN move up to the right-most free surrounding cell. If no
such cell is free then Attempt Action 3.

Action 2: IF f1 = 1 AND f2 = 0

42
Intelligent Agents THEN move topmost free surrounding cell on the right by
one cell. If no such cell is free, then stop.

Action 3: IF f2 = 1 AND f3 = 0
THEN move down to the left-most free cell. If no such cell is
free then attempt Action 2.

Action 4: IF f3 = 1 AND f4 = 0
THEN move to the bottom-most free cell on the left. If no
such surrounding cell is free then move to action 1.
We can see that the combinations of the features values serve as conditions under
which the robot would perform its actions.
Next, we enumerate below some of the possible parameters for performance measures
in case of such a simple agent.

¾ The number of times agent has to reverse its earlier courses of actions (more times
indicates lower performance).
¾ The maximum of the average of distances from the walls (the less the maximum,
higher the performance).
¾ The boundary distance traversed in particular time period (the more the distance
covered, better the performance).

In the next section, we discuss some of the commonly used terms in context of the
Agents.

Exercise 1

On the basis of the figure given below, find the sense vector of the robot if:
(a) It starts from the location L1
(b) It starts from the location
The robot can sense whether the 8 cells adjacent to it are free for it to move into
one of them. If the location of the robot is such that some of the surrounding cells
do not exist, then these cells are, assumed to exist and further assumed to be
occupied Outer boundary

C1 C2 C3
C8 C4
C7 C6 C5

L2

L1

LEGEND: Solid Unmovable

robot Object
Two possible positions
of the robot
Figure 2.2 Environment of the robot
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 Applications of Artificial
Intelligence
2.4 TASK ENVIRONMENT OF AGENTS

Task environments or problem environments are the environments, which include all
the elements involved in the problems for which agents are thought of as solutions.
Task environments will vary with every new task or problem for which an agent is
being designed. Specifying the task environment is a long process which involves
looking at different measures or parameters. Next we discuss a standard set of
measures or parameters for specifying a task environment under the heading PEAS.

2.4.1 PEAS (Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors)

For designing an agent, the first requirement is to specify the task environment to the
maximum extent possible. The task environment for an agent to solve one type of
problems, may be described by the four major parameters namely, performance
(which is actually the expected performance), environment (i.e., the world around the
agent), actuators (which include entities through which the agent may perform
actions) and sensors (which describes the different entities through which the agent
will gather information about the environment).

The four parameters may be collectively called as PEAS.

We explain these parameters further, through an example of an automated agent,

which we will preferably call automated public road transport driver. This is a much
more complex agent than the simple boundary following robot which we have
already discussed.

2.4.2 Example (An Automated Public Road Transport Driver Agent)

We describe the task environment of the agent on the basis of PEAS.

Performance Measures:

Some of the performance measures which can easily be perceived of an

automated public road transport driver would be :

ƒ Maximizing safety of passengers
ƒ Maximizing comfort of passengers
ƒ Ability to reach correct destination
ƒ Ability to minimize the time to reach the destination
ƒ Obeying traffic rules
ƒ Causing minimum discomfort or disturbance to other agents
ƒ Minimizing costs, etc.

Environment ( or the world around the agent)

We must remember that the environment or the world around the agent is extremely
uncertain or open ended. There are unlimited combinations of possibilities of the
environment situations, which such an agent could face. Let us enumerate some of the
possibilities or circumstances which an agent might face:

ƒ Variety of roads e.g., from 12-lane express-ways, freeways to dusty rural bumpy
roads; different road rules including the ones requiring left-hand drive in some
parts of the world and right-hand drive in other parts.
ƒ The degree of knowledge of various places through which and to which driving is
to be done.

44
Intelligent Agents ƒ Various kinds of passengers, including high cultured to almost ruffians etc.

ƒ All kind of other traffic possibly including heavy vehicles, ultra modern cars,
three-wheelers and even bullock carts.

