Abstract:
This article presents a new approach for generating fault-free rule bases, which
have no redundancy, circularity, inconsistency, contradiction/conflict and unreachability.
The approach makes use of spanning trees. A new algorithm, based on this approach, is
presented which checks a rule base for different kinds of faults. The rule base is
represented using a directed graph. The algorithm devises a spanning tree/forest of the
underlying directed graph by treating the directed graph as an undirected graph, and
checks for various faults and properties. The algorithm devises a new rule base (which is
a subset of the original rule base) that is equivalent, in terms of its reasoning capabilities,
to the original rule base, with the properties that the new rule base is free from
redundancy and circularity. It also determines the set of rules that cause redundancy and
circularity faults. Once the new rule base is determined, checking for the remaining
faults, namely inconsistency, contradiction, and unreachability, can be performed easily
using the generated structures.
