NUTAN MAHARASHTRA VIDYA PRASARAK MANDAL’S

NUTAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & RESEARCH (NCER)

Department of Computer Science & Engineering
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BTCOC701

Lecture
Topic to be covered
Number

Unit 3: Knowledge and Reasoning (07Hrs)

1 ⮚ Knowledge representation issues, Representation & mapping

⮚ Approaches to knowledge representation, Issues in knowledge representation

2

⮚ Using predicate logic: Representing simple fact in logic

3

⮚ Representing instant & ISA relationship, Computable functions & predicates

4

⮚ Computable functions & predicates Representing knowledge using rules:

5

⮚ Procedural verses declarative knowledge Logic programming

6

⮚ Forward Chaining, Backward Chaining, Resolution

7

:Submitted by:
Prof. S. B. Mehta

ASST PROF:- S.B.MEHTA NCER, BATU UNIVERSITY, LONERE

 DEPARTMENT OF
COMPUTER SCIENCE
Nutan College Of Engineering &
& ENGINEERING
Research, Talegaon Dabhade, Pune-410507

Artificial Intelligence

Unit 3: Knowledge & Reasoning

Knowledge-Based Agent:
o An intelligent agent needs knowledge about the real world for taking decisions and reasoning to
act efficiently.

o Knowledge-based agents are those agents who have the capability of maintaining an internal
state of knowledge, reason over that knowledge, update their knowledge after observations
and take actions. These agents can represent the world with some formal representation and
act intelligently.

o Knowledge-based agents are composed of two main parts:

o Knowledge-base and

o Inference system.

A knowledge-based agent must able to do the following:

o An agent should be able to represent states, actions, etc.

o An agent Should be able to incorporate new percepts

o An agent can update the internal representation of the world

o An agent can deduce the internal representation of the world

o An agent can deduce appropriate actions.

The architecture of knowledge-based agent:

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 The above diagram is representing a generalized architecture for a knowledge-based agent. The
knowledge-based agent (KBA) take input from the environment by perceiving the environment. The
input is taken by the inference engine of the agent and which also communicate with KB to decide
as per the knowledge store in KB. The learning element of KBA regularly updates the KB by learning
new knowledge.

Knowledge base: Knowledge-base is a central component of a knowledge-based agent, it is also

known as KB. It is a collection of sentences (here 'sentence' is a technical term and it is not identical
to sentence in English). These sentences are expressed in a language which is called a knowledge
representation language. The Knowledge-base of KBA stores fact about the world.

Why use a knowledge base?

Knowledge-base is required for updating knowledge for an agent to learn with experiences and take
action as per the knowledge.
Inference system
Inference means deriving new sentences from old. Inference system allows us to add a new sentence
to the knowledge base. A sentence is a proposition about the world. Inference system applies logical
rules to the KB to deduce new information.
Inference system generates new facts so that an agent can update the KB. An inference system works
mainly in two rules which are given as:
o Forward chaining
o Backward chaining
Operations Performed by KBA
Following are three operations which are performed by KBA in order to show the intelligent

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 behavior:
1. TELL: This operation tells the knowledge base what it perceives from the environment.
2. ASK: This operation asks the knowledge base what action it should perform.
3. Perform: It performs the selected action.

Various levels of knowledge-based agent:

A knowledge-based agent can be viewed at different levels which are given below:

1. Knowledge level

Knowledge level is the first level of knowledge-based agent, and in this level, we need to specify what
the agent knows, and what the agent goals are. With these specifications, we can fix its behavior. For
example, suppose an automated taxi agent needs to go from a station A to station B, and he knows the
way from A to B, so this comes at the knowledge level.

2. Logical level:

At this level, we understand that how the knowledge representation of knowledge is stored. At this
level, sentences are encoded into different logics. At the logical level, an encoding of knowledge into
logical sentences occurs. At the logical level we can expect to the automated taxi agent to reach to the
destination B.

3. Implementation level:

This is the physical representation of logic and knowledge. At the implementation level agent perform
actions as per logical and knowledge level. At this level, an automated taxi agent actually implement his
knowledge and logic so that he can reach to the destination.

What is knowledge representation?

