CLIPS: Expert System Shell

Motaz K. Saad
College of IT – CS Dept.

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 What is expert system?
• AN EXPERT SYSTEM (ES) IS A COMPUTER
PROGRAM DESIGNED TO SIMULATE THE
PROBLEM-SOLVING BEHAVIOR OF AN EXPERT
IN A NARROW DOMAIN OR DISCIPLINE.

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 What is expert system?

ARTIFICIAL Exhibit intelligent

INTELLIGENCE behavior by skillful
PROGRAMS application of heuristics

KNOWLEDGE-BASED
SYSTEMS make domain knowledge
explicit and separate from
the rest of the system

EXPERT Apply expert knowledge

SYSTEMS to difficult, real world
problems

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The structure of an expert system

KNOWLEDGE BASE
Domain Knowledge

FACTS

RULES

INTERPRETER
SCHEDULER
INFERENCE ENGINE
General
problem-solving
knowledge

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 Facts and Rules
• A fact is a piece of information such as (color
green)
• Facts on their own are of only limited use.
• The application of rules is necessary to
develop a program capable of some useful
function.

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 Rules
• A rule is a formal way of specifying a
recommendation, directive, or advice
• A rule is expressed as
IF premise THEN conclusion
or
IF condition THEN action

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 Drawing inferences from rules
• Forward chaining
– In forward chaining, the reasoning proceeds from
the IF part of the rule to the THEN part.
• Backward chaining
– In backward chaining, the reasoning proceeds
from the THEN part to the IF part.

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Expert system building tool
• Programming language
– An expert system can be implemented using a general
purpose programming language. However, the
programming languages LISP and PROLOG are typically
used in expert systems implementation, in particular
Artificial Intelligence applications. This is due to their
capabilities in handling symbolic data efficiently.
• Shells
– A shell consists mainly of an inference engine and an
editor to assist developers in building their knowledge
base.
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 Shells vs. Programming languages
Features Shells Prog. Lang.
Ease & speed of Higher Less
development
KB Structure Restricted by May be developed
&reasoning the tool As needed
KB maintenance Easier Difficult

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 Shells vs. Programming languages
Features Shells Prog. Lang.
Interfaces Not always Have to be
friendly or developed
available
Efficiency/ Slower Faster
Performance
Explanation Restricted by May be developed
the tool as needed

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 CLIPS: Expert System Shell
• Rule-based expert systems are often
known as production systems (CLIPS
actually stands for C Language Integrated
Production System).

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 The CLIPS Programming Tool
• History of CLIPS
– Influenced by OPS5 and ART
– Implemented in C for efficiency and portability
– Developed by NASA, distributed & supported by COSMIC
– Runs on PC, Mac, also under UNIX and VAX VMS
• CLIPS provides mechanisms for expert systems
– A top-level interpreter
– Production rule interpreter
– Object oriented programming language
– LISP-like procedural language
 Components of CLIPS
• Rule-Based Language
– Can create a fact list
– Can create a rule set
– An inference engine matches facts against rules
• Object-Oriented Language
– Can define classes
– Can create different sets of instances
– Special forms allow you to interface rules and
objects
 Defining Facts
• Facts can be asserted
CLIPS> (assert (today is sunday))
<Fact-0>
• Facts can be listed
CLIPS> (facts)
f-0 (today is sunday)
• Facts can be retracted
CLIPS> (retract 0)
CLIPS> (facts)
 Managing Facts
• Clearing all facts
CLIPS> (clear)
CLIPS> (facts)
• Grouping facts - typically in a file (“today.clp”)
(deffacts today ; can be cleared with (undeffacts
today)
(today is sunday)
(weather is warm)
)
• After loading facts, assert with (reset)
 Defining Rules
• Rules have the following structure
(defrule rule-name optional-comment
optional-declaration
condition
...
condition
=>
action
...
action
)
 An Example CLIPS Rule
(defrule sunday “Things to do on Sunday”
(salience 0) ; salience in the interval [-10000,
10000]
(today is Sunday)
(weather is sunny)
=>
(assert (chore wash car))
(assert (chore chop wood))
)
• So, if fact list contains conditions, add
assertions
 Getting the Rules Started
• The reset command creates a special fact
CLIPS> (load “today.clp”)
CLIPS> (facts)
CLIPS> (reset)
CLIPS> (facts)
f-0 (initial-fact) ...
(defrule start
(initial-fact)
=>
(printout t “hello”)
)
 Tracing & Recording Things
• Watch command can watch facts (and rules)
CLIPS> (watch facts)
CLIPS> (reset)
==> f-0 (initial-fact)
CLIPS> (retract 0)
<== f-0 (initial-fact)
• Contents of dialog window can be sent to file
CLIPS> (dribble-on “dribble.clp”) ; any file name will do
...
CLIPS> (dribble-off “dribble.clp”)
 Variables & Pattern Matching
• Variables make rules more applicable
(defrule pick-a-chore
(today is ?day)
(chore is ?job)
=>
(assert (do ?job on ?day))
)

