A hybrid system applied to epidemic screening

Although many knowledge-based systems (KBSs) focus on single-paradigm approaches to encoding knowledge (such as production rules), human experts rarely use a single type of knowledge to solve a real-world problem. A human expert usually combines a number of reasoning mechanisms. In recent years, rule-based reasoning (RBR), case-based reasoning (CBR) and model-based reasoning (MBR) have emerged as important and complementary reasoning methodologies in the intelligent systems area. For complex problem solving, it is useful to integrate RBR, CBR and MBR. In this paper, a hybrid epidemic screening KBS which integrates a deductive RBR system, an inductive CBR system and a quantitative MBR system is proposed. The system has been tested using real epidemic screening variables and data.     

Multi-modal diagnosis combining case-based and model-based reasoning: a formal and experimental analysis

Integrating different reasoning modes in the construction of an intelligent system is one of the most interesting and challenging aspects of modern AI. Exploiting the complementarity and the synergy of different approaches is one of the main motivations that led several researchers to investigate the possibilities of building multi-modal reasoning systems, where different reasoning modalities and different knowledge representation formalisms are integrated and combined. Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) is often considered a fundamental modality in several multi-modal reasoning systems; CBR integration has been shown very useful and practical in several domains and tasks. The right way of devising a CBR integration is however very complex and a principled way of combining different modalities is needed to gain the maximum effectiveness and efficiency for a particular task. In this paper we present results (both theoretical and experimental) concerning architectures integrating CBR and Model-Based Reasoning (MBR) in the context of diagnostic problem solving. We first show that both the MBR and CBR approaches to diagnosis may suffer from computational intractability, and therefore a careful combination of the two approaches may be useful to reduce the computational cost in the average case. The most important contribution of the paper is the analysis of the different facets that may influence the entire performance of a multi-modal reasoning system, namely computational complexity, system competence in problem solving and the quality of the sets of produced solutions. We show that an opportunistic and flexible architecture able to estimate the right cooperation among modalities can exhibit a satisfactory behavior with respect to every performance aspect. An analysis of different ways of integrating CBR is performed both at the experimental and at the analytical level. On the analytical side, a cost model and a competence model able to analyze a multi-modal architecture through the analysis of its individual components are introduced and discussed. On the experimental side, a very detailed set of experiments has been carried out, showing that a flexible and opportunistic integration can provide significant advantages in the use of a multi-modal architecture.     

ASHSD-II: A computational model for litigation support

Abstract: In this paper a hybrid knowledge-based system which exploits both rule-based reasoning (RBR) and case-based reasoning (CBR) is presented. The issues of RBR and CBR in general in the context of legal knowledge-based systems and legislation in rule form and previously-decided cases in an interconnected graph form are discussed. It is possible for the user to select either reasoning method (RBR or CBR), or indicate no preference. The rule base of this system consists of two types of rule. The first type of rule determines which options are legally applicable. The second type indicates how the courts are likely to act within the range of options available, which is determined by the first type of rule. When CBR is selected, the system uses the features of previously-decided cases to select the most similar cases to the situation that is described in the input and displays their details of decisions. In case of the selection of no preference option, the system applies RBR and CBR method separately, and then presents results based on an automated relative rating of the qualities of the RBR (based on the second type of rules) and CBR advice. These ideas have been implemented in a prototype system, known as A dvisory S upport for H ome S ettlement in D ivorce (ASHSD-II).     

Integrating Case-Based and Rule-Based Reasoning to Meet Multiple Design Constraints

Although case-based reasoning (CBR) was introduced as an alternative to rule-based reasoning (RBR), there is a growing interest in integrating it with other reasoning paradigms, including RBR. New hybrid approaches are being piloted to achieve new synergies and improve problem-solving capabilities. In our approach to integration, CBR is used to satisfy multiple numeric constraints, and RBR allows the performance of "what if" analysis needed for creative design.
The domain of our investigation is nutritional menu planning. The task of designing nutritious, yet appetizing, menus is one at which human experts consistently outperform computer systems. Tailoring a menu to the needs of an individual requires satisfaction of multiple numeric nutrition constraints plus personal preference goals and aesthetic criteria.
We first constructed and evaluated independent CBR and RBR menu planning systems, then built a hybrid system incorporating the strengths of each system. The hybrid outperforms either single strategy system, designing superior menus, while synergistically providing functionality that neither single strategy system could provide. In this paper, we present our hybrid approach, which has applicability to other design tasks in which both physical constraints and aesthetic criteria must be met.     