Humans are best at understanding, reasoning, and interpreting knowledge. Human knows things, which
is knowledge and as per their knowledge they perform various actions in the real world. But how
machines do all these things comes under knowledge representation and reasoning. Hence we can
describe Knowledge representation as following:

o Knowledge representation and reasoning (KR, KRR) is the part of Artificial intelligence which
concerned with AI agents thinking and how thinking contributes to intelligent behavior of agents.

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 o It is responsible for representing information about the real world so that a computer can
understand and can utilize this knowledge to solve the complex real world problems such as
diagnosis a medical condition or communicating with humans in natural language.
o It is also a way which describes how we can represent knowledge in artificial intelligence.
Knowledge representation is not just storing data into some database, but it also enables an
intelligent machine to learn from that knowledge and experiences so that it can behave intelligently
like a human.

What to Represent:
Following are the kind of knowledge which needs to be represented in AI systems:

o Object: All the facts about objects in our world domain. E.g., Guitars contains strings, trumpets
are brass instruments.
o Events: Events are the actions which occur in our world.
o Performance: It describe behavior which involves knowledge about how to do things.
o Meta-knowledge: It is knowledge about what we know.
o Facts: Facts are the truths about the real world and what we represent.
o Knowledge-Base: The central component of the knowledge-based agents is the knowledge base.
It is represented as KB. The Knowledgebase is a group of the Sentences (Here, sentences are used
as a technical term and not identical with the English language).

Knowledge: Knowledge is awareness or familiarity gained by experiences of facts, data, and situations.
Following are the types of knowledge in artificial intelligence:

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Types of knowledge
Following are the various types of knowledge:

1. Declarative Knowledge:

o Declarative knowledge is to know about something.

o It includes concepts, facts, and objects.
o It is also called descriptive knowledge and expressed in declarative sentences.
o It is simpler than procedural language.

2. Procedural Knowledge

o It is also known as imperative knowledge.

o Procedural knowledge is a type of knowledge which is responsible for knowing how to do
something.
o It can be directly applied to any task.
o It includes rules, strategies, procedures, agendas, etc.
o Procedural knowledge depends on the task on which it can be applied.

3. Meta-knowledge:

o Knowledge about the other types of knowledge is called Meta-knowledge.

4. Heuristic knowledge:

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 o Heuristic knowledge is representing knowledge of some experts in a filed or subject.
o Heuristic knowledge is rules of thumb based on previous experiences, awareness of approaches,
and which are good to work but not guaranteed.

5. Structural knowledge:

o Structural knowledge is basic knowledge to problem-solving.

o It describes relationships between various concepts such as kind of, part of, and grouping of
something.
o It describes the relationship that exists between concepts or objects.

Techniques of knowledge representation

There are mainly four ways of knowledge representation which are given as follows:

1. Logical Representation
2. Semantic Network Representation
3. Frame Representation
4. Production Rules

1. Logical Representation

Logical representation is a language with some concrete rules which deals with propositions and has no
ambiguity in representation. Logical representation means drawing a conclusion based on various
conditions. This representation lays down some important communication rules. It consists of precisely

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defined syntax and semantics which supports the sound inference. Each sentence can be translated into
logics using syntax and semantics.

Syntax:

o Syntaxes are the rules which decide how we can construct legal sentences in the logic.
o It determines which symbol we can use in knowledge representation.
o How to write those symbols.

Semantics:

o Semantics are the rules by which we can interpret the sentence in the logic.
o Semantic also involves assigning a meaning to each sentence.

Logical representation can be categorised into mainly two logics:

a. Propositional Logics
b. Predicate logics

Advantages of logical representation:

1. Logical representation enables us to do logical reasoning.

2. Logical representation is the basis for the programming languages.

Disadvantages of logical Representation:

1. Logical representations have some restrictions and are challenging to work with.
2. Logical representation technique may not be very natural, and inference may not be so efficient.

2. Semantic Network Representation

Semantic networks are alternative of predicate logic for knowledge representation. In Semantic networks,
we can represent our knowledge in the form of graphical networks. This network consists of nodes
representing objects and arcs which describe the relationship between those objects. Semantic networks
can categorize the object in different forms and can also link those objects. Semantic networks are easy
to understand and can be easily extended.