• If conditions are matched, then bindings are used

 Retracting Facts from a Rule
(defrule do-a-chore
(today is ?day) ; ?day must have a consistent binding
?chore <- (do ?job on ?day)
=>
(printout t ?job “ done”)
(retract ?chore)
)
• We must assign a variable to item for retraction
 Pattern Matching Details
• One-to-one matching
(do ?job on ?day)
(do washing on monday)
• Use of wild cards
(do ? ? monday)
(do ? on ?)
(do ? ? ?day)
(do $?)
(do $? monday)
(do ?chore $?when)
 Using Templates
(deftemplate student “a student record”
(slot name (type STRING))
(slot age (type NUMBER) (default 18)))

CLIPS> (assert (student (name fred)))

(defrule print-a-student
(student (name ?name) (age ?age))
=>
(printout t name? “ is “ ?age)
)
 Defining Functions in CLIPS
• Uses a LISP or Scheme-like syntax

(deffunction function-name (arg ... arg)

action ... action)

(deffunction hypotenuse (?a ?b)

(sqrt (+ (* ?a ?a) (* ?b ?b))))

(deffunction initialize ()
(clear)
(assert (today is sunday)))
 Defining Classes & Instances
• Defining the class CAR
(defclass car
(is-a user)
(name)
(made-by))

• Defining an instance of CAR

(make-instance corvette of car

(made-by chevrolet))
 Concrete & Abstract Classes
• Some classes only exist for inheritance
purposes
Person

Man Woman

Jack Jill
 Managing Instances
• Commands to display instances
CLIPS> (instances)
[corvette] of car
CLIPS> (send [corvette] print)
[corvette] of car
(made-by chevrolet)
• Command to group instances (in a file)
(definstances
(corvette of car (made-by chevrolet))
(thunderbird of car (made-by ford)))
 Clearing & Resetting Instances
• Deleting an instance
CLIPS> (send [corvette] delete)
• Deleting all instances
CLIPS> (unmake-instance *)
• Resetting creates an initial object
CLIPS> (reset)
CLIPS> (instances)
[initial-object] of INITIAL-OBJECT
 Message Passing
• The SEND function
(send [instance] message arg ... arg)

• Converting from symbols to names

CLIPS> (symbol-to-instance-name corvette)
[corvette]

This is useful when SENDing from inside a rule

 Limitations of CLIPS
• Single level rule sets
– in LOOPS, you could arrange rule sets in a hierarchy,
embedding one rule set inside another
• Loose coupling of rules and objects
– rules can communicate with objects via message passing
– rules cannot easily be embedded in objects, as in Centaur
• CLIPS has no explicit agenda mechanism
– the basic control flow is forward chaining
– to implement other kinds of reasoning you have to
manipulate tokens in working memory
 Alternatives to CLIPS
• Eclipse
– has same syntax as CLIPS (both are based on ART)
– supports goal-driven (i.e., backwards) reasoning
– has a truth maintenance facility for checking consistency
– can be integrated with C++ and dBase
– new extension RETE++ can generate C++ header files
• NEXPERT OBJECT
– another rule- and object-based system
– has facilities for designing graphical interfaces
– has a ‘script language’ for designing user front-end
– written in C, runs on many platforms, highly portable
 The End!

http://motaz.saad.googlepages.com

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