Module – II: Intelligent Reasoning Systems

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 Components of intelligent systems

Hardware
• Processor: The central processing unit (CPU)
• Memory: The hard disk and other memory
• Display devices: Monitors and projectors
• Input devices: The keyboard and mouse
• Sensing devices: Sensors and scanners
Software
• Machine learning (ML) algorithms: Make predictions and decisions based on
data analysis
• Neural networks: Model and solve complex tasks
• Fuzzy logic: Handles uncertainty in decision-making
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 Components of intelligent systems
Data
• Sensors: Collect data from the environment
• Cameras: Collect data from the environment
• Internet: Collect data from various sources
Learning
• ML techniques: Allow systems to adapt and improve their performance
• Feedback and improvement: Allow systems to learn from experience
Miscellaneous components
• Algorithms: Process and analyze data
• Automation: Reduces the need for human intervention
• User interface (UI): Allows an external agent to communicate with the
system
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 Knowledge Based
Systems

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 Knowledge-based systems (KBSes):
are computer programs that use a
centralized repository of data known as a
knowledge base to provide a method for
problem-solving.

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Components of Knowledge Based System
◆ knowledge base
❖ contains essential information about the problem domain
❖ often represented as facts and rules

Knowledge base is a repository of domain

knowledge and metaknowledge. Enriches the
Inference engine is a software program that system with
infers the knowledge available in the self-learning
knowledge base. capabilities

Knowledge Inference
Explanation base engine
Self-
and
learning
reasoning
User interface
Provides
explanation and
reasoning Friendly
facilities interface to
users working
Components of KBS in their native
language

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 ◆ knowledge base
❖contains essential information about the problem domain
❖often represented as facts and rules
◆ inference engine
❖mechanism to derive new knowledge from the knowledge
base and the information provided by the user
❖often based on the use of rules
◆ user interface
❖interaction with end users
❖development and maintenance of the knowledge base

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knowledge acquisition
transfer of knowledge from humans to computers
sometimes knowledge can be acquired directly from the environment
machine learning
knowledge representation
suitable for storing and processing knowledge in computers
inference
mechanism that allows the generation of new conclusions from existing knowledge
in a computer
explanation
illustrates to the user how and why a particular solution was generated

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 What are KBSs?
• A knowledge-based system is a system that uses
artificial intelligence techniques in problem-solving
processes to support human decision-making,
learning, and action
• Two central components of KBSs are
– Knowledge base
• Consists of a set of facts and a set of rules, frames, or
procedures
– Inference engine
• Responsible for the application of knowledge base to the
problem on hand.

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 Types of KBSs
• Expert systems

• Neural networks

• Case-based reasoning

• Genetic algorithms

• Intelligent agents

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 Expert
Systems

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 Expert System

‘An expert system is a computer system

that emulates, or acts in all respects, with
the decision-making capabilities of a
human expert’.
Prof Edward Feigenbaum

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 ES as part of AI

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 Expert Systems
• An expert system is a computer program designed
to emulate the problem-solving behavior of an
expert in a specific knowledge domain

• In order to qualify as an expert system, a system

must have the capability of explaining or justifying
its conclusions

• A system which can explain its reasoning process

is said to demonstrate meta-knowledge
(knowledge about its own knowledge)

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 Early Expert Systems
• DENDRAL – used in chemical mass spectroscopy to
identify chemical constituents

• MYCIN – medical diagnosis of illness

• DIPMETER – geological data analysis for oil
• PROSPECTOR – geological data analysis for
minerals

• XCON/R1 – configuring computer systems

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 ES Applications (Hayes-Roth Table)
Category Problem addressed Examples
Comparing observations to
Monitoring plan vulnerabilities
REACTOR

Providing incremental
SAINT, MATHLAB,
Debugging solutions for complex
MACSYMA
problems
Executing a plan to
Toxic Spill Crisis
Repair administer a prescribed
Management
remedy

Diagnosing, assessing, and SMH.PAL, Intelligent Clinical

Instruction repairing student behavior Training, STEAMER

Interpreting, predicting, Real Time Process Control,

Control repairing, and monitoring Space Shuttle Mission
system behaviors Control

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 Basic functions of ES

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 Problem Domain vs Knowledge
Domain
• An expert’s knowledge is specific to one problem
domain – medicine, finance, science, engineering,
etc.

• The expert’s knowledge about solving specific

problems is called the knowledge domain.

• The problem domain is always a superset of the

knowledge domain.

