Possibilistic Stable Models

We present the main lines of a new framework that we have defined in order to improve the knowledge representation power of Answer Set Programming paradigm. Our proposal is to use notions from possibility theory to extend the stable model semantics by taking into account a certainty level, expressed in terms of necessity measure, on each rule of a normal logic program. First of all, we introduce possibilistic definite logic programs and show how to compute the conclusions of such programs both in syntactic and semantic ways. The syntactic handling is done by help of a fix-point operator, the semantic part relies on a possibility distribution on all sets of atoms and the two approaches are shown to be equivalent. In a second part, we define what is a possibilistic stable model for a normal logic program, with default negation. Again, we define a possibility distribution allowing to determine the stable models. We end our presentation by showing how we can use our framework to adressing inconsistency in Answer Set Programming

Possibilistic Uncertainty Handling for Answer Set Programming

In this work, we introduce a new framework able to deal with a reasoning that is at the same time non monotonic and uncertain. In order to take into account a certainty level associated to each piece of knowledge, we use possibility theory to extend the non monotonic semantics of stable models for logic programs with default negation. By means of a possibility distribution we define a clear semantics of such programs by introducing what is a possibilistic stable model. We also propose a syntactic process based on a fix-point operator to compute these particular models representing the deductions of the program and their certainty. Then, we show how this introduction of a certainty level on each rule of a program can be used in order to restore its consistency in case of the program has no model at all. Furthermore, we explain how we can compute possibilistic stable models by using available softwares for Answer Set Programming and we describe the main lines of the system that we have developed to achieve this goal

Towards the implementation of a preference-and uncertain-aware solver using answer set programming

Logic programs with possibilistic ordered disjunction (or LPPODs) are a recently defined logic-programming framework based on logic programs with ordered disjunction and possibilistic logic. The framework inherits the properties of such formalisms and merging them, it supports a reasoning which is nonmonotonic, preference-and uncertain-aware. The LPPODs syntax allows to specify 1) preferences in a qualitative way, and 2) necessity values about the certainty of program clauses. As a result at semantic level, preferences and necessity values can be used to specify an order among program solutions. This class of program therefore fits well in the representation of decision problems where a best option has to be chosen taking into account both preferences and necessity measures about information. In this paper we study the computation and the complexity of the LPPODs semantics and we describe the algorithm for its implementation following on Answer Set Programming approach. We describe some decision scenarios where the solver can be used to choose the best solutions by checking whether an outcome is possibilistically preferred over another considering preferences and uncertainty at the same time.Postprint (published version

Reducing fuzzy answer set programming to model finding in fuzzy logics

In recent years, answer set programming (ASP) has been extended to deal with multivalued predicates. The resulting formalisms allow for the modeling of continuous problems as elegantly as ASP allows for the modeling of discrete problems, by combining the stable model semantics underlying ASP with fuzzy logics. However, contrary to the case of classical ASP where many efficient solvers have been constructed, to date there is no efficient fuzzy ASP solver. A well-known technique for classical ASP consists of translating an ASP program P to a propositional theory whose models exactly correspond to the answer sets of P. In this paper, we show how this idea can be extended to fuzzy ASP, paving the way to implement efficient fuzzy ASP solvers that can take advantage of existing fuzzy logic reasoners

Aggregated fuzzy answer set programming

Fuzzy Answer Set programming (FASP) is an extension of answer set programming (ASP), based on fuzzy logic. It allows to encode continuous optimization problems in the same concise manner as ASP allows to model combinatorial problems. As a result of its inherent continuity, rules in FASP may be satisfied or violated to certain degrees. Rather than insisting that all rules are fully satisfied, we may only require that they are satisfied partially, to the best extent possible. However, most approaches that feature partial rule satisfaction limit themselves to attaching predefined weights to rules, which is not sufficiently flexible for most real-life applications. In this paper, we develop an alternative, based on aggregator functions that specify which (combination of) rules are most important to satisfy. We extend upon previous work by allowing aggregator expressions to define partially ordered preferences, and by the use of a fixpoint semantics

A core language for fuzzy answer set programming

A number of different Fuzzy Answer Set Programming (FASP) formalisms have been proposed in the last years, which all differ in the language extensions they support. In this paperwe investigate the expressivity of these frameworks. Specificallywe showhowa variety of constructs in these languages can be implemented using a considerably simpler core language. These simulations are important as a compact and simple language is easier to implement and to reason about, while an expressive language offers more options when modeling problems

Foundations of fuzzy answer set programming

Answer set programming (ASP) is a declarative language that is tailored towards combinatorial search problems. Although ASP has been applied to many problems, such as planning, configuration and verification of software, and database repair, it is less suitable for describing continuous problems. In this thesis we therefore studied fuzzy answer set programming (FASP). FASP is a language that combines ASP with ideas from fuzzy logic -- a class of many-valued logics that are able to describe continuous problems. We study the following topics: 1. An important issue when modeling continuous optimization problems is how to cope with overconstrained problems. In many cases we can opt to allow imperfect solutions, i.e. solutions that do not satisfy all constraints, but are sufficiently acceptable. However, the question which one of these imperfect solutions is most suitable then arises. Current approaches to fuzzy answer set programming solve this problem by attaching weights to the rules of the program. However, it is often not clear how these weights should be chosen and moreover weights do not allow to order different solutions. We improve upon this technique by using aggregators, which eliminate the aforementioned problems. This allows a richer modeling language and bridges the gap between FASP and other techniques such as valued constraint satisfaction problems. 2. The wishes of users and implementers of a programming language are often in direct conflict with each other. Users prefer a rich language that is easy to model in, whereas implementers prefer a small language that is easy to implement. We reconcile these differences by identifying a core language for FASP, called core FASP (CFASP), that only consists of non-constraint rules with monotonically increasing functions and negators in the body. We show that CFASP is capable of simulating constraint rules, monotonically decreasing functions, aggregators, S-implicators and classical negation. Moreover we remark that the simulations of constraints and classical negation bear a great resemblance to their simulations in classical ASP, which provides further insight into the relationship between ASP and FASP. 3. As a first step towards the creation of an implementation method for FASP we research whether it is possible to translate a FASP program to a fuzzy SAT problem. We introduce the concept of the completion of a FASP program and show that for programs without loops the models of the completion coincide with the answer sets. Furthermore we show that if a program has loops, we can translate the program to a fuzzy SAT problem by generalizing the concept of loop formulas. We illustrate this on a continuous version of the k-center problem. Such a translation is important because it allows us to solve FASP programs by means of solvers for fuzzy SAT. Under the appropriate conditions it is for example possible to solve FASP programs by means of off-the-shelf solvers for mixed integer programming (MIP)