This representation consist of mainly two types of relations:

a. IS-A relation (Inheritance)

b. Kind-of-relation

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Example: Following are some statements which we need to represent in the form of nodes and arcs.

Statements:

a. Jerry is a cat.
b. Jerry is a mammal
c. Jerry is owned by Priya.
d. Jerry is brown colored.
e. All Mammals are animal.

In the above diagram, we have represented the different type of knowledge in the form of nodes and arcs.
Each object is connected with another object by some relation.

Drawbacks in Semantic representation:

1. Semantic networks take more computational time at runtime as we need to traverse the complete
network tree to answer some questions. It might be possible in the worst case scenario that after
traversing the entire tree, we find that the solution does not exist in this network.
2. Semantic networks try to model human-like memory (Which has 1015 neurons and links) to store
the information, but in practice, it is not possible to build such a vast semantic network.
3. These types of representations are inadequate as they do not have any equivalent quantifier, e.g.,
for all, for some, none, etc.
4. Semantic networks do not have any standard definition for the link names.
5. These networks are not intelligent and depend on the creator of the system.

Advantages of Semantic network:

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 1. Semantic networks are a natural representation of knowledge.
2. Semantic networks convey meaning in a transparent manner.
3. These networks are simple and easily understandable.

3. Frame Representation

A frame is a record like structure which consists of a collection of attributes and its values to describe an
entity in the world. Frames are the AI data structure which divides knowledge into substructures by
representing stereotypes situations. It consists of a collection of slots and slot values. These slots may be
of any type and sizes. Slots have names and values which are called facets.

Facets: The various aspects of a slot is known as Facets. Facets are features of frames which enable us
to put constraints on the frames. Example: IF-NEEDED facts are called when data of any particular slot
is needed. A frame may consist of any number of slots, and a slot may include any number of facets and
facets may have any number of values. A frame is also known as slot-filter knowledge representation in
artificial intelligence.

Frames are derived from semantic networks and later evolved into our modern-day classes and objects. A
single frame is not much useful. Frames system consist of a collection of frames which are connected. In
the frame, knowledge about an object or event can be stored together in the knowledge base. The frame
is a type of technology which is widely used in various applications including Natural language processing
and machine visions.

Example: 1

Let's take an example of a frame for a book

Slots Filters

Title Artificial Intelligence

Genre Computer Science

Author Peter Norvig

Edition Third Edition

Year 1996

Page 1152

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Example 2:

Let's suppose we are taking an entity, Peter. Peter is an engineer as a profession, and his age is 25, he lives
in city London, and the country is England. So following is the frame representation for this:

Slots Filter

Name Peter

Profession Doctor

Age 25

Marital status Single

Weight 78

Advantages of frame representation:

1. The frame knowledge representation makes the programming easier by grouping the related data.
2. The frame representation is comparably flexible and used by many applications in AI.
3. It is very easy to add slots for new attribute and relations.
4. It is easy to include default data and to search for missing values.
5. Frame representation is easy to understand and visualize.

Disadvantages of frame representation:

1. In frame system inference mechanism is not be easily processed.

2. Inference mechanism cannot be smoothly proceeded by frame representation.
3. Frame representation has a much generalized approach.

4. Production Rules

Production rules system consist of (condition, action) pairs which mean, "If condition then action". It has
mainly three parts:

o The set of production rules

o Working Memory
o The recognize-act-cycle

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In production rules agent checks for the condition and if the condition exists then production rule fires
and corresponding action is carried out. The condition part of the rule determines which rule may be
applied to a problem. And the action part carries out the associated problem-solving steps. This complete
process is called a recognize-act cycle.

The working memory contains the description of the current state of problems-solving and rule can write
knowledge to the working memory. This knowledge match and may fire other rules.

If there is a new situation (state) generates, then multiple production rules will be fired together, this is
called conflict set. In this situation, the agent needs to select a rule from these sets, and it is called a
conflict resolution.

Example:

o IF (at bus stop AND bus arrives) THEN action (get into the bus)
o IF (on the bus AND paid AND empty seat) THEN action (sit down).
o IF (on bus AND unpaid) THEN action (pay charges).
o IF (bus arrives at destination) THEN action (get down from the bus).

