UNIT-3

Knowledge-Based Agent in Artificial intelligence

o An intelligent agent needs knowledge about the real world for taking decisions
and reasoning to act efficiently.
o Knowledge-based agents are those agents who have the capability of maintaining an
internal state of knowledge, reason over that knowledge, update their knowledge
after observations and take actions. These agents can represent the world with
some formal representation and act intelligently.
o Knowledge-based agents are composed of two main parts:
o Knowledge-base and
o Inference system.
A knowledge-based agent must able to do the following:
o An agent should be able to represent states, actions, etc.
o An agent Should be able to incorporate new precepts
o An agent can update the internal representation of the world
o An agent can deduce the internal representation of the world
o An agent can deduce appropriate actions.
The architecture of knowledge-based agent:
The above diagram is representing a generalized architecture for a knowledge-based agent.
The knowledge-based agent (KBA) take input from the environment by perceiving the
environment. The input is taken by the inference engine of the agent and which also
communicate with KB to decide as per the knowledge store in KB. The learning element of
KBA regularly updates the KB by learning new knowledge.
Knowledge base: Knowledge-base is a central component of a knowledge-based agent, it is
also known as KB. It is a collection of sentences (here 'sentence' is a technical term and it is
not identical to sentence in English). These sentences are expressed in a language which is
called a knowledge representation language. The Knowledge-base of KBA stores fact about
the world.

What is knowledge representation?

Humans are best at understanding, reasoning, and interpreting knowledge. Human knows
things, which is knowledge and as per their knowledge they perform various actions in the
real world. But how machines do all these things comes under knowledge representation
and reasoning. Hence we can describe Knowledge representation as following:

o Knowledge representation and reasoning (KR, KRR) is the part of Artificial

intelligence which concerned with AI agents thinking and how thinking contributes to
intelligent behavior of agents.

o It is responsible for representing information about the real world so that a computer
can understand and can utilize this knowledge to solve the complex real world
problems such as diagnosis a medical condition or communicating with humans in
natural language.

o It is also a way which describes how we can represent knowledge in artificial

intelligence. Knowledge representation is not just storing data into some database, but
it also enables an intelligent machine to learn from that knowledge and experiences so
that it can behave intelligently like a human.

What to Represent:

Following are the kind of knowledge which needs to be represented in AI systems:

o Object: All the facts about objects in our world domain. E.g., Guitars contains
strings, trumpets are brass instruments.

o Events: Events are the actions which occur in our world.

o Performance: It describe behavior which involves knowledge about how to do

things.
 o Meta-knowledge: It is knowledge about what we know.

o Facts: Facts are the truths about the real world and what we represent.

o Knowledge-Base: The central component of the knowledge-based agents is the

knowledge base. It is represented as KB. The Knowledgebase is a group of the
Sentences (Here, sentences are used as a technical term and not identical with the
English language).
Knowledge: Knowledge is awareness or familiarity gained by experiences of facts, data, and
situations.

Techniques of knowledge representation

There are mainly four ways of knowledge representation which are given as follows:

1. Logical Representation
2. Semantic Network Representation
3. Frame Representation
4. Production Rules

1. Logical Representation

Logical representation is a language with some concrete rules which deals with propositions
and has no ambiguity in representation. Logical representation means drawing a conclusion
based on various conditions. This representation lays down some important communication
rules. It consists of precisely defined syntax and semantics which supports the sound
inference. Each sentence can be translated into logics using syntax and semantics.

Syntax:
 o Syntaxes are the rules which decide how we can construct legal sentences in the logic.

o It determines which symbol we can use in knowledge representation.

o How to write those symbols.

Semantics:

o Semantics are the rules by which we can interpret the sentence in the logic.

o Semantic also involves assigning a meaning to each sentence.

Logical representation can be categorised into mainly two logics:

1. Propositional Logics
2. Predicate logics

Note: We will discuss Prepositional Logics and Predicate logics in later chapters.