Actuators:

These include the following:

ƒ Handling steering wheel, brakes, gears and accelerator

ƒ Understanding the display screen
ƒ A device or devices for all communication required

Sensors:

The agent acting as automated public road transport driver must have some way of
sensing the world around it i.e., the traffic around it, the distance between the
automobile and the automobiles ahead of it and its speed, the speeds of neighbouring
vehicles, the condition of the road, any turn ahead etc. It may use sensors like
odometer, speedometer, sensors telling the different parameters of the engine, Global
Positioning System (GPS) to understand its current location and the path ahead. Also,
there should be some sort of sensors to calculate its distance from other vehicles etc.

We must remember that the agent example the automated public road transport
driver, which we have considered above, is quite difficult to implement. However,
there are many other agents, which operate in comparatively simpler and less dynamic
environments, e.g., a game playing robot, an assembly line robot control, and an
image processing agent etc.

2.4.3 Different Types of Task Environments

Next, we discuss some of the important characteristics of the environments of the

problems which are generally considered for solution through agent technology.

• Fully observable vs. partially observable

• Static vs. dynamic
• Deterministic vs. stochastic
• Episodic vs. sequential
• Single agent vs. multi-agent

2.4.3.1 Fully Observable vs. Partially Observable Environment

If the agent knows everything about its environment or the world in which it exists,
through its sensors, then we say that the environment is fully observable. It would be
quite convenient for the agent if the environment is a fully observable one because the
agent will have a wholesome idea of what all is happening around before taking any
action. The agent in a fully observable environment will have a complete idea of the
world around it at all times and hence it need not maintain an internal state to
remember and store what is going around it. Fully observable environments are
found rarely in reality.

A partially observable environment is that in which the agent can sense some of the
aspects or features of the world around it, but not all because of any number of
reasons including the limitations of its sensors. Normally, there are greater chances of
finding a partially observable environment in reality. In the first example, viz., a
boundary following robot, which we have studied, the agent or robot has a limited
45
 Applications of Artificial
view of the environment around it, i.e., the agent has information only about the eight Intelligence
cells immediately adjacent to it in respect of whether each of these is occupied or free.
It has no idea of how many non-moving objects are there within the room. Nor, it has
an idea of its distance from the boundary wall. Also, in the second example, viz., an
automated public road transport driver, the driver or the agent has a very
restricted idea of the environment around it. It operates in a very dynamic
environment, i.e., an environment that changes very frequently. Further, it has no idea
of the number of vehicles and their positions on the road, the action the driver of the
vehicle ahead is expected to take, the location of various potholes it is going to face in
the next one kilometer and so on. So we can see that in both of these examples, the
environment is partially observable.

2.4.3.2 Static vs. Dynamic Environment

Static environment means an environment which does not change while the agent is
operating. Implementing an agent in a static environment is relatively very simple, as
the agent does not have to keep track of the changes in the environment around it. So
the time taken by an agent to perform its operations has no effect on the environment
because the environment is static. The task environment of the “boundary
following robot” is static because no changes are possible in the environment around
it, irrespective of how long the robot might operate. Similarly, the environment of an
agent solving a crossword puzzle is static.

A dynamic environment on the other hand may change with time on its own or
because of the agent’s actions. Implementing an agent in a dynamic environment is
quite complex as the agent has to keep track of the changing environment around it.
The task environment of the “Automated public road transport driver” is an
example of a dynamic environment because the whole environment around the
agent keeps on changing continuously.

In case an environment does not change by itself but an agent’s performance changes
the environment, then the environment is said to be semi-dynamic.

2.4.3.3 Deterministic vs. Stochastic Environment

A deterministic environment means that the current state and the current set of
actions performed by the agent will completely determine the next state of the agent’s
environment otherwise the environment is said to be stochastic. The decision in
respect of an environment being stochastic or deterministic, is taken from the point of
view of the agent. If the environment is simple and fully observable then there are
greater chances of its being deterministic. However, if the environment is partially
observable and complex then it may be stochastic to the agent. For example, the
boundary following robot exists in a deterministic environment whereas an automated
road transport driver agent exists in a stochastic environment. In the later case, the
agent has no prior knowledge and also it cannot predict the behavior of the traffic
around it.