Advantages of Production rule:

1. The production rules are expressed in natural language.

2. The production rules are highly modular, so we can easily remove, add or modify an individual
rule.

Disadvantages of Production rule:

1. Production rule system does not exhibit any learning capabilities, as it does not store the result of
the problem for the future uses.
2. During the execution of the program, many rules may be active hence rule-based production
systems are inefficient.

Propositional logic in Artificial intelligence

Propositional logic (PL) is the simplest form of logic where all the statements are made by
propositions. A proposition is a declarative statement which is either true or false. It is a technique
of knowledge representation in logical and mathematical form.

Example:

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 a) It is Sunday.

b) The Sun rises from West (False proposition)

c) 3+3= 7(False proposition)

d) 5 is a prime number.

Following are some basic facts about propositional logic:

 Propositional logic is also called Boolean logic as it works on 0 and 1.

 In propositional logic, we use symbolic variables to represent the logic, and we can use any
symbol for a representing a proposition, such A, B, C, P, Q, R, etc.

 Propositions can be either true or false, but it cannot be both.

 Propositional logic consists of an object, relations or function, and logical connectives.

 These connectives are also called logical operators.

 The propositions and connectives are the basic elements of the propositional logic.

 Connectives can be said as a logical operator which connects two sentences.

 A proposition formula which is always true is called tautology, and it is also called a valid
sentence.

 A proposition formula which is always false is called Contradiction.

 A proposition formula which has both true and false values is called

 Statements which are questions, commands, or opinions are not propositions such as "Where is
Rohini", "How are you", "What is your name", are not propositions.

Syntax of propositional logic:

The syntax of propositional logic defines the allowable sentences for the knowledge representation.
There are two types of Propositions:

a. Atomic Propositions

b. Compound propositions

o Atomic Proposition:
Atomic propositions are the simple propositions. It consists of a single proposition symbol.
These are the sentences which must be either true or false.

Example:

a) 2+2 is 4, it is an atomic proposition as it is a true fact.

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 b) "The Sun is cold" is also a proposition as it is a false fact.

o Compound proposition:
Compound propositions are constructed by combining simpler or atomic propositions, using
parenthesis and logical connectives.

Example:

a) "It is raining today, and street is wet."

b) "Ankit is a doctor, and his clinic is in Mumbai."

Logical Connectives:
Logical connectives are used to connect two simpler propositions or representing a sentence logically.
We can create compound propositions with the help of logical connectives. There are mainly five
connectives, which are given as follows:

1. Negation: A sentence such as ¬ P is called negation of P. A literal can be either Positive literal
or negative literal.

2. Conjunction: A sentence which has ∧ connective such as, P ∧ Q is called a conjunction.

Example: Rohan is intelligent and hardworking. It can be written as,
P= Rohan is intelligent,
Q= Rohan is hardworking. → P∧ Q.

3. Disjunction: A sentence which has ∨ connective, such as P ∨ Q. is called disjunction, where P

and Q are the propositions.
Example: "Ritika is a doctor or Engineer",
Here P= Ritika is Doctor. Q= Ritika is Doctor, so we can write it as P ∨ Q.

4. Implication: A sentence such as P → Q, is called an implication. Implications are also known as

if-then rules. It can be represented as
If it is raining, then the street is wet.
Let P= It is raining, and Q= Street is wet, so it is represented as P → Q

5. Biconditional: A sentence such as P⇔ Q is a Biconditional sentence, example If I am

breathing, then I am alive
P= I am breathing, Q= I am alive, it can be represented as P ⇔ Q.

Following is the summarized table for Propositional Logic Connectives:

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Truth Table:
In propositional logic, we need to know the truth values of propositions in all possible scenarios. We
can combine all the possible combination with logical connectives, and the representation of these
combinations in a tabular format is called Truth table. Following are the truth table for all logical
connectives:

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 Truth table with three propositions:
We can build a proposition composing three propositions P, Q, and R. This truth table is made-up of 8n Tuples
as we have taken three proposition symbols.