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 Problem Domain vs Knowledge
Domain

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 Elements of an Expert System
• User interface – mechanism by which user and
system communicate

• Exploration facility – explains reasoning of

expert system to user

• Working memory – global database of facts used

by rules

• Inference engine – makes inferences deciding

which rules are satisfied and prioritizing

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 Elements of an Expert System

• Agenda – a prioritized list of rules created by the

inference engine, whose patterns are satisfied by
facts or objects in working memory.

• Knowledge acquisition facility – automatic way for

the user to enter knowledge in the system bypassing
the explicit coding by knowledge engineer.

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 Elements of an Expert System
Inference Engine
Knowledge Base Working Memory
(rules) Agenda (facts)

Explanation Knowledge
Facility Acquisition
Facility

User Interface

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 Languages, Shells, and Tools
• Expert system languages are post-third generation

• Programming languages, LISP and PROLOG, are

typically used in expert systems implementation, in
particular Artificial intelligence applications

• Expert system languages (e.g. CLIPS)focus on ways to

represent knowledge
– CLIPS is an expert system shell developed by NASA

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 Development of an ES
• The knowledge engineer establishes a dialog with
the human expert to extract knowledge

• The knowledge engineer codes the knowledge

explicitly in the knowledge base

• The expert evaluates the expert system and gives

a critique to the knowledge engineer

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 Development of an ES

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The Role of AI

• An algorithm is an ideal solution guaranteed to

yield a solution in a finite amount of time.

• When an algorithm is not available or is

insufficient, we rely on artificial intelligence (AI).

• Expert system relies on inference – we accept a

“reasonable solution.”

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 Uncertainty
• Both human experts and expert systems must be
able to deal with uncertainty

• It is easier to program expert systems with shallow

knowledge than with deep knowledge

• Shallow knowledge – based on empirical and

heuristic knowledge

• Deep knowledge – based on basic structure,

function, and behavior of objects

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 Dealing with Uncertainty
• Certainty
– If A is false, then ⌐ A is true

• Uncertainty
– If A is false, then B is true with probability P
– Introducing Probabilistic Reasoning
– Doctor examines a patient, and X symptoms exist
but some of them missing, so doctor can
conclude: a patient has disease X with probability
P

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 General Methods of Inferencing
• Forward chaining – reasoning from facts to the
conclusions resulting from those facts – best for
prognosis, monitoring, and control
– primarily data-driven

• Backward chaining – reasoning in reverse from a

hypothesis, a potential conclusion to be proved to
the facts that support the hypothesis – best for
diagnosis problems
– primarily goal driven
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 Advantages of ES
• Consistency
– Consistency is the main benefit of an ES. Since it is a
computer-based system, all the knowledge or logic are
programmed into it. If it meets the same situation, it will
make the same decision again and again. Because always
the decision will be made based on some rules and logic.

• Availability
– The multiple users can access an ES simultaneously and get
responses immediately

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 Advantages of ES
• Logic
– In an ES, all of the rules, conditions and their
understandings on the way to making a decision or a choice
are always clear because it was programmed in.

• Persistence/Accessibility
– The ESs are always available. They can be accessed anytime
24*7. It is one of the important advantages of an expert
system over the human experts.

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 Disadvantages of ES
• Data integrity
– The ESs need to be updated manually, because they all
itself don’t learn.

• Time & Cost

– The time and cost required to buy or set up an ES
are very high.

• Specific
– The ESs are generally developed for a specific domain, on
the other hand a human expert can be specialized in more
than one area
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 Disadvantages of ES
• Emotionless
– The human experts have a sort of awareness about the
situation, that means how they feel, how they effective in
the situation. But the ESs have no awareness about any
situation that they face

• Commonsense
– An ES has to go through by following the rules and
regulations as they programmed, so it can’t provide a
solution for the totally new kind of problem

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 Neural
Network

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 Neural Network
• Neural networks represent a brain metaphor for information
processing. Neural computing refers to a pattern recognition
methodology for machine learning. The resulting model from
neural computing is often called an artificial neural network
(ANN) or neural network (NN)

• Due to their ability to learn from the data, their nonparametric

nature (i.e., no rigid assumptions), and their ability to
generalize, neural networks have been shown to be promising
in many forecasting and business classification applications

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 Neural Network

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 Neural Network

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 Structure of a Biological Neural Network

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 Elements of BNN
• The human brain is composed of special cells
called neurons
• Neural network elements
– Nucleus
• The central processing portion of a neuron
– Soma
• The main body of the neuron in which the cell nucleus is contained
– Dendrite
• The part of a biological neuron that provides inputs to the cell
– Axon
• An outgoing connection (i.e., terminal) from a biological neuron
– Synapse
• The connection (where the weights are) between processing elements
in a neural network

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 BNN vs ANN

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How do our brains work?
▪ The Brain is A massively parallel information processing system.
▪ Our brains are a huge network of processing elements. A typical brain contains a
network of 10 billion neurons.
How do our brains work?
▪ A processing element

Dendrites: Input
Cell body: Processor
Synaptic: Link
Axon: Output
How do ANNs work?

