Knowledge Representation

and Reasoning 2

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Knowledge Representation & Reasoning
Knowledge representation is the study of how
knowledge about the world can be represented and
what kinds of reasoning can be done with that
knowledge.
We will discuss two different systems that are
commonly used to represent knowledge in machines
and perform algorithmic reasoning:

• Propositional calculus
• Predicate calculus

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 Predicate Calculus
So it is a better idea to use predicates instead of
propositions.
This leads us to predicate calculus.
Predicate calculus has symbols called
• object constants,
• relation constants, and
• function constants
These symbols will be used to refer to objects in the
world and to propositions about the word.

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 Components
Object constants:
Strings of alphanumeric characters beginning with
either a capital letter or a numeral.
Examples: XY, Allahabad, 154, H1B

Function constants:
Strings of alphanumeric characters beginning with a
lowercase letter and (sometimes) superscripted by
their “arity”:
Examples: fatherOf1, distanceBetween2

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 Components
Relation constants:
Strings of alphanumeric characters beginning with a
capital letter and (sometimes) superscripted by their
“arity”:
Examples: BeatsUp2, Tired1

Other symbols:
Propositional connectives , , , and , delimiters
(, ), [, ], and separator ,.

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 Terms

• An object constant is a term.

• A function constant of arity n, followed by n terms in
parentheses and separated by commas, is a term.

Examples: fatherOf(Sunita), times(3, minus(5, 2))

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 Wffs
Atoms:
• A relation constant of arity n followed by n terms in
parentheses and separated by commas is an atom.
An atom is a wff.
• Examples: Tired(Tanya), OlderThan(Pawan, Afsa)
Propositional wffs:
• Any expression formed out of predicate-calculus
wffs in the same way that the propositional calculus
forms wffs out of other wffs is a propositional wff.
• Example: OlderThan(Pawan, Afsa) 
OlderThan(Afsa, Komal)

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 Interpretations
An interpretation of an expression in the predicate
calculus is an assignment that maps
• object constants into objects in the world,
• n-ary function constants into n-ary functions,
• n-ary relation constants into n-ary relations.
These assignments are called the denotations of
their corresponding predicate-calculus expressions.

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 Interpretations
B
Example: Blocks world:
A
C
Floor
Predicate Calculus World
A A
B B
C C
Fl Floor
On On = {<B,A>, <A,C>, <C, Floor>}
Clear Clear = {<B>}
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 Quantification
Introducing the universal quantifier  and the
existential quantifier  facilitates the translation of
world knowledge into predicate calculus.

Examples:

Paul beats up all professors who fail him.

x(Professor(x)  Fails(x, Paul)  BeatsUp(Paul, x))

There is at least one intelligent IIITA professor.

x(IIITAProf(x)  Intelligent(x))

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 Note about Resolution Refutation
You have a set of hypotheses h1, h2, …, hn, and a
conclusion c.
Your argument is that whenever all of the h1, h2, …, hn
are true, then c is true as well.
In other words, whenever all of the h1, h2, …, hn are
true, then c is false.
If and only if the argument is valid, then the
conjunction h1  h2  …  hn  c is false, because
either (at least) one of the h1, h2, …, hn is false, or if
they are all true, then c is false.
Therefore, if this conjunction resolves to false, we
have shown that the argument is valid.
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 Quantification
Introducing the universal quantifier  and the
existential quantifier  facilitates the translation of
world knowledge into predicate calculus.

Examples:

Paul beats up all professors who fail him.

x(Professor(x)  Fails(x, Paul)  BeatsUp(Paul, x))

There is at least one intelligent UMB professor.

x(UMBProf(x)  Intelligent(x))

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 Knowledge Representation
a) There are no crazy UMB students.
x (UMBStudent(x)  Crazy(x))
b) All computer scientists are either rich or crazy, but not both.
x (CS(x)  [Rich(x)  Crazy(x)]  [Rich(x)  Crazy(x)] )
c) All UMB students except one are intelligent.
x (UMBStudent(x)  Intelligent(x)) 
x,y (UMBStudent(x)  UMBStudent(y)  Identical(x, y) 
Intelligent(x)  Intelligent(y))
d) Jerry and Betty have the same friends.
x ([Friends(Betty, x)  Friends(Jerry, x)] 
[Friends(Jerry, x)  Friends(Betty, x)])
e) No mouse is bigger than an elephant.
x,y (Mouse(x)  Elephant(y)  BiggerThan(x, y))
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 Rules of Inference
x P(x)
__________ Universal
 P(c) if cU instantiation

P(c) for an arbitrary cU

___________________ Universal
 x P(x) generalization

 x P(x)
______________________ Existential
 P(c) for some element cU instantiation

P(c) for some element

____________________ cU Existential
 x P(x) generalization
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 Rules of Inference

Example:

Every IS student is a genius.

Sonal is a IS student.
Therefore, Sonal is a genius.

I(x): “x is an IS student.”
G(x): “x is a genius.”

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 Rules of Inference
The steps used can be interpreted as:
Step 1: x (I(x)  G(x))
Step 2: I(Sonal)  G(Sonal)
Find some x such that x is an IS student and then infer
that x is genius
If there is some substitution α that makes the premise
of the implication identical to sentences already in the
knowledge base , then we can assert the conclusion
after applying α. In the above case,
{x/Sonal}

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 Unification

It is the process of finding substitutions

that make different logical expressions
look identical.
Unify(p,q) = α
where Subst(α,p) = Subst(α,q)

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