2.4.3.4 Episodic vs. Sequential Environment

In an episodic environment, the agent’s experience is divided into episodes. An

agent’s actions during an episode depend only on that episode because subsequent
episodes do not depend on previous episodes. For example, an agent checking the
tickets of persons who want to enter the cinema hall, works in an episodic
environment, as the process of checking the tickets of every new person is an episode
which is independent of the previous episode i.e., checking the ticket of the previous
person, and also the current action taken by the ticket checking agent does not effect
the next action to be taken in this regard. Also a robot while checking the seals on the
46
Intelligent Agents bottles on an assembly line, also works in an episodic environment as checking the
seal of every new bottle is a new and independent episode.

In sequential environments there are no episodes and the previous actions could
affect the current decision or action and further, the current action could effect
the future actions or decisions. The task environment of “An automated public road
transport driver” is an example of a sequential environment as any decision taken or
action performed by the driver agent may have long consequences.

Comparatively, working in an episodic environment is much simpler for an agent than

in a sequential environment, because, in the former case, previous actions do not
effect the current actions of the agent. Also, while taking current action, the agent
need not think of its future effects.

2.4.3.5 Single-agent vs. Multi-agent Environment

A single-agent environment is the simplest possible environment as the agent is the

only active entity in the whole environment and it does not have to synchronize with
the actions or activities of any other agent. Some of the examples of a single-agent
environment are boundary following robot, a crossword puzzle solving agent etc.

If there is a possibility of other agents also existing in addition to the agent being
described then the task environment is said to be multi-agent environment. In a
multi-agent environment, the scenario becomes quite complex as the agent has to keep
track of the behavior and the actions of the other agents also. There can be two general
scenarios, one in which all the agents are working together to achieve some common
goal, i.e., to perform a collective action. Such a type of environment is called
cooperative multi-agent environment.

Also, it may happen that all or some of the agents existing in the environment are
competing with each other to achieve something (for example, in a tic-tac-toe game or
in a game of chess both of which are two agent games, each player tries to win by
trying to predict the possible moves of the other agent), such an environment is called
competitive multi-agent environment.

An important issue in a multi-agent environment is to determine whether other

entities existing in the environment have to be treated as passive objects or agents.
Normally, if an entity tries to optimize its performance which have an effect on the
agent in question then that entity is treated as an agent, but there is no fixed rule to
decide this fact. Also, another very important issue in a multi-agent environment is
to decide how the communication between different agents will occur.

2.4.3.6 Discrete vs. Continuous Environment

The word discrete and continuous are related to the way time is treated, i.e., whether
time is divided into slots (i.e., discrete quantities) or it is treated as a continuous
quantity (continuous).

For example, the task environment of a “boundary following robot” or a “chess

playing agent” is a discrete environment because there are finite number of discrete
states in which an agent may find itself. On the other hand, an automated public
transport driver agent’s environment is a continuous one, because, the actions of the
agent itself as well as the environment around it are changing continuously. In the
case of a driver agent, the values received through the sensor may be at discrete
intervals but generally the values are received so frequently that practically the
received values are treated as a stream of continuous data.
47
 Applications of Artificial
2.4.4 Some Examples of Task Environments Intelligence

(i) Planning crossword puzzle

(ii) Medical diagnosis
(iii) Playing tic-tac-toe
(iv) Playing chess
(v) Driving automobile

2.4.4.1 Crossword Puzzle

As we have already discussed the environment is single agent and static which makes
it simple as there are no other players, i.e., agents and the environment does not
change. But the environment is sequential in nature, as the current decision will affect
all the future decisions also. On the simpler side, the environment of a crossword
puzzle is fully observable as it does not require remembering of some facts or
decisions taken earlier and also the environment is deterministic as the next state of
the environment fully depends on the current state and the current action taken by the
agent. Time can be divided into discrete quanta between moves and so we can say
that the environment is discrete in nature.