Advantages of logical representation:

1. Logical representation enables us to do logical reasoning.

2. Logical representation is the basis for the programming languages.

Disadvantages of logical Representation:

1. Logical representations have some restrictions and are challenging to work with.
2. Logical representation technique may not be very natural, and inference may not be so
efficient.

2. Semantic Network Representation

Semantic networks are alternative of predicate logic for knowledge representation. In

Semantic networks, we can represent our knowledge in the form of graphical networks. This
network consists of nodes representing objects and arcs which describe the relationship
between those objects. Semantic networks can categorize the object in different forms and
can also link those objects. Semantic networks are easy to understand and can be easily
extended.

This representation consist of mainly two types of relations:

1. IS-A relation (Inheritance)

2. Kind-of-relation

Example: Following are some statements which we need to represent in the form of nodes
and arcs.

Statements:
 1. Jerry is a cat.
2. Jerry is a mammal
3. Jerry is owned by Priya.
4. Jerry is brown colored.
5. All Mammals are animal.

n the above diagram, we have represented the different type of knowledge in the form of
nodes and arcs. Each object is connected with another object by some relation.

Drawbacks in Semantic representation:

1. Semantic networks take more computational time at runtime as we need to traverse

the complete network tree to answer some questions. It might be possible in the worst
case scenario that after traversing the entire tree, we find that the solution does not
exist in this network.
2. Semantic networks try to model human-like memory (Which has 1015 neurons and
links) to store the information, but in practice, it is not possible to build such a vast
semantic network.
3. These types of representations are inadequate as they do not have any equivalent
quantifier, e.g., for all, for some, none, etc.
4. Semantic networks do not have any standard definition for the link names.
5. These networks are not intelligent and depend on the creator of the system.

Advantages of Semantic network:

1. Semantic networks are a natural representation of knowledge.

2. Semantic networks convey meaning in a transparent manner.
3. These networks are simple and easily understandable.

3.Frame Representation

 A frame is a record like structure which consists of a collection of attributes and its
values to describe an entity in the world. Frames are the AI data structure which
 divides knowledge into substructures by representing stereotypes situations. It
consists of a collection of slots and slot values. These slots may be of any type and
sizes. Slots have names and values which are called facets.
 Facets: The various aspects of a slot is known as Facets. Facets are features of frames
which enable us to put constraints on the frames. Example: IF-NEEDED facts are
called when data of any particular slot is needed. A frame may consist of any number
of slots, and a slot may include any number of facets and facets may have any number
of values. A frame is also known as slot-filter knowledge representation in artificial
intelligence.
 Frames are derived from semantic networks and later evolved into our modern-day
classes and objects. A single frame is not much useful. Frames system consist of a
collection of frames which are connected. In the frame, knowledge about an object or
event can be stored together in the knowledge base. The frame is a type of technology
which is widely used in various applications including Natural language processing
and machine visions.
 Example: 1
 Let's take an example of a frame for a book

Example 2:

Let's suppose we are taking an entity, Peter. Peter is an engineer as a profession, and his age
is 25, he lives in city London, and the country is England. So following is the frame
representation for this:
Advantages of frame representation:

1. The frame knowledge representation makes the programming easier by grouping the
related data.
2. The frame representation is comparably flexible and used by many applications in AI.
3. It is very easy to add slots for new attribute and relations.
4. It is easy to include default data and to search for missing values.
5. Frame representation is easy to understand and visualize.

Disadvantages of frame representation:

1. In frame system inference mechanism is not be easily processed.

2. Inference mechanism cannot be smoothly proceeded by frame representation.
3. Frame representation has a much generalized approach.

4. Production Rules

Production rules system consist of (condition, action) pairs which mean, "If condition then
action". It has mainly three parts:

o The set of production rules

o Working Memory

o The recognize-act-cycle
In production rules agent checks for the condition and if the condition exists then production
rule fires and corresponding action is carried out. The condition part of the rule determines
which rule may be applied to a problem. And the action part carries out the associated
problem-solving steps. This complete process is called a recognize-act cycle.

