14CS720 - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

(Slot B)

Lecture 15: Rule Based System – RETE graph

Dr. M. Suguna
Assistant Professor, CSE Dept., TCE
mscse@tce.edu
  Knowledge Representation
 If-Then Rules
 Production Systems
 Forward Chaining
 Backward Chaining
 Rule Based System

COs mapped: CO5 - Construct knowledge representations using logic to facilitate

inference in the given problem domain
 IF… THEN Rules can be used to represent knowledge
 IF it rains, then you will get wet
 Rules can also be used for recommendations
 IF it rains, then you should wear a coat
 Production system - uses knowledge in the form of rules to provide
diagnoses or advice on the basis of input data.
 Parts
 Database of rules (knowledge base)
 Database of facts
 Inference engine which reasons about the facts using the rules
 Works from a set of facts and rules towards a set of conclusions,
diagnoses or recommendations.
 When a fact matches the antecedent of a rule
 Rule fires
 Conclusion added to facts
 Use backward chaining when proving a particular conclusion
 Works back from a conclusion towards the original facts.
 When a conclusion matches the conclusion of a rule in the database,
the antecedents of the rule are compared with facts in the database.
 Problem: more than one rule fires at once
 Conflict resolution strategy decides which conclusions to use
 Give rules priorities and to use the conclusion that has the highest priority
 Apply the rule with the longest antecedent
 Apply the rule that was most recently added to the database
 IF patient has pain THEN  IF patient has pain AND patient is
prescribe pain killers (priority 10) over 60
 IF patient has chest pain AND patient has a history of heart
THEN treat for heart disease conditions
(priority 100) THEN take to emergency room
 The rules that determine the conflict resolution strategy are called
meta rules.
 Meta rules define knowledge about how the system will work.
 For example, meta rules might define that knowledge from Expert A
is to be trusted more than knowledge from Expert B.
 Meta rules are treated by the system like normal rules, but are given
higher priority.
Rules Facts Facts
Rules
Rule fired
1. AΛB→C 1. A triggered
2. A→D 2. B A,B,F
3. CΛD→E 3. F
4. BΛEΛF→G Goal
5. AΛE→H  H
6. DΛEΛH→I
Rules Facts Facts Goals
Matching
1. AΛB→C 1. A Rules
2. A→D 2. B A,B,F
3. CΛD→E 3. F
4. BΛEΛF→G Goal
5. AΛE→H  H
6. DΛEΛH→I
 Expert knowledge derived from
human experts
 Purpose
Diagnose illnesses
Provide recommendations
Solve other problems
Knowledge base:
database of rules (domain knowledge)
Explanation system:
explains the decisions the system makes
User Interface:
the means by which the user interacts with the expert system
Knowledge base editor:
allows the user to edit the information in the knowledge base

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 The part of an expert system that does not contain any domain
specific or case specific knowledge is the expert system shell.
 A single expert system shell can be used to build a number of
different expert systems.
 An example of an expert system shell is CLIPS.
 INFERENCE
WORKING ENGINE
MEMORY

PATTERN EXECUTION
MATCHER ENGINE
RULE
BASE
AGENDA
 RBS Inference Cycle
 Match  Conflict Set (CS)
 Select
 Act (Execute)

 RBS strategy
 Rule chaining direction: forward, backward
 Rule selection from CS

 Computational effort
 Match – 80-90%
Large computational requirement to perfrom match of LHS
– determine if all instantiations of rules are satisfied by the content
of the WM (Working Memory)

O(comparison to check the satisfaction of a rule) = |WM||CE|

|WM| - no of WMEs (Working Memory Elements)
|CE| - number of condition elements in a rule
 The Rete algorithm was designed by Charles Forgy of Carnegie
Mellon University - first in 1974, and later in his 1979 Ph.D. thesis and
a 1982 paper
 The Rete algorithm compiles the LHS of the production rules into a
discrimination network
 The network is in the form of an augmented dataflow network

 Changes to WM - input to the network

 The network reports changes to the CS - output of the network

 A rete is a directed, acyclic, rooted graph (a tree)
 A path from the root node to a leaf represents the left hand side of a rule
 Each node stores details of which facts have been matched so far
 As facts are changed, the changes are propagated through the tree
 This makes an efficient way for expert systems to deal with environments
which change often
 The net encodes the condition parts (IF-parts) of the rules
The input are the changes of the working memory (i.e. new elements
or deleted elements. Modification of elements is simulated by first
delete then add modified version)
The output is the conflict set (i.e., the applicable rules)
Find bindings for ?x & ?y so that rule applicable
conflict set
 Facts

 Patterns

 Rules
RETE Graph
(defrule show-act WM
(a ?x) (a 1)
(b ?x ?y) (b 1 2) (b 2 3) (b 2 4)
(c ?y ?z) (c 3) (c 2)
=> …
show-act

a c select
b

a 1 b 1 2 c 3 Resulting relations
b 2 3 c 2 (alpha memories)
b 2 4
Join x

a 1 b 1 2
Intermediate partial result
(beta memories)

Join y

a 1 b 1 2 c 2

Changes to conflict set

Activity of the RETE Match during an Addition
+ a 2

a c select
b

a 1 b 1 2 c 3 Resulting relations
+ a 2 b 2 3 c 2 (alpha memories)
b 2 4
Join x

a 1 b 1 2
Intermediate partial result
(beta memories)
+ a 2 b 2 3
+ a 2 b 2 4

Join y
(defrule show-act
a 1 b 1 2 c 2 (a ?x)
(b ?x ?y)
+ a 2 b 2 3 c 3 (c ?y ?z)
=> …
Changes to conflict set
Activity of the RETE Match during a Deletion
- a 2

a c select
b

a 1 b 1 2 c 3 Resulting relations
- a 2 b 2 3 c 2 (alpha memories)
b 2 4
Join x

a 1 b 1 2
Intermediate partial result
(beta memories)
- a 2 b 2 3
- a 2 b 2 4

Join y
(defrule show-act
a 1 b 1 2 c 2 (a ?x)
(b ?x ?y)
- a 2 b 2 3 c 3 (c ?y ?z)
=> …
Changes to conflict set
Given the facts and Rules Rules:
form the RETE graph

Facts:
PROs
 Sufficient state is maintained so that the comparison of 2 WMEs on two
different cycles is minimized
 Similar rules will compile to similar networks
CONs
 Every time a WME is removed, the same sequence that occurred during
addition must be performed and the stored state unwound
 A beta-memory may contain the full Cartesian product of its two-input
memories – size combinatorially explosive
 To maintain beta-memories, the join operation must be performed in a fixed
order, determined statically at compile time
 Takes knowledge from experts and inputs it into the expert system
 Usually choose which expert system shell to use
 Responsible for entering meta-rules
  If…Then Rules
 Forward chaining
 Backward chaining
 Rule Based System (RBS)
 RETE graph
 Examples for RETE graph

Next lecture
 Game Planning
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