Precedence of connectives:
Just like arithmetic operators, there is a precedence order for propositional connectors or logical
operators. This order should be followed while evaluating a propositional problem. Following is the list
of the precedence order for operators:4

Precedence Operators

First Precedence Parenthesis

Second Precedence Negation

Third Precedence Conjunction(AND)

Fourth Precedence Disjunction(OR)

Fifth Precedence Implication

Six Precedence Biconditional

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Note: For better understanding use parenthesis to make sure of the correct interpretations. Such as ¬R∨
Q, It can be interpreted as (¬R) ∨ Q.

Logical equivalence:

Logical equivalence is one of the features of propositional logic. Two propositions are said to be
logically equivalent if and only if the columns in the truth table are identical to each other.

Let's take two propositions A and B, so for logical equivalence, we can write it as A⇔B. In below truth
table we can see that column for ¬A∨ B and A→B, are identical hence A is Equivalent to B

Properties of Operators:

o Commutativity:

o P∧ Q= Q ∧ P, or

o P ∨ Q = Q ∨ P.

o Associativity:

o (P ∧ Q) ∧ R= P ∧ (Q ∧ R),

o (P ∨ Q) ∨ R= P ∨ (Q ∨ R)

o Identity element:

o P ∧ True = P,

o P ∨ True= True.

o Distributive:

o P∧ (Q ∨ R) = (P ∧ Q) ∨ (P ∧ R).

o P ∨ (Q ∧ R) = (P ∨ Q) ∧ (P ∨ R).

o DE Morgan's Law:

o ¬ (P ∧ Q) = (¬P) ∨ (¬Q)

o ¬ (P ∨ Q) = (¬ P) ∧ (¬Q).

o Double-negation elimination:

o ¬ (¬P) = P.

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Limitations of Propositional logic:

o We cannot represent relations like ALL, some, or none with propositional logic. Example:

a. All the girls are intelligent.

b. Some apples are sweet.

o Propositional logic has limited expressive power.

o In propositional logic, we cannot describe statements in terms of their properties or logical

relationships.

First-Order Logic in Artificial intelligence

In the topic of Propositional logic, we have seen that how to represent statements using propositional
logic. But unfortunately, in propositional logic, we can only represent the facts, which are either true or
false. PL is not sufficient to represent the complex sentences or natural language statements. The
propositional logic has very limited expressive power. Consider the following sentence, which we cannot
represent using PL logic.

o "Some humans are intelligent", or

o "Sachin likes cricket."

To represent the above statements, PL logic is not sufficient, so we required some more powerful logic,
such as first-order logic.

First-Order logic:
o First-order logic is another way of knowledge representation in artificial intelligence. It is an
extension to propositional logic.
o FOL is sufficiently expressive to represent the natural language statements in a concise way.
o First-order logic is also known as Predicate logic or First-order predicate logic. First-order
logic is a powerful language that develops information about the objects in a more easy way and
can also express the relationship between those objects.
o First-order logic (like natural language) does not only assume that the world contains facts like
propositional logic but also assumes the following things in the world:
o Objects: A, B, people, numbers, colors, wars, theories, squares, pits, wumpus, ......
o Relations: It can be unary relation such as: red, round, is adjacent, or n-any relation
such as: the sister of, brother of, has color, comes between
o Function: Father of, best friend, third inning of, end of, ......
o As a natural language, first-order logic also has two main parts:
a. Syntax

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b. Semantics

Syntax of First-Order logic:

The syntax of FOL determines which collection of symbols is a logical expression in first-order logic.
The basic syntactic elements of first-order logic are symbols. We write statements in short-hand notation
in FOL.

Basic Elements of First-order logic:

Following are the basic elements of FOL syntax:

Constant 1, 2, A, John, Mumbai, cat,....

Variables x, y, z, a, b,....

Predicates Brother, Father, >,....

Function sqrt, LeftLegOf, ....

Connectives ∧, ∨, ¬, ⇒, ⇔

Equality ==

Quantifier ∀, ∃

Atomic sentences:

o Atomic sentences are the most basic sentences of first-order logic. These sentences are formed
from a predicate symbol followed by a parenthesis with a sequence of terms.
o We can represent atomic sentences as Predicate (term1, term2, ......, term n).

