Reasoning by coordination: an integration of case-based and rule-based reasoning systems

摘要

A case-based reasoning system (CBRS) is appropriate for an experience-rich domain, while a rule-based system performs reasonably well in a knowledge-rich application environment. A CBRS mainly uses past experiences as problem-solving tools, and therefore its capability can be limited when previous experiences are not a good representation of the whole population. On the other hand, a rule-based reasoning system needs a well constructed domain theory as its reasoning basis, and it does not make use of the knowledge embedded in past experiences.In the paper, a multiagent cooperative reasoning system (MCRS), which integrates an inductive-reasoning agent (case-based reasoning system) and a deductive-reasoning agent (rule-based reasoning system), is proposed to solve problems through the cooperation of both agents. The architecture and the inference mechanism of an MCRS are discussed in this paper. A personnel-evaluation support system, based on the proposed MCRS architecture and implemented in prolog, is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of using the MCRS to solve problems in a knowledge-poor and experience-poor domain.