Automatic case acquisition from texts for process-oriented case-based reasoning

This paper introduces a method for the automatic acquisition of a rich case representation from free text for process-oriented case-based reasoning. Case engineering is among the most complicated and costly tasks in implementing a case-based reasoning system. This is especially so for process-oriented case-based reasoning, where more expressive case representations are generally used and, in our opinion, actually required for satisfactory case adaptation. In this context, the ability to acquire cases automatically from procedural texts is a major step forward in order to reason on processes. We therefore detail a methodology that makes case acquisition from processes described as free text possible, with special attention given to assembly instruction texts. This methodology extends the techniques we used to extract actions from cooking recipes. We argue that techniques taken from natural language processing are required for this task, and that they give satisfactory results. An evaluation based on our implemented prototype extracting workflows from recipe texts is provided.Comment: Sous presse, publication pr\'evue en 201

Developing a Decision Support System leveraging Distributed and Heterogeneous Sources:Case-Based Reasoning for Manufacturing Incident Handling

Case-Based Reasoning is a proven method to provide decision support in a manufacturing context. However, data and knowledge relevant for the case representation is often spread over distributed sources, leading to challenges in the case representation and retrieval. Those challenges require different techniques that this PhD project aims to develop. Techniques for data collection and integration during the case representation, as well as similarity measurement during case retrieval. This paper describes the motivating problem, the research methods, and the current state and future plans

Effective retrieval and new indexing method for case based reasoning: Application in chemical process design

In this paper we try to improve the retrieval step for case based reasoning for preliminary design. This improvement deals with three major parts of our CBR system. First, in the preliminary design step, some uncertainties like imprecise or unknown values remain in the description of the problem, because they need a deeper analysis to be withdrawn. To deal with this issue, the faced problem description is soften with the fuzzy sets theory. Features are described with a central value, a percentage of imprecision and a relation with respect to the central value. These additional data allow us to build a domain of possible values for each attributes. With this representation, the calculation of the similarity function is impacted, thus the characteristic function is used to calculate the local similarity between two features. Second, we focus our attention on the main goal of the retrieve step in CBR to find relevant cases for adaptation. In this second part, we discuss the assumption of similarity to find the more appropriated case. We put in highlight that in some situations this classical similarity must be improved with further knowledge to facilitate case adaptation. To avoid failure during the adaptation step, we implement a method that couples similarity measurement with adaptability one, in order to approximate the cases utility more accurately. The latter gives deeper information for the reusing of cases. In a last part, we present a generic indexing technique for the base, and a new algorithm for the research of relevant cases in the memory. The sphere indexing algorithm is a domain independent index that has performances equivalent to the decision tree ones. But its main strength is that it puts the current problem in the center of the research area avoiding boundaries issues. All these points are discussed and exemplified through the preliminary design of a chemical engineering unit operation

A practical exploration of the convergence of case-based reasoning and explainable artificial intelligence.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems become increasingly complex, ensuring their decisions are transparent and understandable to users has become paramount. This paper explores the integration of Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) with Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) through a real-world example, which presents an innovative CBR-driven XAI platform. This study investigates how CBR, a method that solves new problems based on the solutions of similar past problems, can be harnessed to enhance the explainability of AI systems. Though the literature has few works on the synergy between CBR and XAI, exploring the principles for developing a CBR-driven XAI platform is necessary. This exploration outlines the key features and functionalities, examines the alignment of CBR principles with XAI goals to make AI reasoning more transparent to users, and discusses methodological strategies for integrating CBR into XAI frameworks. Through a case study of our CBR-driven XAI platform, iSee: Intelligent Sharing of Explanation Experience, we demonstrate the practical application of these principles, highlighting the enhancement of system transparency and user trust. The platform elucidates the decision-making processes of AI models and adapts to provide explanations tailored to diverse user needs. Our findings emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in AI research and the significant role CBR can play in advancing the goals of XAI

Adaptation de cas spatiaux et temporels

National audienceQualitative algebras form a family of languages mainly used to represent knowledge depending on space or time. This paper proposes an approach to adapt cases represented in such an algebra. A spatial example in agronomy and a temporal example in cooking are given. The idea behind this adaptation approach is to apply a substitution and then repair potential inconsistencies, thanks to belief revision on qualitative algebras.Les algèbres qualitatives forment une famille de langages utilisés principalement pour représenter des connaissances de nature temporelle ou spatiale. Cet article propose une approche pour adapter des cas représentés dans une telle algèbre. Un exemple spatial portant sur l'agronomie ainsi qu'un exemple temporel portant sur la cuisine sont donnés. L'idée sous-jacente à cette approche de l'adaptation est d'appliquer une substitution puis de réparer les incohérences qui pourraient être apparues, grâce à la révision des croyances appliquée aux algèbres qualitatives

Actionable feature discovery in counterfactuals using feature relevance explainers.

Counterfactual explanations focus on 'actionable knowledge' to help end-users understand how a Machine Learning model outcome could be changed to a more desirable outcome. For this purpose a counterfactual explainer needs to be able to reason with similarity knowledge in order to discover input dependencies that relate to outcome changes. Identifying the minimum subset of feature changes to action a change in the decision is an interesting challenge for counterfactual explainers. In this paper we show how feature relevance based explainers (i.e. LIME, SHAP), can inform a counterfactual explainer to identify the minimum subset of 'actionable features'. We demonstrate our DisCERN (Discovering Counterfactual Explanations using Relevance Features from Neighbourhoods) algorithm on three datasets and compare against the widely used counterfactual approach DiCE. Our preliminary results show that DisCERN to be a viable strategy that should be adopted to minimise the actionable changes