The working memory contains the description of the current state of problems-solving and
rule can write knowledge to the working memory. This knowledge match and may fire other
rules.

If there is a new situation (state) generates, then multiple production rules will be fired
together, this is called conflict set. In this situation, the agent needs to select a rule from these
sets, and it is called a conflict resolution.

Example:

o IF (at bus stop AND bus arrives) THEN action (get into the bus)

o IF (on the bus AND paid AND empty seat) THEN action (sit down).

o IF (on bus AND unpaid) THEN action (pay charges).

o IF (bus arrives at destination) THEN action (get down from the bus).

Advantages of Production rule:

 1. The production rules are expressed in natural language.
2. The production rules are highly modular, so we can easily remove, add or modify an
individual rule.

Disadvantages of Production rule:

1. Production rule system does not exhibit any learning capabilities, as it does not store
the result of the problem for the future uses.
2. During the execution of the program, many rules may be active hence rule-based
production systems are inefficient.

Propositional logic in Artificial intelligence

Propositional logic (PL) is the simplest form of logic where all the statements are made by
propositions. A proposition is a declarative statement which is either true or false. It is a
technique of knowledge representation in logical and mathematical form.

Example:

1. a) It is Sunday.
2. b) The Sun rises from West (False proposition)
3. c) 3+3= 7(False proposition)
4. d) 5 is a prime number.

Syntax of propositional logic:

The syntax of propositional logic defines the allowable sentences for the knowledge
representation. There are two types of Propositions:

1. Atomic Propositions
2. Compound propositions

o Atomic Proposition: Atomic propositions are the simple propositions. It consists of a

single proposition symbol. These are the sentences which must be either true or false.
Example:

1. a) 2+2 is 4, it is an atomic proposition as it is a true fact.

2. b) "The Sun is cold" is also a proposition as it is a false fact.

o Compound proposition: Compound propositions are constructed by combining

simpler or atomic propositions, using parenthesis and logical connectives.
Example:

1. a) "It is raining today, and street is wet."

2. b) "Ankit is a doctor, and his clinic is in Mumbai."

First-Order Logic in Artificial intelligence

In the topic of Propositional logic, we have seen that how to represent statements using
propositional logic. But unfortunately, in propositional logic, we can only represent the facts,
which are either true or false. PL is not sufficient to represent the complex sentences or
natural language statements. The propositional logic has very limited expressive power.
Consider the following sentence, which we cannot represent using PL logic.

o "Some humans are intelligent", or

o "Sachin likes cricket."

To represent the above statements, PL logic is not sufficient, so we required some more
powerful logic, such as first-order logic.

First-Order logic:

o First-order logic is another way of knowledge representation in artificial intelligence.

It is an extension to propositional logic.

o FOL is sufficiently expressive to represent the natural language statements in a

concise way.

o First-order logic is also known as Predicate logic or First-order predicate logic.

First-order logic is a powerful language that develops information about the objects in
a more easy way and can also express the relationship between those objects.

o First-order logic (like natural language) does not only assume that the world contains
facts like propositional logic but also assumes the following things in the world:
o Objects: A, B, people, numbers, colors, wars, theories, squares, pits, wumpus,
......
o Relations: It can be unary relation such as: red, round, is adjacent, or n-
any relation such as: the sister of, brother of, has color, comes between
o Function: Father of, best friend, third inning of, end of, ......

o As a natural language, first-order logic also has two main parts:

o Syntax

o Semantics

Syntax of First-Order logic:

The syntax of FOL determines which collection of symbols is a logical expression in first-
order logic. The basic syntactic elements of first-order logic are symbols. We write
statements in short-hand notation in FOL.

Basic Elements of First-order logic:

Following are the basic elements of FOL syntax:

Atomic sentences:

o Atomic sentences are the most basic sentences of first-order logic. These sentences
are formed from a predicate symbol followed by a parenthesis with a sequence of
terms.

o We can represent atomic sentences as Predicate (term1, term2, ......, term n).
Example: Ravi and Ajay are brothers: => Brothers(Ravi, Ajay).
Chinky is a cat: => cat (Chinky).