Example: Ravi and Ajay are brothers: => Brothers(Ravi, Ajay).

Chinky is a cat: => cat (Chinky).

Complex Sentences:

o Complex sentences are made by combining atomic sentences using connectives.

First-order logic statements can be divided into two parts:

o Subject: Subject is the main part of the statement.

o Predicate: A predicate can be defined as a relation, which binds two atoms together in a statement.

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Consider the statement: "x is an integer.", it consists of two parts, the first part x is the subject of the
statement and second part "is an integer," is known as a predicate.

Quantifiers in First-order logic:

o A quantifier is a language element which generates quantification, and quantification specifies the
quantity of specimen in the universe of discourse.
o These are the symbols that permit to determine or identify the range and scope of the variable in
the logical expression. There are two types of quantifier:
a. Universal Quantifier, (for all, everyone, everything)
b. Existential quantifier, (for some, at least one).

Universal Quantifier:
Universal quantifier is a symbol of logical representation, which specifies that the statement within
its range is true for everything or every instance of a particular thing.
The Universal quantifier is represented by a symbol ∀, which resembles an inverted A.
Note: In universal quantifier we use implication "→".
If x is a variable, then ∀x is read as:
o For all x
o For each x
o For every x.
Example:
All man drink coffee.
Let a variable x which refers to a cat so all x can be represented in UOD as below:

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 ∀x man(x) → drink (x, coffee).
It will be read as: There are all x where x is a man who drink coffee.

Existential Quantifier:
Existential quantifiers are the type of quantifiers, which express that the statement within its scope is
true for at least one instance of something.
It is denoted by the logical operator ∃, which resembles as inverted E. When it is used with a predicate
variable then it is called as an existential quantifier.
Note: In Existential quantifier we always use AND or Conjunction symbol (∧).

If x is a variable, then existential quantifier will be ∃x or ∃(x). And it will be read as:
o There exists a 'x.'
o For some 'x.'
o For at least one 'x.'

Example:
Some boys are intelligent.

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 ∃x: boys(x) ∧ intelligent(x)
It will be read as: There are some x where x is a boy who is intelligent.

Points to remember:
 The main connective for universal quantifier ∀ is implication →.
 The main connective for existential quantifier ∃ is and ∧.
Properties of Quantifiers:
 In universal quantifier, ∀x∀y is similar to ∀y∀x.
 In Existential quantifier, ∃x∃y is similar to ∃y∃x.
 ∃x∀y is not similar to ∀y∃x.

Some Examples of FOL using quantifier:

1. All birds fly.

In this question the predicate is "fly(bird)."
And since there are all birds who fly so it will be represented as follows.
∀x bird(x) →fly(x).

2. Every man respects his parent.

In this question, the predicate is "respect(x, y)," where x=man, and y= parent.
Since there is every man so will use ∀, and it will be represented as follows:
∀x man(x) → respects (x, parent).

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 3. Some boys play cricket.
In this question, the predicate is "play(x, y)," where x= boys, and y= game. Since there are some boys
so we will use ∃, and it will be represented as:
∃x boys(x) → play(x, cricket).

4. Not all students like both Mathematics and Science.

In this question, the predicate is "like(x, y)," where x= student, and y= subject.
Since there are not all students, so we will use ∀ with negation, so following representation for this:
¬∀ (x) [ student(x) → like(x, Mathematics) ∧ like(x, Science)].

5. Only one student failed in Mathematics.

In this question, the predicate is "failed(x, y)," where x= student, and y= subject.
Since there is only one student who failed in Mathematics, so we will use following representation for
this:
∃(x) [ student(x) → failed (x, Mathematics) ∧∀ (y) [¬(x==y) ∧ student(y) → ¬failed (x,
Mathematics)].

Knowledge Engineering in First-order logic

What is knowledge-engineering?
The process of constructing a knowledge-base in first-order logic is called as knowledge- engineering.
In knowledge-engineering, someone who investigates a particular domain, learns important concept of
that domain, and generates a formal representation of the objects, is known as knowledge engineer.

In this topic, we will understand the Knowledge engineering process in an electronic circuit domain,
which is already familiar. This approach is mainly suitable for creating special-purpose knowledge
base.

