Suppose one is given a description of a system, together with an observation of the system's behaviour which conflicts with the way the system is meant to behave. The diagnostic problem is to determine those components of the system which, when assumed to be functioning abnormally, will explain the discrepancy between the observed and correct system behaviour. We propose a general theory for this problem. The theory requires only that the system be described in a suitable logic. Moreover, there are many such suitable logics, e.g. first-order, temporal, dynamic, etc. As a result, the theory accommodates diagnostic reasoning in a wide variety of practical settings, including digital and analogue circuits, medicine, and database updates. The theory leads to an algorithm for computing all diagnoses, and to various results concerning principles of measurement for discriminating among competing diagnoses. Finally, the theory reveals close connections between diagnostic reasoning and nonmonotonic reasoning.

Abduction in Logic Programming started in the late 80s, early 90s, in an attempt to extend logic programming into a framework suitable for a variety of problems in Artificial Intelligence and other areas of Computer Science. This paper aims to chart out the main developments of the field over the last ten years and to take a critical view of these developments from several perspectives: logical, epistemological, computational and suitability to application. The paper attempts to expose some of the challenges and prospects for the further development of the field.

this paper is at analyzing from various points of view the relationships betwee

Although there are many arguments that logic is an appropriate tool for artificial intelligence, there has been a perceived problem with the monotonicity of classical logic. This paper elaborates on the idea that reasoning should be viewed as theory formation where logic tells us the consequences of our assumptions. The two activities of predicting what is expected to be true and explaining observations are considered in a simple theory formation framework. Properties of each activity are discussed, along with a number of proposals as to what should be predicted or accepted as reasonable explanations. An architecture is proposed to combine explanation and prediction into one coherent framework. Algorithms used to implement the system as well as examples from a running implementation are given. Key words: defaults, conjectures, explanation, prediction, abduction, dialectics, logic, nonmonotonicity, theory formation Explanation and Prediction 2 1 Introduction One way to do research i...

inverse problem of plan recognition has focused on specific kinds of recognition in specific domains. This includes work on story understanding [Bruce 1981, Schank 1975, Wilensky

The problem of abduction can be characterized as finding the best explanation of a set of data. In this paper we focus on one type of abduction in which the best explanation is the most plausible combination of hypotheses that explains all the data. We then present several computational complexity results demonstrating that this type of abduction is intractable (NP-hard) in general. In particular, choosing between incompatible hypotheses, reasoning about cancellation effects among hypotheses, and satisfying the maximum plausibility requirement are major factors leading to intractability. We also identify a tractable, but restricted, class of abduction problems. Thanks to B. Chandrasekaran, Ashok Goel, Jack Smith, and Jon Sticklen for their comments on the numerous versions of this paper. The referees have also made a substantial contribution. Any remaining errors are our responsibility, of course. This research has been supported in part by the National Library of Medicine, grant LM-...

Is there one logical definition of diagnosis? In this paper I argue that the answer to this question is "no". This paper is about the pragmatics of using logic for diagnosis; we show how two popular proposals for using logic for diagnosis, (namely abductive and consistency-based approaches) can be used to solve diagnostic tasks. The cases with only knowledge about how normal components work (any deviation being an error) and where there are fault models (we try to find a covering of the observations) are considered as well as the continuum between. The result is that there are two fundamentally different, but equally powerful diagnostic paradigms. They require different knowledge about the world, and different ways to think about a domain. This result indicates that there may not be an axiomatisation of a domain that is independent of how the knowledge is to be used.

Despite their different perspectives, artificial intelligence (AI) and the disciplines of decision science have common roots and strive for similar goals. This paper surveys the potential for addressing problems in representation, inference, knowledge engineering, and explanation within the decision-theoretic framework. Recent analyses of the restrictions of several traditional AI reasoning techniques, coupled with the development of more tractable and expressive decisiontheoretic representation and inference strategies, have stimulated renewed interest in decision theory and decision analysis. We describe early experience with simple probabilistic schemes for automated reasoning, review the dominant expert-system paradigm, and survey some recent research at the crossroads of AI and decision science. In particular, we present the belief network and influence diagram representations. Finally, we discuss issues that have not been studied in detail within the expert-systems sett...

If one wants to use logic to build a diagnostic system, then it is not a matter of "just axiomatising" the domain; we have to understand how to use logic for diagnosis. We need some models of what diagnosis is, in order to be able to implement diagnostic systems. This paper considers 3 different "logical " definitions of diagnosis. Each of these are presented in a uniform framework of hypothetical reasoning where the user provides the possible hypotheses. These are compared as to the sort of knowledge that we need to provide them, and in their expressibilty. It seems as though there is no one framework which can claim to be the logical definition of diagnosis. Each of these approaches has been implemented in the Theorist system, and used on a number of domains. This paper concentrates on the case where we have fault models. 1 Introduction Diagnosis is a problem of trying to find what is wrong with some system based on knowledge about the design /structure of the system, possible malf...

In this paper, we propose a multi-agent belief revision algorithm that utilizes knowledge about reliability or trustworthiness (reputation) of information sources 1. Incorporating reliability information into belief revision mechanisms is essential for agents in real world multi-agent systems. This research assumes the global truth is not available to individual agents and agents only maintain a local subjective perspective, which often is different from those of others. This assumption is true for many domains where the global truth is not available (or infeasible to acquire and maintain) and the cost of collecting and maintaining a centralized global perspective is prohibitive. As an agent builds its local perspective, the variance on the quality of the incoming information depends on the originating information sources. Modeling the quality of incoming information is useful regardless of the level and type of security in a given system. This paper introduces the definition of the trust as the agent’s confidence in the ability and intention of an information source to deliver correct information and reputation as the amount of trust an information source has created for itself through interactions with other agents. This economical (or monetary) perspective of the reputation, viewing reputation as an asset, serves as social law that mandates staying trustworthy to other agents. Algorithms (direct & indirect) maintaining the model of the reputations of other information sources are also introduced. 1