2.4.2.2 Medical Diagnosis

The first problem in the task environment of an agent performing a medical diagnosis
is to decide whether the environment is to be treated as a single-agent or multi-agent
one. If the other entities like the patients or staff members also have to be viewed as
agents (obviously based on whether they are trying to maximize some performance
measure e.g., Profitability) then it will be a multi-agent environment otherwise it will
be a single agent environment. To keep the discussion simple, in this case, let us
choose the environment as a single agent one.

We can very well perceive that the task environment is partially observable as all the
facts and information needed may not be available readily and hence, need to be
remembered or retrieved. The environment is stochastic in nature, as the next state of
the environment may not be fully determined only by the current state and current
action. Diagnosing a disease is stochastic rather than deterministic.

Also the task environment is partially episodic in nature and partially sequential. The
environment is episodic because, each patient is diagnosed, irrespective of the
diagnoses of earlier patients. The environment is sequential, in view of the fact that
for a particular patient, earlier treatment decisions are also taken into consideration in
deciding further treatment. Furthermore, the environment may be treated as
continuous as there seems to be no benefit of dividing the time in discrete slots.

2.4.4.3 Playing Tic-tac-toe

As it is a two-player game so obviously the environment is multi-agent. Moreover,

both the players try to maximize their chances of winning, so it is a competitive one.
Further, the environment is a fully observable environment. The environment here is
neither fully deterministic nor stochastic as the environment is deterministic except
for one fact that action of the other agent is unpredictable, so the environment is
strategic. Obviously the environment is semi-dynamic as the environment itself does
not change but the agents performance score does change with time. As time may be
divided into discrete slots between moves so the environment may be viewed as
discrete. Further, the current decisions while making a move affect all the future
decisions also, therefore, the environment is sequential also.

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Intelligent Agents 2.4.4.4 Playing Chess

The environment of a chess-playing agent is also the same as is that of an agent-

playing tic-tac-toe. It is also a two-player i.e., multi-agent game. Some people treat
the environment as fully observable but actually for some of the rules require
remembering the game history so the full environment is not observable from the
current state of the chess board. Thus, strictly speaking the environment is
partially-observable. Further, using the same arguments as given in case of tic-tac-
toe, the environment is strategic, semi-dynamic, discrete and sequential in nature.

2.4.4.5 Automobile Driver Agent

We have already discussed one subclass of a general driver agent in detail, viz., an
automated public road transport driver which may include a bus driver, taxi driver or
auto driver etc. A driver agent might also be christened as a cruise control agent,
which may include other types of transport like water transport or air transport also
with some variations in their environments.

Coming back to an automated public road transport driver, we can see that this is one
of the most complex environments discussed so far. So the environment is multi-
agent and partially observable as it is not possible to see and assume what all other
agents i.e., other drivers are doing or thinking. Also the environment is fully dynamic,
as it is changing all the time as the location of the agent changes and also the locations
of the other agents change. The environment is stochastic in nature as anything
unpredictable can happen, which may not be perceived exactly as a result of the
current state and the actions of various agents. The environment is sequential as any
decision taken by the driver might affect or change the whole future course of actions.
Also the time is continuous in nature although the sensors of the driver agent might
work in discrete mode.

2.5 THE STRUCTURE OF AGENTS

There are two parts of an agent or its structure:

• A (hardware) device with sensors and actuators in which that agent will reside,
called the architecture of the agent.
• An agent program that will convert or map the percepts in to actions.

Also, the agent program and its architecture are related in the sense that for a different
agent architecture a different type of agent program is required and vice-versa. For
example, in case of a boundary following robot, if the robot does not have the
capability of sensing adjacent cells to the right, then the agent program for the robot
has to be changed.

Next, we discuss different categories of agents, which are differentiated from each
other on the basis of their agent programs. Capability to write efficient agent programs
is the key to the success for developing efficient rational agents. Although the table
driven approach (in which an agent acts on the basis of the set of all possible percepts
by storing these percepts in tables) to design agents is possible yet the approach of
developing equivalent agent programs is found much more efficient.