The knowledge-engineering process:

Following are some main steps of the knowledge-engineering process. Using these steps, we will
develop a knowledge base which will allow us to reason about digital circuit (One-bit full adder) which
is given below

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1. Identify the task:
The first step of the process is to identify the task, and for the digital circuit, there are various
reasoning tasks.

At the first level or highest level, we will examine the functionality of the circuit:

o Does the circuit add properly?

o What will be the output of gate A2, if all the inputs are high?

At the second level, we will examine the circuit structure details such as:

o Which gate is connected to the first input terminal?

o Does the circuit have feedback loops?

2. Assemble the relevant knowledge:

In the second step, we will assemble the relevant knowledge which is required for digital circuits. So for
digital circuits, we have the following required knowledge:

o Logic circuits are made up of wires and gates.

o Signal flows through wires to the input terminal of the gate, and each gate produces the
corresponding output which flows further.
o In this logic circuit, there are four types of gates used: AND, OR, XOR, and NOT.
o All these gates have one output terminal and two input terminals (except NOT gate, it has one
input terminal).

ASST PROF:- S.B.MEHTA NCER, BATU UNIVERSITY, LONERE

3. Decide on vocabulary:
The next step of the process is to select functions, predicate, and constants to represent the circuits,
terminals, signals, and gates. Firstly we will distinguish the gates from each other and from other objects.
Each gate is represented as an object which is named by a constant, such as, Gate(X1). The functionality
of each gate is determined by its type, which is taken as constants such as AND, OR, XOR, or NOT.
Circuits will be identified by a predicate: Circuit (C1).

For the terminal, we will use predicate: Terminal(x).

For gate input, we will use the function In(1, X1) for denoting the first input terminal of the gate, and for
output terminal we will use Out (1, X1).

The function Arity(c, i, j) is used to denote that circuit c has i input, j output.

The connectivity between gates can be represented by predicate Connect(Out(1, X1), In(1, X1)).

We use a unary predicate On (t), which is true if the signal at a terminal is on.

4. Encode general knowledge about the domain:

To encode the general knowledge about the logic circuit, we need some following rules:

o If two terminals are connected then they have the same input signal, it can be represented as:

∀ t1, t2 Terminal (t1) ∧ Terminal (t2) ∧ Connect (t1, t2) → Signal (t1) = Signal (2).

o Signal at every terminal will have either value 0 or 1, it will be represented as:

∀ t Terminal (t) →Signal (t) = 1 ∨Signal (t) = 0.

5. Encode a description of the problem instance:

Now we encode problem of circuit C1, firstly we categorize the circuit and its gate components. This step
is easy if ontology about the problem is already thought. This step involves the writing simple atomics
sentences of instances of concepts, which is known as ontology.

For the given circuit C1, we can encode the problem instance in atomic sentences as below:

1. Since in the circuit there are two XOR, two AND, and one OR gate so atomic sentences for the
For XOR gate: Type(x1)= XOR, Type(X2) = XOR
2. For AND gate: Type(A1) = AND, Type(A2)= AND
3. For OR gate: Type (O1) = OR.

And then represent the connections between all the gates.

Note: Ontology defines a particular theory of the nature of existence

ASST PROF:- S.B.MEHTA NCER, BATU UNIVERSITY, LONERE

6. Pose queries to the inference procedure and get answers:
In this step, we will find all the possible set of values of all the terminal for the adder circuit. The first
query will be:

What should be the combination of input which would generate the first output of circuit C1, as 0 and a
second output to be 1?

1. ∃ i1, i2, i3 Signal (In(1, C1))=i1 ∧ Signal (In(2, C1))=i2 ∧ Signal (In(3, C1))= i3
2. ∧ Signal (Out(1, C1)) =0 ∧ Signal (Out(2, C1))=1

7. Debug the knowledge base:

Now we will debug the knowledge base, and this is the last step of the complete process. In this step,
we will try to debug the issues of knowledge base.

In the knowledge base, we may have omitted assertions like 1 ≠ 0.

