Computer based inference engine device and method thereof for integrating backward chaining and forward chaining reasoning
First Claim
1. An inference engine device adapted for use in a computer-controlled expert system, the computer-controlled expert system having a computer and a knowledge base of objects and rules, the objects having known values and unknown values, the rules having at least one test against an object or objects, which inference engine device comprising:
- a) first means for storing instructions for the computer;
b) second means, associated with said first means, for instructing the computer to perform forward reasoning with the objects having known values using the rules configured in a Rete based network, said second means comprising means for generating a conflict set;
c) third means, associated with said first means, for instructing the computer to perform backward reasoning using the rules about the objects having unknown values; and
d) fourth means, associated with said first means, for controlling the execution of said second means and said third means.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An inference engine device adapted for use in a computer-controlled expert system, the computer-controlled expert system having a computer and a knowledge base of objects and rules, the objects having known values and unknown values, the rules having at least one test against an object or objects and configured in a Rete based network. The inference engine is comprised of a first module with a function of storing instructions for the computer; a second module, associated with the first module, that is comprised of a function for instructing the computer to perform forward reasoning with the objects having known values and another function for generating a conflict set; a third module, associated with the first module, that has a function of instructing the computer to perform backward reasoning about the objects having unknown values; and a fourth module, associated with the first module, that determines whether the first or second module is being executed by the computer.
55 Citations
18 Claims
-
1. An inference engine device adapted for use in a computer-controlled expert system, the computer-controlled expert system having a computer and a knowledge base of objects and rules, the objects having known values and unknown values, the rules having at least one test against an object or objects, which inference engine device comprising:
-
a) first means for storing instructions for the computer; b) second means, associated with said first means, for instructing the computer to perform forward reasoning with the objects having known values using the rules configured in a Rete based network, said second means comprising means for generating a conflict set; c) third means, associated with said first means, for instructing the computer to perform backward reasoning using the rules about the objects having unknown values; and d) fourth means, associated with said first means, for controlling the execution of said second means and said third means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A computer-controlled method for reasoning about a knowledge base of an expert system, the knowledge base having objects and rules therein, which method comprises the steps of:
-
(a) performing forward reasoning on the objects to generate a conflict set of rule instances using the rules configured in a Rete based network; (b) continuing forward reasoning using the rules until no said rule instances exist in the conflict set; and (c) performing backward chaining using the rules on the objects when no said rule instances exist in the conflict set. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
-
-
17. A computer-controlled inference engine adapted for reasoning about a knowledge base of an expert system, the knowledge base having objects and rules therein, the rules having first condition tests and second condition tests, which computer-controlled inference engine comprises:
-
(a) first means for reasoning in a forward or backward chaining manner using the rules, wherein the rules are configured in a Rete based network; (b) second means for reasoning in a forward chaining manner with one or more of the first condition tests of one of the rules; and (c) third means for reasoning in a backward manner with one or more of the second condition tests of the same rule.
-
-
18. A computer-controlled inference engine adapted for reasoning about a knowledge base of an expert system, the knowledge base having objects and rules therein, the rules having at least one condition test, which computer-controlled inference engine comprises:
-
(a) first means for acquiring object values so that the expert system can reason in a forward chaining manner with all the rules, wherein the rules are configured in a Rete based network; (b) second means for reasoning in a backward chaining manner with one or more of the rules to acquire object values; and (c) third means for forward chaining reasoning with all the rules using said object values.
-
Specification