Next we discuss some of the general categories of agents based on their agents
programs:

ƒ SR (Simple Reflex) agents

ƒ Model Based reflex agents
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 Applications of Artificial
ƒ Goal-based agents Intelligence
ƒ Utility based agents

2.5.1 Simple Reflex (SR) Agents

These are the agents or machines that have no internal state (i.e., the don’t remember
anything) and simply react to the current percepts in their environments. An
interesting set of agents can be built, the behaviour of the agents in which can be
captured in the form of a simple set of functions of their sensory inputs. One of the
earliest implemented agent of this category was called Machina Speculatrix. This
was a device with wheels, motor, photo cells and vacuum tubes and was designed to
move in the direction of light of less intensity and was designed to avoid the direction
of the bright light. A boundary following robot is also an SR agent. For an
automobile-driving agent also, some aspects of its behavior like applying brakes
immediately on observing either the vehicle immediately ahead applying brakes or a
human being coming just in front of the automobile suddenly, show the simple reflex
capability of the agent. Such a simple reflex action in the agent program of the agent
can be implemented with the help of simple condition-action rules.

For example : IF a human being comes in front of the automobile suddenly

THEN apply breaks immediately.

Although implementation of SR agents is simple yet on the negative side this type of
agents have very limited intelligence because they do not store or remember
anything. As a consequence they cannot make use of any previous experience. In
summary, they do not learn. Also they are capable of operating correctly only if
the environment is fully observable.

Figure 2.3: SR (Simple Reflex) Agent

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Intelligent Agents 2.5.2 Model Based Reflex agents

Simple Reflex agents are not capable of handling task environments that are not fully
observable. In order to handle such environments properly, in addition to reflex
capabilities, the agent should, maintain some sort of internal state in the form of a
function of the sequence of percepts recovered up to the time of action by the agent.
Using the percept sequence, the internal state is determined in such a manner that it
reflects some of the aspects of the unobservable environment. Further, in order to
reflect properly the unobserved environment, the agent is expected to have a model of
the task environment encoded in the agent’s program, where the model has the
knowledge about–

(i) the process by which the task environment evolves independent of the agent and
(ii) effects of the actions of the agent have on the environment.

Thus, in order to handle properly the partial observability of the environment, the
agent should have a model of the task environment in addition to reflex capabilities.
Such agents are called Model-based Reflex Agents.

Percepts
T
AGENT Sensors A
S
Internal State
The current K
state of the
world
The affect of
agent’s actions E
N
V
Rules about Logic for I
evolution of the action R
world of the agent
O
N
Action Rules Actions M
Actuators E
N
T

A Model based Reflex agent

Figure 2.4: A Model based Relfex agent

2.5.3 Goal Based Agents

In order to design appropriate agent for a particular type of task, we know the nature
of the task environment plays an important role. Also, it is desirable that the
complexity of the agent should be minimum and just sufficient to handle the task in a
particular environment. In this regard, first we discussed the simplest type of agents,
51
 Applications of Artificial
viz., Simple Reflex Agents. The action of this type of agent is decided by the current Intelligence
precept only. Next, we discussed the Model-Based Reflex Agents, for which an action
is decided by taking into consideration not only the latest precept, but the whole
precept history summarized in the form of internal state. Also, action for this type of
agent is also decided by taking into consideration the knowledge of the task
environment, represented by a model of the environment and encoded into the agent’s
program. However, in respect of a number of tasks, even this much knowledge may
not be sufficient for appropriate action. For example, when we are going from city A
to city B, in order to take appropriate action, it is not enough to know the summary of
actions and path which has taken us to some city C between A and B. We also have to
remember the goal of reaching to city B.

Goal based agents are driven by the goal they want to achieve, i.e., their actions are
based on the information regarding their goal, in addition to, of course, other
information in the current state. This goal information is also a part of the current
state description and it describes everything that is desirable to achieve the goal. As
mentioned earlier, an example of a goal-based agent is an agent that is required to find
the path to reach a city. In such a case, if the agent is an automobile driver agent, and
if the road is splitting ahead into two roads then the agent has to decide which way to
go to achieve its goal of reaching its destination. Further, if there is a crossing ahead
then the agent has to decide, whether to go straight, to go to the left or to go to the
right. In order to achieve its goal, the agent needs some information regarding the goal
which describes the desirable events and situations to reach the goal. The agent
program would then use this goal information to decide the set of actions to take in
order to reach its goal.