An artificial neuron is an imitation of a human neuron

 How do ANNs work?
• Now, let us have a look at the model of an artificial neuron.
 How do ANNs work?
............
Input xm x2 x1

Processing ∑
∑= X1+X2 + ….+Xm =y

Output y
 How do ANNs work?
Not all inputs are equal
............
xm x2 x1
Input
wm ..... w2 w1
weights
Processing ∑ ∑= X1w1+X2w2 + ….+Xmwm
=y

Output y
 How do ANNs work?
The signal is not passed down to the
next neuron verbatim
............
xm x2 x1
Input
wm ..... w2 w1
weights
Processing ∑
Transfer Function
f(vk)
(Activation Function)

Output y
 Artificial Neural Network

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 Learning in ANN
• Supervised learning
– the training data you feed to the algorithm includes the desired
solutions, called labels

– Algorithms: Regression, Classification

• Unsupervised learning
– the training data is unlabeled, the system tries to learn without a
teacher

– Algorithms: Clustering, Anomaly and novelty detection,

Visualization and dimensionality reduction, Association rule
learning
– !will cover deep in later

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 Characteristics of ANN

• Adaptive learning

• Self-organization

• Error tolerance

• Real-time operation

• Parallel information processing

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 Case-Based
Reasoning

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 Case-Based Reasoning
• A case has two parts: a problem and a solution
• Cases represent experience: they record how a problem was
solved in the past

• CBR is a methodology in which knowledge and inferences are

derived from historical cases. It is based on the premise that
new problems are often similar to previously encountered
problems and, past solutions may be used in the current
situations

• CBR is particularly applicable to problems in which the

domain is not understood well enough for a robust statistical
model or system of equations to be formulated
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 Process of CBR
• Retrieve
– Given a target problem, retrieve the most similar cases

• Reuse
– Map the solution and reuse the best old solution to solve the current case

• Revise
– Test the solution and, if necessary, revise the old case to come up
with the solution

• Retain
– After the solution has been successfully adapted to the target problem,
store the resulting experience as a new case

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1.Retrieval..
2.Reuse.
3. Revision.
4. Retaining.

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 CBR Examples
• Intelligent customer support and sales support

• Retrieval of tour packages from travel catalogs

• Conflict resolution in air traffic control

• Conceptual building design aid

• Conceptual design aid for electronic devices

• Medical diagnosis

• Aircraft troubleshooting

• Heuristic retrieval of legal knowledge

• Computer supported conflict resolution through negotiation or

mediation

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 CBR Pros/Cons
• Advantages
– Improved knowledge acquisition
– Reduced development time
– Easier explanation
– Learning over time

• Disadvantages
– Storing of cases in the KB
– Implicit link between problem and solution
– Access and retrieval speed
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 Genetic
Algorithms

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 Genetic Algorithms
• Programs that attempt to find optimal solutions to
problems by conceptually following steps inspired by
the biological processes of evolution

• The method learns by producing offspring that are better and

better, as measured by a fitness-to-survive function, until an
optimal or near-optimal solution is obtained.

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 Genetic Algorithm Applications
• Genetic algorithms provide a set of efficient, domain-
independent search heuristics for a broad spectrum of
applications including
– Dynamic process control

– Complex design of engineering structures

– Scheduling

– Transportation and routing

– Layout and circuit design

– Telecommunications

– Discovery of new connectivity typologies

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 GA Fundamentals
• Chromosome
– A candidate solution for a genetic algorithm

• Fitness function
– A measure of the objective to be obtained

• Generation
– An iteration of the genetic algorithmic process in which
candidate solutions are combined to produce offspring

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 Processes within GA
• Reproduction
– Through reproduction, genetic algorithms produce new
generations of improved solutions by selecting parents with
higher fitness ratings or by giving such parents a greater
probability of being contributors and by using random selection

• Crossover
– The combining of parts of two superior solutions by a genetic
algorithm in an attempt to produce an even better solution

• Mutation
– A genetic operator that causes a random change in a
potential solution
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 Genetic Algorithm Process

