reasoners, in the realm of huml ;)

[cognizor@cognizor.com]

kind of a quick review of tools relevant to our enterprises; more on
each topic number is appended below.

1. The Algernon reasoner Roger brought up stems from Ben Kuipers et al.
	========= [[see material below]]

2. To date, most reasoners have been built in prolog and lisp.
By way of a review of various kinds, a summary of lisp AI programs available [mostly open source] is cited here.  
	========== lisp reasoners summary
	http://www.faqs.org/faqs/lisp-faq/part6/
The DAML reasoner is apparently in Prolog, as are various temporal reasoner systems.  (ref. work Pat Hayes and many others) For example
from a 2001 slide at http://www.daml.org/2001/07/pi-ksl/ksl2.ppt , 
"Automated Web Service Composition is working now! 
Implementation:
- DAML+OIL/DAML-S FOL -> Ontolingua, Golog & sitā??n calculus in Prolog
- Java, Prolog, Ontolingua-DAML+OIL translator, OKBC, 
- DAML-S to PDDL translator, bubble gum, scotch tape 
"


3. The Semantic Web of W3C started off with python tools, such as the ClosedWorldMachine CWM based on triples (N-triples or N3, rudimentary
Antecedent---[link become web address "resource"]---Consequent for reasoning).  There are newer tools as well.
	======= a bit of discussion below on web [URL] graph reasoners

4. Then some recent discussion from the java world.
	==========  recent discussion list messages of some reasoner stuff in protege, a java ontology builder/manager "IDE" from Stanford, to which Algernon has been attached, among others such as RACER, ....  


The plenitude is really something.  The good thing is that [with python at least] you can co-ordinate such things, so you don't have to choose just one these days!

SC

=================================
========== lisp reasoners summary, then Algernon info (1.)

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/lisp-faq/part6/

[[Note that Norvig's cited book has equivalent code in several languages, including python.]]

[[Of particular interest is the commonsense, Limited-Access Logic, and qualitative reasoning implementation of Ben Kuipers and his group at UTAustin. ]] 
QSIM and Algernon, etc. originals are still available in lisp from http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/qr/QR-software.html


	-------- quoted [[excerpt; original has links to each app]] from Kuipers at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kuipers/
 
"
Benjamin Kuipers holds an endowed Professorship in Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. He investigates the representation of commonsense and expert knowledge, with particular emphasis on the effective use of incomplete knowledge. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, and his Ph.D. from MIT. He has held research or faculty appointments at MIT, Tufts University, and the University of Texas. His research accomplishments include developing the TOUR model of spatial knowledge in the cognitive map, the QSIM algorithm for qualitative simulation, the Algernon system for knowledge representation, and the Spatial Semantic Hierarchy model of knowledge for robot exploration and mapping. He has served as Department Chairman, and is a Fellow of AAAI and IEEE. 

[[interesting remarks also under link from "Why don't I take military funding?"]]

1. == on Algernon, from http://algernon-j.sourceforge.net/

Algernon - Rule-Based Programming


 The Algernon rule-based inference system is now implemented in Java and interfaced with Protege. Algernon performs forward and backward rule-based processing of frame-based knowledge bases, and efficiently stores and retrieves information in ontologies and knowledge bases. 

Algernon is available under the MPL open source license. 


Quick Links

 
Download Algernon (Java)
 
Algernon documentation
 
Algernon tutorial
 
More information about Algernon from the University of Texas
 
100 Things You Can Do With Algernon
 
Priorities for Algernon Development (to-do list)
 
Screen shots of Algernon
 
 

Algernon Overview

 
Supports both forward and backward chaining rules.
 
Efficient and concise KB traversal and retrieval.
 
Straightforward access to ontology classes and instances.
 
Is a Protege tab plugin.
 
 

Download Algernon In Java

 See the download page. 

Algernon in Java Documentation

 
Main documentation page
 
Tutorial: Getting started with Algernon
 
Algernon manuals
 
Using Algernon with a Protege knowledge base
 

Algernon in Java History

 Algernon was developed by James Crawford and Ben Kuipers at the University of Texas at Austin Computer Sciences Department in the early 1990s. In the late 1990s it was reimplemented on top of a virtual machine for rule-based reasoning called the Algernon Abstract Machine (AAM), designed by Micheal Hewett. 

During the Fall of 2002, Micheal Hewett at Stanford University reimplemented Algernon in Java as described on this page. 


Acknowledgements