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Knowledge representation in AI
Humans are best at understanding, reasoning, and interpreting knowledge.

Human knows things, which is knowledge and as per their knowledge they perform various
actions in the real world. But how machines do all these things comes under knowledge
representation and reasoning.

Knowledge representation and reasoning (KR, KRR) is the part of Artificial intelligence
which concerned with AI agents thinking and how thinking contributes to intelligent behavior
of agents.

• It is responsible for representing information about the real world so that a computer
can understand and can utilize this knowledge to solve the complex real-world
problems such as diagnosis a medical condition or communicating with humans in
natural language processing (NLP).
• It is also a way which describes how we can represent knowledge in artificial
intelligence. Knowledge representation is not just storing data into some database, but
it also enables an intelligent machine to learn from that knowledge and experiences so
that it can behave intelligently like a human.

What to Represent:
The following are the kind of knowledge which needs to be represented in AI systems:

• Object: All the facts about objects in our world domain. E.g., Guitars contains
strings, trumpets are brass instruments.
• Events: Events are the actions which occur in our world.
• Performance: It describe behavior which involves knowledge about how to do
things.
• Meta-knowledge: It is knowledge about what we know.
• Facts: Facts are the truths about the real world and what we represent.
• Knowledge-Base: The central component of the knowledge-based agents is the
knowledge base. It is represented as KB. The Knowledgebase is a group of the
Sentences (Here, sentences are used as a technical term and not identical with the
English language).

Knowledge: Knowledge is awareness or familiarity gained by experiences of facts, data, and

situations. Following are the types of knowledge in artificial intelligence:

Types of knowledge
Following are the various types of knowledge:
1. Declarative Knowledge:

• Declarative knowledge is to know about something.

• It includes concepts, facts, and objects.
• It is also called descriptive knowledge and expressed in declarative sentences.
• It is simpler than procedural language.

2. Procedural Knowledge

• It is also known as imperative knowledge.

• Procedural knowledge is a type of knowledge which is responsible for knowing how
to do something.
• It can be directly applied to any task.
• It includes rules, strategies, procedures, agendas, etc.
• Procedural knowledge depends on the task on which it can be applied.

3. Meta-knowledge:

• Knowledge about the other types of knowledge is called Meta-knowledge.

4. Heuristic knowledge:

• Heuristic knowledge is representing knowledge of some experts in a filed or subject.

• Heuristic knowledge is rules of thumb based on previous experiences, awareness of
approaches, and which are good to work but not guaranteed.

5. Structural knowledge:
 • Structural knowledge is basic knowledge to problem-solving.
• It describes relationships between various concepts such as kind of, part of, and
grouping of something.
• It describes the relationship that exists between concepts or objects.

The relation between knowledge and intelligence:

Knowledge of real-worlds plays a vital role in intelligence and same for creating artificial
intelligence. Knowledge plays an important role in demonstrating intelligent behavior in AI
agents. An agent is only able to accurately act on some input when he has some knowledge or
experience about that input.

Let's suppose if you met some person who is speaking in a language which you don't know,
then how you will able to act on that. The same thing applies to the intelligent behavior of the
agents.

As we can see in below diagram, there is one decision maker which act by sensing the
environment and using knowledge. But if the knowledge part will not present then, it cannot
display intelligent behavior.

AI knowledge cycle:
An Artificial intelligence system has the following components for displaying intelligent
behavior:

• Perception
• Learning
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
• Planning
• Execution
The above diagram is showing how an AI system can interact with the real world and what
components help it to show intelligence. AI system has Perception component by which it
retrieves information from its environment. It can be visual, audio or another form of sensory
input. The learning component is responsible for learning from data captured by Perception
comportment. In the complete cycle, the main components are knowledge representation and
Reasoning. These two components are involved in showing the intelligence in machine-like
humans. The planning and execution depend on analysis of Knowledge representation and
reasoning.

Approaches to knowledge representation:

There are mainly four approaches to knowledge representation, which are given below:

1. Simple relational knowledge:

• It is the simplest way of storing facts which uses the relational method, and each fact about
a set of the object is set out systematically in columns.
• This approach of knowledge representation is famous in database systems where the
relationship between different entities is represented.
• This approach has little opportunity for inference.

Example: The following is the simple relational knowledge representation.