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 Genetic Algorithm Parameters
• Some parameters must be set for the genetic
algorithm
– Number of initial solutions to generate
– Number of offspring to generate
– Number of parents and offspring to keep for the next
generation

– Mutation probability
– Probability distribution of crossover point occurrence

• Their values are dependent on the problem being solved and

are usually determined through trial and error
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 GA Benefits/Limitations
• Genetic algorithms are particularly useful for complex
problems that require rapid development of set of good
solutions

• Limitations
– Not all problems can be framed in the mathematical manner that
genetic algorithms demand

– Development of a genetic algorithm is complex

– In some situations, the “genes” from a few comparatively highly
fit (but not optimal) individuals may come to dominate the
population, causing it to converge on a local maximum

– Most genetic algorithms rely on random number generators that

produce different results each time the model runs
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 Knowledge-
based Intelligent
Agents

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 Intelligent Agents
• A computer program that carries out a set of operations on behalf
of a user or another program, with some degree of autonomy, and
in doing so, employs some knowledge or representation of the
user’s goals or desires.

• Agents in various forms

– Software agents, wizards, software daemons, e-mail agents (mail bots),
web browsing assisting agents, intelligent search agents (Web robots,
spiders), Internet softbots, network management and monitoring agents,
e-commerce agents

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 Intelligent Agents

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 Features of Intelligent Agents
• Reactivity
– Agents perceive their environment and respond in a timely fashion to
changes that occur in it

• Proactiveness
– Agents are able to exhibit goal-directed behavior by taking initiative

• Social ability
– Agents are capable of interacting with other agents in order to satisfy
their design objectives

• Autonomy
– Agents must have control over their own actions and be able to work and
launch actions independently of the user or other actors

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 Why use Intelligent Agents
• The Gartner Group findings on information overload:
– The amount of data collected by large enterprises doubles every
year.

– Knowledge workers can analyze only about 5% of this data.

– Information overload reduces our decision-making
capabilities by 50 percent.

• A major value of intelligent agents is that they are able to

assist in searching through all the data

• Intelligent agents save time by making decisions about

what is relevant to the user as well as by automating
routine tasks
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 Architecture of an IA
• Knowledge Level
– The most abstract level: describe agent by saying what it
knows

– Example: A taxi agent might know that the Golden Gate Bridge
connects San Francisco with the Marin County.

• Logical Level
– The level at which the knowledge is encoded into sentences

– Example: Links(GoldenGateBridge, SanFrancisco,

MarinCounty).

• Implementation Level
– The physical representation of the sentences in the logical level

– Example: ‘(links goldengatebridge sanfrancisco marincounty)

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 How smart is an IA
Intelligence levels

• Level 0 - Agents retrieve documents for a user under straight orders

• Level 1 - Agents provide a user-initiated searching facility for

finding relevant Web pages

• Level 2 - Agents maintain users’ profiles

• Level 3 - Agents have a learning and deductive component to

help a user who cannot formalize a query or specify a target for a
search

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 IA vs ES
• Agents and expert systems are similar in that they both
intend to incorporate domain knowledge to automate
decision making

• They are different in the following aspects:

– Classic ES are not coupled to any environment in which they act;
they act through a user as a middle man. Agents can actively
search information from the environment in which they reside

– ES are not generally capable of reactive and proactive

behavior

– ES are not generally equipped with social ability in the sense

of cooperation, coordination, and negotiation.
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 Internet-Based Software Agents
• Nine major application areas
– Assisting in workflow and administrative management

– Collaborating with other agents and people

– Supporting e-commerce

– Supporting desktop applications

– Assisting in information access and management, including searching

and FAQs

– Processing e-mail and messages

– Controlling and managing network access

– Managing systems and networks

– Creating user interfaces, including navigation (browsing)

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 Tasks to tackle for IA
• Learning

• Performance

• Multi agents

• Cost justification

• Security and privacy

• Ethical issues

• Acceptance
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 References
• Russell, Stuart; Norvig, Peter (1995). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern
Approach

• Lenat, Douglas B., and Randall Davis. "Knowledge-based systems in

artificial intelligence." New York: McGrav-Hill. Nev (1982)

• Jackson, Peter, and Peter Jackson. Introduction to expert systems.

Vol. 2. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1990

• Aamodt, Agnar, and Enric Plaza. "Case-based reasoning:

Foundational issues, methodological variations, and system
approaches." AI communications 7.1 (1994): 39-59.

• Wooldridge, Michael, and Nicholas R. Jennings. "Intelligent agents:

Theory and practice." The knowledge engineering review 10.2
(1995): 115-152.
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