可重构知识管理系统中案例与规则的集成推理方法

传统上的知识管理工具往往在设计时就固定了知识结构,这样的系统不但缺乏通用性,而且也限制了知识检索与推理的效率。介绍一个基于本体的可重构知识管理系统,知识作为本体概念的对象实例,利用本体模型的可定制性,解决了以往知识类型不能扩展的问题。详细阐述了结合案例推理与规则推理的集成推理方法,通过规则学习算法支持了规则库的动态扩充与调整,并将本体类的语义关系应用于推理方法,进一步提高了推理的效率。最后介绍了该系统在某飞机设计研究院的应用情况和今后的研究方向。     

一种CBR与RBR相结合的快速预案生成系统

将范例推理(case based reasoning,CBR)与规则推理(rule based reasoning,RBR)两种人工智能技术相结合,实现一种快速预案生成系统.它有效地解决了单纯RBR系统在预案生成过程中的时间延迟缺陷和知识库难以获取的瓶颈.通过CBR工具,能够把以前发生的紧急事件和解决方案生成预案.一旦新的事件发生,首先从预案库中进行案例的相似性检索,如果没有检索到预案或者检索到的预案匹配度很低,再采用RBR系统对紧急事件进行规则推理,然后把推理结果重新存入预案库.实验数据表明,这种方法对单纯RBR系统在时间响应上进行了有效的优化.另外,因为案例的获取比专家系统推理规则的获取容易得多,它同时解决了RBR系统推理规则难以获取的瓶颈.根据这种思想,实现了CBR与RBR结合的快速预案生成系统.目前,它已经应用到抗洪抢险的预案生成和城市应急联动的决策支持上,效果表明它在预案生成速度以及实际可操作性上都具有明显优势.     

基于CBR和RBR的维修性设计技术智能化

结合维修性设计过程分析和人类处理问题的思维方式,依据维修性设计技术的两大指导文献(《维修性设计准则》与《维修性设计技术案例汇编》),分析了RBR和CBR技术的优缺点,给出了基于RBR和CBR混合推理的维修性设计技术智能化的框架结构。     

实例推理和规则推理在实例修改中的应用

在CBR系统中实例修改是一个关键环节,该文通过分析几种实例修改的方法,提出了将实例推理和规则推理进行整合后引入到实例修改过程中,建立修改规则库来完成实例修改,并就如何建立修改规则库进行了说明,为建立智能化的实例修改提供一种思路。     

Maintaining Retrieval Knowledge in a Case-Based Reasoning System

The knowledge stored in a case base is central to the problem solving of a case-based reasoning (CBR) system. Therefore, case-base maintenance is a key component of maintaining a CBR system. However, other knowledge sources, such as indexing and similarity knowledge for improved case retrieval, also play an important role in CBR problem solving. For many CBR applications, the refinement of this retrieval knowledge is a necessary component of CBR maintenance. This article focuses on optimization of the parameters and feature selections/weights for the indexing and nearest-neighbor algorithms used by CBR retrieval. Optimization is applied after case-base maintenance and refines the CBR retrieval to reflect changes that have occurred to cases in the case base. The optimization process is generic and automatic, using knowledge contained in the cases. In this article we demonstrate its effectiveness on a real tablet formulation application in two maintenance scenarios. One scenario, a growing case base, is provided by two snapshots of a formulation database. A change in the company's formulation policy results in a second, more fundamental requirement for CBR maintenance. We show that after case-base maintenance, the CBR system did indeed benefit from also refining the retrieval knowledge. We believe that existing CBR shells would benefit from including an option to automatically optimize the retrieval process.     

ActiveCBR: An Agent System That Integrates Case-Based Reasoning and Active Databases

Case-based reasoning (CBR) is an artificial intelligence (AI) technique for problem solving that uses previous similar examples to solve a current problem. Despite its success, most current CBR systems are passive: they require human users to activate them manually and to provide information about the incoming problem explicitly. In this paper, we present an integrated agent system that integrates CBR systems with an active database system. Active databases, with the support of active rules, can perform event detection, condition monitoring, and event handling (action execution) in an automatic manner. The integrated ActiveCBR system consists of two layers. In the lower layer, the active database is rule-driven; in the higher layer, the result of action execution of active rules is transformed into feature–value pairs required by the CBR subsystem. The layered architecture separates CBR from sophisticated rule-based reasoning, and improves the traditional passive CBR system with the active property. The system has both real-time response and is highly exible in knowledge management as well as autonomously in response to events that a passive CBR system cannot handle. We demonstrate the system efficiency and effectiveness through empirical tests. Received 21 April 2000 / Revised 12 June 2000 / Accepted in revised form 14 July 2000     

灰度关联理论在CBR中的应用研究

针对基于规则推理技术（RBR）知识获取困难、自学习能力差等缺陷,将基于案例推理技术（CBR）引入故障诊断系统中。介绍了基于案例推理的故障诊断方法的工作机理和过程模型,阐述了案例表示、案例检索、案例保存和案例库维护机制,然后简单介绍了灰色关联理论知识,并把灰色关联理论应用到故障案例相似度的计算中。根据实验结果可知,该方法有效地改进了案例检索算法,提高了故障案例匹配的准确度和检索效率,同时具有较好的分辨率。     

