37,238 research outputs found
Logic-Based Specification Languages for Intelligent Software Agents
The research field of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) aims to find
abstractions, languages, methodologies and toolkits for modeling, verifying,
validating and prototyping complex applications conceptualized as Multiagent
Systems (MASs). A very lively research sub-field studies how formal methods can
be used for AOSE. This paper presents a detailed survey of six logic-based
executable agent specification languages that have been chosen for their
potential to be integrated in our ARPEGGIO project, an open framework for
specifying and prototyping a MAS. The six languages are ConGoLog, Agent-0, the
IMPACT agent programming language, DyLog, Concurrent METATEM and Ehhf. For each
executable language, the logic foundations are described and an example of use
is shown. A comparison of the six languages and a survey of similar approaches
complete the paper, together with considerations of the advantages of using
logic-based languages in MAS modeling and prototyping.Comment: 67 pages, 1 table, 1 figure. Accepted for publication by the Journal
"Theory and Practice of Logic Programming", volume 4, Maurice Bruynooghe
Editor-in-Chie
Abduction in Well-Founded Semantics and Generalized Stable Models
Abductive logic programming offers a formalism to declaratively express and
solve problems in areas such as diagnosis, planning, belief revision and
hypothetical reasoning. Tabled logic programming offers a computational
mechanism that provides a level of declarativity superior to that of Prolog,
and which has supported successful applications in fields such as parsing,
program analysis, and model checking. In this paper we show how to use tabled
logic programming to evaluate queries to abductive frameworks with integrity
constraints when these frameworks contain both default and explicit negation.
The result is the ability to compute abduction over well-founded semantics with
explicit negation and answer sets. Our approach consists of a transformation
and an evaluation method. The transformation adjoins to each objective literal
in a program, an objective literal along with rules that ensure
that will be true if and only if is false. We call the resulting
program a {\em dual} program. The evaluation method, \wfsmeth, then operates on
the dual program. \wfsmeth{} is sound and complete for evaluating queries to
abductive frameworks whose entailment method is based on either the
well-founded semantics with explicit negation, or on answer sets. Further,
\wfsmeth{} is asymptotically as efficient as any known method for either class
of problems. In addition, when abduction is not desired, \wfsmeth{} operating
on a dual program provides a novel tabling method for evaluating queries to
ground extended programs whose complexity and termination properties are
similar to those of the best tabling methods for the well-founded semantics. A
publicly available meta-interpreter has been developed for \wfsmeth{} using the
XSB system.Comment: 48 pages; To appear in Theory and Practice in Logic Programmin
Towards Intelligent Databases
This article is a presentation of the objectives and techniques
of deductive databases. The deductive approach to databases aims at extending
with intensional definitions other database paradigms that describe
applications extensionaUy. We first show how constructive specifications can
be expressed with deduction rules, and how normative conditions can be defined
using integrity constraints. We outline the principles of bottom-up and
top-down query answering procedures and present the techniques used for
integrity checking. We then argue that it is often desirable to manage with
a database system not only database applications, but also specifications of
system components. We present such meta-level specifications and discuss
their advantages over conventional approaches
Logic Programming as Constructivism
The features of logic programming that
seem unconventional from the viewpoint of classical logic
can be explained in terms of constructivistic logic. We
motivate and propose a constructivistic proof theory of
non-Horn logic programming. Then, we apply this formalization
for establishing results of practical interest.
First, we show that 'stratification can be motivated in a
simple and intuitive way. Relying on similar motivations,
we introduce the larger classes of 'loosely stratified' and
'constructively consistent' programs. Second, we give a
formal basis for introducing quantifiers into queries and
logic programs by defining 'constructively domain
independent* formulas. Third, we extend the Generalized
Magic Sets procedure to loosely stratified and constructively
consistent programs, by relying on a 'conditional
fixpoini procedure
Inductive Logic Programming as Abductive Search
We present a novel approach to non-monotonic ILP and its implementation called TAL (Top-directed Abductive Learning). TAL overcomes some of the completeness problems of ILP systems based on Inverse Entailment and is the first top-down ILP system that allows background theories and hypotheses to be normal logic programs. The approach relies on mapping an ILP problem into an equivalent ALP one. This enables the use of established ALP proof procedures and the specification of richer language bias with integrity constraints. The mapping provides a principled search space for an ILP problem, over which an abductive search is used to compute inductive solutions
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