Player Weight Age

Player1 65 23

Player2 58 18

Player3 75 24
2. Inheritable knowledge:

• In the inheritable knowledge approach, all data must be stored into a hierarchy of classes.
• All classes should be arranged in a generalized form or a hierarchal manner.
• In this approach, we apply inheritance property.
• Elements inherit values from other members of a class.
• This approach contains inheritable knowledge which shows a relation between instance and
class, and it is called instance relation.
• Every individual frame can represent the collection of attributes and its value.
• In this approach, objects and values are represented in Boxed nodes.
• We use Arrows which point from objects to their values.
• Example:

3. Inferential knowledge:

• Inferential knowledge approach represents knowledge in the form of formal logics.

• This approach can be used to derive more facts.
• It guaranteed correctness.
• Example: Let's suppose there are two statements:
1. Marcus is a man
2. All men are mortal
Then it can represent as;

man(Marcus)
∀x = man (x) ----------> mortal (x)

4. Procedural knowledge:

• Procedural knowledge approach uses small programs and codes which describes how to do
specific things, and how to proceed.
 • In this approach, one important rule is used which is If-Then rule.
• In this knowledge, we can use various coding languages such as LISP language and Prolog
language.
• We can easily represent heuristic or domain-specific knowledge using this approach.
• But it is not necessary that we can represent all cases in this approach.

Requirements for knowledge Representation system:

A good knowledge representation system must possess the following properties.

1. Representational Accuracy:
KR system should have the ability to represent all kind of required knowledge.
2. Inferential/ conclusions Adequacy:
KR system should have ability to manipulate the representational structures to produce new
knowledge corresponding to existing structure.
3. Inferential Efficiency:
The ability to direct the inferential knowledge mechanism into the most productive
directions by storing appropriate guides.
4. Acquisitional efficiency- The ability to acquire the new knowledge easily using automatic
methods.

Techniques of knowledge representation

There are mainly four ways of knowledge representation which are given as follows:

1. Logical Representation (Predicate Logic/ Propositional Logic)

2. Semantic Network Representation
3. Frame Representation
4. Production Rules (If Then Else Rules)
1. Logical Representation
Logical representation is a language with some concrete rules which deals with propositions/
statements and has no ambiguity in representation. Logical representation means drawing a
conclusion based on various conditions. This representation lays down some important
communication rules. It consists of precisely defined syntax and semantics which supports
the sound inference/ decision. Each sentence can be translated into logics using syntax and
semantics.

Syntax:

• Syntaxes are the rules which decide how we can construct legal sentences in the logic.
• It determines which symbol we can use in knowledge representation.
• How to write those symbols.

Semantics:

• Semantics are the rules by which we can interpret the sentence in the logic.
• Semantic also involves assigning a meaning to each sentence.

Logical representation can be categorised into mainly two logics:

1. Propositional Logics
2. Predicate logics

Note: We will discuss Prepositional Logics and Predicate logics in later chapters.
Advantages of logical representation:

1. Logical representation enables us to do logical reasoning.

2. Logical representation is the basis for the programming languages.

Disadvantages of logical Representation:

1. Logical representations have some restrictions and are challenging to work with.
2. Logical representation technique may not be very natural, and inference may not be so
efficient.

Note: Do not be confused with logical representation and logical reasoning as logical representation is
a representation language and reasoning is a process of thinking logically.

2. Semantic Network Representation

Semantic networks are alternative of predicate logic for knowledge representation. In
Semantic networks, we can represent our knowledge in the form of graphical networks. This
network consists of nodes representing objects and arcs which describe the relationship
between those objects. Semantic networks can categorize the object in different forms and
can also link those objects. Semantic networks are easy to understand and can be easily
extended.
This representation consists of mainly two types of relations:

1. IS-A relation (Inheritance)

2. Kind-of-relation

Example: Following are some statements which we need to represent in the form of nodes
and arcs.

Statements:

1. Jerry is a cat.
2. Jerry is a mammal
3. Jerry is owned by Priya.
4. Jerry is brown colored.
5. All Mammals are animal.

In the above diagram, we have represented the different type of knowledge in the form of
nodes and arcs. Each object is connected with another object by some relation.

