Computing with Default Logic

自1980年Reiter提出缺省逻辑以来，缺省逻辑作为一种潜在的知识表示机制得到了广泛的研究。最近的研究结果表明，缺省逻辑不仅可以作为一种说明性的知识表示工具，而且有可能演变成一个实用的高级计算环境。该项目开发用于自动缺省推理的快速系统，包括并行和分布式环境的实现。使用缺省逻辑进行计算的系统方法也在开发中。通过描述组合优化问题的缺省理论的综合实验，证明了缺省逻辑作为一种计算工具的有效性。为了支持这一实验工作，实现了一个自动生成大量缺省理论、逻辑程序和命题理论的工具。由于默认逻辑的声明性性质，这种基于默认逻辑的新编程工具将易于使用，将允许快速原型制作，并将在广泛的人工智能应用中有效。该测试系统将成为基于默认逻辑和相关形式化的自动推理的标准基准工具。

Since its introduction by Reiter in 1980 default logic has been widely studied for its potential as a knowledge representation mechanism. Recent results indicate that default logic not only can serve as a declarative knowledge representation tool but also has the potential to evolve into a practical high-level computational environment. This project develops fast systems for automated default reasoning including implementations for parallel and distributed environments. A systematic methodology of computing with default logic is also under development. Usefulness of default logic as a computational tool is demonstrated through a comprehensive experimentation with default theories describing combinatorial optimization problems. To support this experimentation effort, a tool to automatically generate large families of default theories, logic programs and propositional theories is implemented. Due to the declarative nature of default logic, this new programming tool, based on default logic, will be easy to use, will allow for fast prototyping and will be effective in a wide range of artificial intelligence applications. The testing system will become a standard benchmarking tool for automated reasoning based on default logic and related formalisms.