Complex Sentences:

o Complex sentences are made by combining atomic sentences using connectives.

First-order logic statements can be divided into two parts:

o Subject: Subject is the main part of the statement.

o Predicate: A predicate can be defined as a relation, which binds two atoms together
in a statement.
Consider the statement: "x is an integer.", it consists of two parts, the first part x is the
subject of the statement and second part "is an integer," is known as a predicate.

Quantifiers in First-order logic:

 o A quantifier is a language element which generates quantification, and quantification
specifies the quantity of specimen in the universe of discourse.

o These are the symbols that permit to determine or identify the range and scope of the
variable in the logical expression. There are two types of quantifier:

o Universal Quantifier, (for all, everyone, everything)

o Existential quantifier, (for some, at least one).

Universal Quantifier:

Universal quantifier is a symbol of logical representation, which specifies that the statement
within its range is true for everything or every instance of a particular thing.

The Universal quantifier is represented by a symbol ∀, which resembles an inverted A.

If x is a variable, then ∀x is read as:

o For all x

o For each x

o For every x.
Example:

All man drink coffee.

∀x man(x) → drink (x, coffee).

It will be read as: There are all x where x is a man who drink coffee.

Existential Quantifier:

Existential quantifiers are the type of quantifiers, which express that the statement within its
scope is true for at least one instance of something.

It is denoted by the logical operator ∃, which resembles as inverted E. When it is used with a
predicate variable then it is called as an existential quantifier.

If x is a variable, then existential quantifier will be ∃x or ∃(x). And it will be read as:

o There exists a 'x.'

o For some 'x.'

For at least one 'x.'

∃x: boys(x) ∧ intelligent(x)
o
It will be read as: There are some x where x is a boy who is intelligent.

Points to remember:

o The main connective for universal quantifier ∀ is implication →.

o The main connective for existential quantifier ∃ is and ∧.

Properties of Quantifiers:

In universal quantifier, ∀x∀y is similar to ∀y∀x.

In Existential quantifier, ∃x∃y is similar to ∃y∃x.


∃x∀y is not similar to ∀y∃x.



 Some Examples of FOL using quantifier:

1. All birds fly.

In this question the predicate is "fly(bird)."

And since there are all birds who fly so it will be represented as follows.

∀x bird(x) →fly(x).

2. Every man respects his parent.

In this question, the predicate is "respect(x, y)," where x=man, and y= parent.

Since there is every man so will use ∀, and it will be represented as follows:

∀x man(x) → respects (x, parent).

3. Some boys play cricket.

some boys so we will use ∃, and it will be represented as:

In this question, the predicate is "play(x, y)," where x= boys, and y= game. Since there are

∃x boys(x) → play(x, cricket).

Free and Bound Variables:

The quantifiers interact with variables which appear in a suitable way. There are two types of
variables in First-order logic which are given below:

Free Variable: A variable is said to be a free variable in a formula if it occurs outside the
scope of the quantifier.

Example: ∀x ∃(y)[P (x, y, z)], where z is a free variable.

Bound Variable: A variable is said to be a bound variable in a formula if it occurs within the
scope of the quantifier.

Example: ∀x [A (x) B( y)], here x and y are the bound variables.

Inference in First-Order Logic

Inference in First-Order Logic is used to deduce new facts or sentences from existing
sentences. Before understanding the FOL inference rule, let's understand some basic
terminologies used in FOL.

Substitution:

Substitution is a fundamental operation performed on terms and formulas. It occurs in all

inference systems in first-order logic. The substitution is complex in the presence of
quantifiers in FOL. If we write F[a/x], so it refers to substitute a constant "a" in place of
variable "x".

Equality:

First-Order logic does not only use predicate and terms for making atomic sentences but also
uses another way, which is equality in FOL. For this, we can use equality symbols which
specify that the two terms refer to the same object.

Example: Brother (John) = Smith.