Another desirable capability which a good goal based agent should have is that if an
agent finds that a part of the sequence of the previous steps has taken the agent away
from its goal then it should be able to retract and start its actions from a point which
may take the agent toward the goal.

In order to take appropriate action, decision-making process in goal-based agents may

be simple or quite complex depending on the problem. Also, the decision-making
required by the agents of this kind needs some sort of looking into the future. For
example, it may analyze the possible outcome of a particular action before it actually
performs that action. In other words, we can say that the agent would perform some
sort of reasoning of if-then-else type, e.g., an automobile driver agent having one of
its goals as not to hit any vehicle in front of it, when finds the vehicle immediately
ahead of it slowing down may not apply brakes with full force and in stead may apply
brakes slowly so that the vehicles following it may not hit it.

As the goal-based agents may have to reason before they take an action, these
agents might be slower than other types of agents but will be more flexible in taking
actions as their decisions are based on the acquired knowledge which can be modified
also. Hence, as compared to SR agents which may require rewriting of all the
condition-action rules in case of change in the environment, the goal-based agents can
adapt easily when there is any change in its goal.

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Intelligent Agents

Percepts
T
AGENT Sensors A
Internal State
S
The current K
state of the
world
The affect of
agent’s actions E
N
The new state The action
V
Rules about after the to be I
the evolution action taken
of the world of
R
the agent O
N
Goals to be M
achieved Actuators Actions E
N
T

A Goal based agent

Figure 2.5: A Goal based agent

2.5.4 Utility Based Agents

Goal based agent’s success or failure is judged in terms of its capability for
achieving or not achieving its goal. A goal-based agent, for a given pair of
environment state and possible input, only knows whether the pair will lead to the
goal state or not. Such an agent will not be able to decide in which direction to
proceed when there are more than one conflicting goals. Also, in a goal-based agent,
there is no concept of partial success or somewhat satisfactory success. Further, if
there are more than one methods of achieving a goal, then no mechanism is
incorporated in a Goal-based agent of choosing or finding the method which is faster
and more efficient one, out of the available ones, to reach its goal.

A more general way to judge the success or happiness of an agent may be, through
assigning to each state a number as an approximate measure of its success in reaching
the goal from the state. In case, the agent is embedded with such a capability of
assigning such numbers to states, then it can choose, out of the reachable states in the
next move, the state with the highest assigned number, out of the numbers assigned to
various reachable states, indicating possibly the best chance of reaching the goal.

It will allow the goal to be achieved more efficiently. Such an agent will be more
useful, i.e. will have more utility. A utility-based agent uses a utility function, which
maps each of the world states of the agent to some degree of success. If it is possible
53
 Applications of Artificial
to define the utility function accurately, then the agent will be able to reach the goal Intelligence
quite efficiently. Also, a utility-based agent is able to make decisions in case of
conflicting goals, generally choosing the goal with higher success rating or value.
Further, in environments with multiple goals, the utility-based agent quite likely
chooses the goal with least cost or higher utility goal out of multiple goals.

Percepts
T
AGENT Sensors A
Internal State S
The current K
state
The affect of
actions
The new state
consequent
E
How the world upon an action N
evolves
independently V
The degree of I
success R
achieved The desirable
consequent action
O
Utility upon an N
action
M
E
Actuators Actions
N
T

A Utility based agent

Figure 2.6: A Utility based agent

2.5.5 Learning Agents

It is not possible to encode all the knowledge in advance, required by a rational agent
for optimal performance during its lifetime. This is specially true of the real life, and
not just theoretical, environments. These environments are dynamic in the sense that
the environmental conditions change, not only due to the actions of the agents under
considerations, but due to other environmental factors also. For example, all of a
sudden a pedestrian comes just in front of the moving vehicle, even when there is
green signal for the vehicle. In a multi-agent environment, all the possible decisions
and actions an agent is required to take, are generally unpredictable in view of the
decisions taken and actions performed simultaneously by other agents. Hence, the
ability of an agent to succeed in an uncertain and unknown environment depends
on its learning capability i.e., its capability to change approximately its knowledge
of the environment. For an agent with learning capability, some initial knowledge is
coded in the agent program and after the agent starts operating, it learns from its
actions the evolving environment, the actions of its competitors or adversaries etc. so
as to improve its performance in ever-changing environment. If approximate learning
component is incorporated in the agent, then the knowledge of the agent gradually