Autonomic self healing and recovery informed by environment knowledge

An important goal of autonomic computing is the development of computing systems that are capable of self healing with a minimum of human intervention. Typically, recovery from even a simple fault will require knowledge of the environment in which a computing system operates. To meet this need, we present an approach to self healing and recovery informed by environment knowledge that combines case based reasoning (CBR) and rule based reasoning. Specifically, CBR is used for fault diagnosis and rule based reasoning for fault remediation, recovery, and referral. We also show how automated information gathering from available sources in a computing system’s environment can increase problem solving efficiency and help to reduce the occurrence of service failures. Finally, we demonstrate the approach in an intelligent system for fault management in a local printer network.     

一种CBR与RBR相结合的智能家庭推理系统*

介绍了一种CBR与RBR相结合的智能家庭推理系统。将CBR与RBR两种人工智能技术相结合,运用于普适计算的典型应用智能家庭中,首先通过RBR推理出当前用户的活动以及心情等较高级上下文;然后再用CBR进行上下文的再处理,融合多类型或历史的上下文,自动预测相似度最大的上下文,并基于该上下文为用户提供个性化服务。     

铁路行车事故救援决策方法研究

传统的铁路行车事故救援多采用人工方式给出救援方案,但事故受多方面因素的影响,救援人员很难及时的给出科学合理的救援方案.针对已有救援知识不完备、不系统的特点,提出规则推理(Rule-based Reasoning,RBR)和案例推理(Case-Based Reasoning,CBR)相结合的两级分层推理框架,给出了系统流程图,说明了RBR与CBR的具体实现方法,并将自组织特征映射网络(Self-Organizing Feature Map,SOFM)应用到事例检索中,有效地提高了检索的效率.仿真实验结果表明系统取得了良好的效果.克服了单一推理的缺点,实现了对救援理论和经验的复用,提高了系统的效率和综合推理能力,并使系统具有了学习能力.研究结果为进一步应用奠定了基础.     

基于RBR和CBR的故障诊断专家系统研究

本文将CBR和RBR相结合的推理机制应用于控制系统的故障诊断,针对控制系统故障诊断的要求,确定了所使用的推理策略,设计了专家系统的结构,使用树状的数据结构将规则和案例两种知识组织起来,建立了专家系统的知识库。最后,采用VC6.0和SQLServer2000实现了专家系统的软件并进行数学仿真实验。实验结果表明,本专家系统对于卫星控制系统的故障诊断能够快速可靠地进行诊断,具有很好的实用性。     

Case-based reasoning and adaptation in hydraulic production machine design

Case-based reasoning (CBR) can support hydraulic circuit design. Existing expert systems for hydraulic system design use production rules as its source of knowledge. However, this leads to problems of knowledge acquisition and knowledge base maintenance. This paper describes the application of CBR to hydraulic circuit design for production machines, which helps solving problems using past experience. A technique Case-based adaptation (CBA) is implemented in the adaptation stage of CBR so that adaptation becomes much easier. A prototype system has been developed to verify the usefulness of CBR and CBA in hydraulic production machines.     

An association-based case reduction technique for case-based reasoning

Case-based reasoning (CBR) is a type of problem solving technique which uses previous cases to solve new, unseen and different problems. Although a larger number of cases in the memory can improve the coverage of the problem space, the retrieval efficiency will be downgraded if the size of the case-base grows to an unacceptable level. In CBR systems, the tradeoff between the number of cases stored in the case-base and the retrieval efficiency is a critical issue. This paper addresses the problem of case-base maintenance by developing a new technique, the association-based case reduction technique (ACRT), to reduce the size of the case-base in order to enhance the efficiency while maintaining or even improving the accuracy of the CBR. The experiments on 12 UCI datasets and an actual case from Taiwan’s hospital have shown superior generalization accuracy for CBR with ACRT (CBR-ACRT) as well as a greater solving efficiency.     

A hybrid expert system for equipment failure analysis

This paper outlines the development of a web-based expert system, equipment failure analysis expert system (EFAES), for the largest steel company in Taiwan. The EFAES inference engine employs both case-based reasoning (CBR) and rule-based reasoning (RBR) to generate a hybrid recommendation list for cross validation. Moreover, this inference engine was designed to support a hierarchical multi-attribute structure. Unlike the traditional ‘flat’ attribute structure, this hierarchical multi-attribute structure allows experts to weigh the attributes dynamically. Two two-dimensional matrixes, multi-attribute analysis (MAA) and subattributes matrix (SAM), are used to store the attributes' weight values. Normalized relative spending (NRS) is adapted to normalize the weight values for the inference engine. The system recommends both cases and rules, which can give more information in recognizing the failure types. According to our experimental results, applying our proposed method in an inference engine to analyze failure can result in better quality recommendations.