As in the above example, the object referred by the Brother (John) is similar to the object
referred by Smith. The equality symbol can also be used with negation to represent that two
terms are not the same objects.

Example: ￢(x=y) which is equivalent to x ≠y.

FOL inference rules for quantifier:

As propositional logic we also have inference rules in first-order logic, so following are some
basic inference rules in FOL:

Universal Generalization

Universal Instantiation

Existential Instantiation

Existential introduction

1. Universal Generalization:
any arbitrary element c in the universe of discourse, then we can have a conclusion as ∀ x
Universal generalization is a valid inference rule which states that if premise P(c) is true for

P(x).

It can be represented as: Inference in First-Order Logic.

This rule can be used if we want to show that every element has a similar property.

In this rule, x must not appear as a free variable.

Example: Let's represent, P(c): "A byte contains 8 bits", so for ∀ x P(x) "All bytes contain 8
bits.", it will also be true.

2. Universal Instantiation:

Universal instantiation is also called as universal elimination or UI is a valid inference rule. It

can be applied multiple times to add new sentences.

The new KB is logically equivalent to the previous KB.

As per UI, we can infer any sentence obtained by substituting a ground term for the variable.

constant within domain x) from ∀ x P(x) for any object in the universe of discourse.
The UI rule state that we can infer any sentence P(c) by substituting a ground term c (a

It can be represented as:Inference in First-Order Logic.

Example:1.

IF "Every person like ice-cream"=> ∀x P(x) so we can infer that

"John likes ice-cream" => P(c)

Example: 2.

Let's take a famous example,"All kings who are greedy are Evil." So let our knowledge base
contains this detail as in the form of FOL:

∀x king(x) ∧ greedy (x) → Evil (x),

So from this information, we can infer any of the following statements using Universal
Instantiation:

King(John) ∧ Greedy (John) → Evil (John),

King(Richard) ∧ Greedy (Richard) → Evil (Richard),

King(Father(John)) ∧ Greedy (Father(John)) → Evil (Father(John)),

3. Existential Instantiation:

Existential instantiation is also called as Existential Elimination, which is a valid inference

rule in first-order logic.

It can be applied only once to replace the existential sentence.

The new KB is not logically equivalent to old KB, but it will be satisfiable if old KB was
satisfiable.

This rule states that one can infer P(c) from the formula given in the form of ∃x P(x) for a
new constant symbol c.

The restriction with this rule is that c used in the rule must be a new term for which P(c ) is
true.

It can be represented as:Inference in First-Order Logic

Example:

From the given sentence: ∃x Crown(x) ∧ OnHead(x, John),

So we can infer: Crown(K) ∧ OnHead( K, John), as long as K does not appear in the
knowledge base.

The above used K is a constant symbol, which is called Skolem constant.

The Existential instantiation is a special case of Skolemization process.

4. Existential introduction

An existential introduction is also known as an existential generalization, which is a valid

inference rule in first-order logic.

This rule states that if there is some element c in the universe of discourse which has a
property P, then we can infer that there exists something in the universe which has the
property P.

It can be represented as: Inference in First-Order Logic

Example: Let's say that,

"Priyanka got good marks in English."

"Therefore, someone got good marks in English."

Generalized Modus Ponens Rule:

For the inference process in FOL, we have a single inference rule which is called Generalized
Modus Ponens. It is lifted version of Modus ponens.

Generalized Modus Ponens can be summarized as, " P implies Q and P is asserted to be true,
therefore Q must be True."

According to Modus Ponens, for atomic sentences pi, pi', q. Where there is a substitution θ
such that SUBST (θ, pi',) = SUBST(θ, pi), it can be represented as:

Inference in First-Order Logic

Example:

We will use this rule for Kings are evil, so we will find some x such that x is king, and x is
greedy so we can infer that x is evil.

Here let say, p1' is king(John) p1 is king(x)

p2' is Greedy(y) p2 is Greedy(x)

θ is {x/John, y/John} q is evil(x)

SUBST(θ,q).