54
Intelligent Agents increases after each action starting from its initial knowledge which was manually
coded into it at the start.

Conceptually the learning agent consists of four components:

(i) Learning Component: It is the component of the agent, which on the basis of the
percepts and the feedback from the environment, gradually improves the
performance of the agent.

(ii) Performance Component: It is the component from which all actions originate on
the basis of external percepts and the knowledge provided by the learning
component.

The design of learning component and the design of performance element are
very much related to each other because a learning component is of no use unless
the performance component can be designed to convert the newly acquired knowledge
into better useful actions.

(iii) Critic Component: This component finds out how well the agent is doing with
respect to a certain fixed performance standard and it is also responsible for any
future modifications in the performance component. The critic is necessary to
judge the agent’s success with respect to the chosen performance standard,
specially in a dynamic environment. For example, in order to check whether a
certain job is accomplished, the critic will not depend on external percepts only
but it will also compare the current state to the state, which indicates the
completion of that task.

(iv) Problem Generator Component: This component is responsible for suggesting

actions (some of which may not be optimal) in order to gain some fresh and
innovative experiences. Thus, this component allows the agent to experiment a
little by traversing sometimes uncharted territories by choosing some new and
suboptimal actions. This may be useful, because the actions which may seem
suboptimal in a short run, may turn out to be much better in the long run.
In the case of an automobile driver agent, this agent would be of little use if it does
not have learning capability, as the environment in which it has to operate is totally
dynamic and unpredictable in nature. Once the automobile driver agent starts
operating, it keeps on learning from its experiences, both positive and negative. If
faced with a totally new and previously unknown situation, e.g., encountering a
vehicle coming from the opposite direction on a one-way road, the problem generator
component of the driver agent might suggest some innovative action to tackle this new
situation. Moreover, the learning becomes more difficult in the case of an automobile
driver agent, because the environment is only partially observable.

55
 Applications of Artificial
Fixed Performance Standard Intelligence

T
Percepts A
AGENT Sensors S
Critic Component K

feedback
E
Indicate changes N
Performance
Learning Element
V
Component knowledge I
R
O
learning goals
N
Actions M
Problem
Generator Actuators E
Component N
T

A Learning agent

Figure 2.7: A Learning agent

2.6 Different Forms of Learning in Agents

The purpose of embedding learning capability in an agent is that it should not depend
totally on the knowledge initially encoded in it and on the external percepts for its
actions. The agent learns by evaluating its own decisions and/or making observations
of new situations it encounters in the ever-changing environment.

There may be various criteria for developing learning taxonomies. The criteria may be
based on –
• The type of knowledge learnt, e.g., concepts, problem-solving or game playing,
• The type of representation used, e.g., predicate calculus, rules or frames,
• The area of application, e.g., medical diagnosis, scheduling or prediction.

We mention below another classification, which is independent of the representation

method and knowledge representation used. Under this classification scheme, there
are five learning methods:
(i) Rote learning or memorization
(ii) Learning through instruction
(iii) Learning by analogy
(iv) Learning by induction and
(v) Learning by deduction.

56
Intelligent Agents Rote learning is the simplest form of learning, which involves least amount of
inferencing. In this form of learning, the knowledge is simply copied in the knowledge
base. This is the learning, which is involved in memorizing multiplication tables.

Next type of learning is learning through instruction. This type of learning involves
more inferencing because the knowledge in order to be operational should be
integrated in the existing knowledge base. This is the type of learning that is involved
in the learning of a pupil from a teacher.