Inference in First-Order Logic

Inference in First-Order Logic is used to deduce new facts or sentences from existing sentences. Before
understanding the FOL inference rule, let's understand some basic terminologies used in FOL.

Substitution:

Substitution is a fundamental operation performed on terms and formulas. It occurs in all inference
systems in first-order logic. The substitution is complex in the presence of quantifiers in FOL. If we
write F[a/x], so it refers to substitute a constant "a" in place of variable "x".

Note: First-order logic is capable of expressing facts about some or all objects in the universe

Equality:

First-Order logic does not only use predicate and terms for making atomic sentences but also uses another
way, which is equality in FOL. For this, we can use equality symbols which specify that the two terms
refer to the same object.

Example: Brother (John) = Smith.

As in the above example, the object referred by the Brother (John) is similar to the object referred
by Smith. The equality symbol can also be used with negation to represent that two terms are not the
same objects.

Example: ￢(x=y) which is equivalent to x ≠y.

FOL inference rules for quantifier:

As propositional logic we also have inference rules in first-order logic, so following are some basic
inference rules in FOL:

ASST PROF:- S.B.MEHTA NCER, BATU UNIVERSITY, LONERE

 o Universal Generalization
o Universal Instantiation
o Existential Instantiation
o Existential introduction

1. Universal Generalization:

o Universal generalization is a valid inference rule which states that if premise P(c) is true for any
arbitrary element c in the universe of discourse, then we can have a conclusion as ∀ x P(x).

o It can be represented as: .

o This rule can be used if we want to show that every element has a similar property.
o In this rule, x must not appear as a free variable.

Example: Let's represent, P(c): "A byte contains 8 bits", so for ∀ x P(x) "All bytes contain 8 bits.", it
will also be true.

2. Universal Instantiation:

o Universal instantiation is also called as universal elimination or UI is a valid inference rule. It can
be applied multiple times to add new sentences.
o The new KB is logically equivalent to the previous KB.
o As per UI, we can infer any sentence obtained by substituting a ground term for the variable.
o The UI rule state that we can infer any sentence P(c) by substituting a ground term c (a constant
within domain x) from ∀ x P(x) for any object in the universe of discourse.

o It can be represented as: .

Example:1.

IF "Every person like ice-cream"=> ∀x P(x) so we can infer that

"John likes ice-cream" => P(c)

Example: 2.

Let's take a famous example,

"All kings who are greedy are Evil." So let our knowledge base contains this detail as in the form of FOL:

∀x king(x) ∧ greedy (x) → Evil (x),

So from this information, we can infer any of the following statements using Universal Instantiation:

o King(John) ∧ Greedy (John) → Evil (John),

ASST PROF:- S.B.MEHTA NCER, BATU UNIVERSITY, LONERE

 o King(Richard) ∧ Greedy (Richard) → Evil (Richard),
o King(Father(John)) ∧ Greedy (Father(John)) → Evil (Father(John)),

3. Existential Instantiation:

o Existential instantiation is also called as Existential Elimination, which is a valid inference rule in
first-order logic.
o It can be applied only once to replace the existential sentence.
o The new KB is not logically equivalent to old KB, but it will be satisfiable if old KB was
satisfiable.
o This rule states that one can infer P(c) from the formula given in the form of ∃x P(x) for a new
constant symbol c.
o The restriction with this rule is that c used in the rule must be a new term for which P(c ) is true.

o It can be represented as:

Example:

From the given sentence: ∃x Crown(x) ∧ OnHead(x, John),

So we can infer: Crown(K) ∧ OnHead( K, John), as long as K does not appear in the knowledge base.

o The above used K is a constant symbol, which is called Skolem constant.

o The Existential instantiation is a special case of Skolemization process.

4. Existential introduction

o An existential introduction is also known as an existential generalization, which is a valid

inference rule in first-order logic.
o This rule states that if there is some element c in the universe of discourse which has a property P,
then we can infer that there exists something in the universe which has the property P.

o It can be represented as:

o Example: Let's say that,
"Priyanka got good marks in English."
"Therefore, someone got good marks in English."

(Subject In-charge)
Prof.S.B.Mehta)

ASST PROF:- S.B.MEHTA NCER, BATU UNIVERSITY, LONERE