Resolution in FOL

Resolution

Resolution is a theorem proving technique that proceeds by building refutation proofs, i.e.,
proofs by contradictions. It was invented by a Mathematician John Alan Robinson in the year
1965.

Resolution is used, if there are various statements are given, and we need to prove a
conclusion of those statements. Unification is a key concept in proofs by resolutions.
Resolution is a single inference rule which can efficiently operate on the conjunctive normal
form or clausal form.

Clause: Disjunction of literals (an atomic sentence) is called a clause. It is also known as a
unit clause.

Conjunctive Normal Form: A sentence represented as a conjunction of clauses is said to

be conjunctive normal form or CNF.

Steps for Resolution:

1. Conversion of facts into first-order logic.

2. Convert FOL statements into CNF
3. Negate the statement which needs to prove (proof by contradiction)
4. Draw resolution graph (unification).
To better understand all the above steps, we will take an example in which we will apply
resolution.

Example:

1. John likes all kind of food.

2. Apple and vegetable are food.
3. Anything anyone eats and not killed is food.
4. Anil eats peanuts and still alive.
5. Harry eats everything that Anil eats.
6. John likes peanuts.

Step-1: Conversion of Facts into FOL

In the first step we will convert all the given statements into its first order logic.

Step-2: Conversion of FOL into CNF

In First order logic resolution, it is required to convert the FOL into CNF as CNF form makes
easier for resolution proofs.

o Eliminate all implication (→) and rewrite

o ∀x ¬ food(x) V likes(John, x)

o food(Apple) Λ food(vegetables)

o ∀x ∀y ¬ [eats(x, y) Λ ¬ killed(x)] V food(y)

o eats (Anil, Peanuts) Λ alive(Anil)

o ∀x ¬ eats(Anil, x) V eats(Harry, x)
 o ∀x¬ [¬ killed(x) ] V alive(x)

o ∀x ¬ alive(x) V ¬ killed(x)

o likes(John, Peanuts).

o Move negation (¬)inwards and rewrite

o ∀x ¬ food(x) V likes(John, x)

o food(Apple) Λ food(vegetables)

o ∀x ∀y ¬ eats(x, y) V killed(x) V food(y)

o eats (Anil, Peanuts) Λ alive(Anil)

o ∀x ¬ eats(Anil, x) V eats(Harry, x)

o ∀x ¬killed(x) ] V alive(x)

o ∀x ¬ alive(x) V ¬ killed(x)

o likes(John, Peanuts).

o Rename variables or standardize variables

o ∀x ¬ food(x) V likes(John, x)

o food(Apple) Λ food(vegetables)

o ∀y ∀z ¬ eats(y, z) V killed(y) V food(z)

o eats (Anil, Peanuts) Λ alive(Anil)

o ∀w¬ eats(Anil, w) V eats(Harry, w)

o ∀g ¬killed(g) ] V alive(g)

o ∀k ¬ alive(k) V ¬ killed(k)

o likes(John, Peanuts).

In this step, we will eliminate existential quantifier ∃, and this process is known
o Eliminate existential instantiation quantifier by elimination.

as Skolemization. But in this example problem since there is no existential quantifier

so all the statements will remain same in this step.
 o Drop Universal quantifiers.
In this step we will drop all universal quantifier since all the statements are not
implicitly quantified so we don't need it.

o ¬ food(x) V likes(John, x)

o food(Apple)

o food(vegetables)

o ¬ eats(y, z) V killed(y) V food(z)

o eats (Anil, Peanuts)

o alive(Anil)

o ¬ eats(Anil, w) V eats(Harry, w)

o killed(g) V alive(g)

o ¬ alive(k) V ¬ killed(k)

o likes(John, Peanuts).

Step-3: Negate the statement to be proved

In this statement, we will apply negation to the conclusion statements, which will be written
as ¬likes(John, Peanuts)

Step-4: Draw Resolution graph:

Now in this step, we will solve the problem by resolution tree using substitution. For the
above problem, it will be given as follows:
Hence the negation of the conclusion has been proved as a complete contradiction with the
given set of statements.