Learning by analogy involves development of new concepts through already known

similar concepts. This type of learning is commonly adopted in textbooks, where
some example problems are solved in the text and then exercises based on these
solved examples are given to students to solve. Also, this type of learning is involved
when, on the basis of experience of driving light vehicles, one attempts to drive heavy
vehicles.

Learning by induction is the most frequently used form of learning employed by

human being. This is a form of learning which involves inductive reasoning ⎯ a form
of reasoning under which a conclusion is drawn on the basis of a large number of
positive examples. For example, after seeing a large number of cows, we conclude a
cow has four legs, white colour, two horns symmetrically placed on the head etc.
Inductive reasoning, though usually leads to correct conclusions, yet the conclusions
may not be irrefutable.

For instance, in the case of the concept of cow as discussed above, we may find a
black cow, or we may find a three-legged cow who has lost one leg in an accident or a
single-horn cow.

Finally, we discuss deductive learning, which is based on deductive inference ⎯ an

irrefutable form of reasoning. By irrefutable form of reasoning we mean that the
conclusion arrived at through deductive (i.e., any irrefutable) reasoning process is
always correct, if the hypotheses (or given facts) are correct. This is the form of
reasoning which is dominantly applied in Mathematics.

Inductive learning occupies an important place in designing the learning component of

an agent. The learning in an agent is based on–

• The subject matter of learning, e.g., concepts, problem-solving or game playing

etc.
• The representation used, predicate calculus, frame or script etc.
• The critic, which gives the feedback about the overall health of the agent.

Learning based on feedback is normally categorized as:

• Supervised learning
• Unsupervised learning
• Reinforcement Learning.

Supervised Learning: It involves a learning function from the given examples of its
inputs and outputs. Some of the examples of this type of learning are:

• Generating useful properties of the world around from the percepts

• Mapping from conditions regarding the current state to actions
• Gathering information about the way world evolves.

Unsupervised Learning: In this type of learning, the pair of inputs and corresponding
expected outputs are not available. Hence, the learning system, on its own, has to find
57
 Applications of Artificial
relevant properties from the otherwise unknown objects. For example, finding shortest Intelligence
path, without any prior knowledge, between two cities in a totally unknown country.

Reinforcement (Rewards) Learning: In many problems, the task or the problem is

only realized, but cannot be stated. Further, the task may be an ongoing one. The user
expresses his or her satisfaction or dissatisfaction regarding the performance of the
agent by occasionally giving the agent positive or negative rewards (i.e.,
reinforcements). The job of the agent is to maximize the amount of reward ( i.e.,
reinforcement) it receives. In case of a simple goal achieving problem, the agent can
be rewarded positively when it achieves the goal and punished every time it fails to do
so.

In this kind of task environment, an action policy is needed to maximize reward. But
sometimes in case of ongoing and non-terminating tasks the future reward might be
infinite, so it is difficult to decide how to maximize it. In such a scenario, a method of
progressing ahead is to discount future rewards beyond a certain factor. i.e., the agent
may prefer rewards in the immediate future to those in the distant future.

Learning action policies in environments in which rewards depend on a sequence of

earlier actions is called delayed-reinforcement learning.

2.7 SUMMARY

In this unit, the concept of ‘Intelligent Agent’ is introduced and further various issues
about intelligent agents are discussed. Some definitions in this context are given in
section 2.2. The next section discusses the concept of rationality in context of agents.
Section 2.4 discusses various types of task environments for agents. Next section
discusses structure of an agent. Finally, section 2.6 discusses various forms of learning
in an agent.

2.8 SOLUTIONS/ANSWERS

Ex. 1) For L1
The left upper cell is unoccupied, therefore, C1=0, C2=0=C3=C4 and C8=0
However, as C5, C6 and C7 do not exist hence are assumed to be occupied.
Thus, the sense-vector is (0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0)

For L2
C1=1=C8 and C2=C3=C4=C5=C6=C7=0
Thus, the sense-vector is (1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1)

2.9 FURTHER READING

1. Russell S. & Norvig P, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (Second

Edition), (Pearson Education, 2003).

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