A Spanning-Tree Based Approach for Generating Fault-Free Rule Bases

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.