Drawbacks in Semantic representation:

1. Semantic networks take more computational time at runtime as we need to traverse the
complete network tree to answer some questions. It might be possible in the worst case
scenario that after traversing the entire tree, we find that the solution does not exist in this
network.
2. Semantic networks try to model human-like memory (Which has 1015 neurons and links) to
store the information, but in practice, it is not possible to build such a vast semantic
network.
3. These types of representations are inadequate as they do not have any equivalent
quantifier, e.g., for all, for some, none, etc.
4. Semantic networks do not have any standard definition for the link names.
5. These networks are not intelligent and depend on the creator of the system.
Advantages of Semantic network:

1. Semantic networks are a natural representation of knowledge.

2. Semantic networks convey meaning in a transparent manner.
3. These networks are simple and easily understandable.

3. Frame Representation
A frame is a record like structure which consists of a collection of attributes and its values to
describe an entity in the world. Frames are the AI data structure which divides knowledge
into substructures by representing stereotypes situations. It consists of a collection of slots
and slot values. These slots may be of any type and sizes. Slots have names and values which
are called facets.

Facets: The various aspects of a slot is known as Facets. Facets are features of frames which
enable us to put constraints on the frames. Example: IF-NEEDED facts are called when data
of any particular slot is needed. A frame may consist of any number of slots, and a slot may
include any number of facets and facets may have any number of values. A frame is also
known as slot-filter knowledge representation in artificial intelligence.

Frames are derived from semantic networks and later evolved into our modern-day classes
and objects. A single frame is not much useful. Frames system consist of a collection of
frames which are connected. In the frame, knowledge about an object or event can be stored
together in the knowledge base. The frame is a type of technology which is widely used in
various applications including Natural language processing and machine visions.

Example: 1

Let's take an example of a frame for a book

Slots Filters

Title Artificial Intelligence

Genre Computer Science

Author Peter Norvig

Edition Third Edition

Year 1996

Page 1152

Example 2:

Let's suppose we are taking an entity, Peter. Peter is an engineer as a profession, and his age
is 25, he lives in city London, and the country is England. So following is the frame
representation for this:
 Slots Filter

Name Peter

Profession Doctor

Age 25

Marital status Single

Weight 78

Advantages of frame representation:

1. The frame knowledge representation makes the programming easier by grouping the related
data.
2. The frame representation is comparably flexible and used by many applications in AI.
3. It is very easy to add slots for new attribute and relations.
4. It is easy to include default data and to search for missing values.
5. Frame representation is easy to understand and visualize.

Disadvantages of frame representation:

1. In frame system inference mechanism is not be easily processed.

2. Inference mechanism cannot be smoothly proceeded by frame representation.
3. Frame representation has a much generalized approach.

4. Production Rules
Production rules system consist of (condition, action) pairs which mean, "If condition then
action". It has mainly three parts:

• The set of production rules

• Working Memory
• The recognize-act-cycle

In production rules agent checks for the condition and if the condition exists then production
rule fires and corresponding action is carried out. The condition part of the rule determines
which rule may be applied to a problem. And the action part carries out the associated
problem-solving steps. This complete process is called a recognize-act cycle.

The working memory contains the description of the current state of problems-solving and
rule can write knowledge to the working memory. This knowledge match and may fire other
rules.

If there is a new situation (state) generates, then multiple production rules will be fired
together, this is called conflict set. In this situation, the agent needs to select a rule from these
sets, and it is called a conflict resolution.
Example:

• IF (at bus stop AND bus arrives) THEN action (get into the bus)
• IF (on the bus AND paid AND empty seat) THEN action (sit down).
• IF (on bus AND unpaid) THEN action (pay charges).
• IF (bus arrives at destination) THEN action (get down from the bus).

Advantages of Production rule:

1. The production rules are expressed in natural language.

2. The production rules are highly modular, so we can easily remove, add or modify an
individual rule.

Disadvantages of Production rule:

1. Production rule system does not exhibit any learning capabilities, as it does not store the
result of the problem for the future uses.
2. During the execution of the program, many rules may be active hence rule-based production
systems are inefficient.

Propositional logic in Artificial intelligence

Propositional logic (PL) is the simplest form of logic where all the statements are made by
propositions. A proposition is a declarative statement which is either true or false. It is a
technique of knowledge representation in logical and mathematical form.

Example:

1. a) It is Sunday.
2. b) The Sun rises from West (False proposition)
3. c) 3+3= 7(False proposition)
4. d) 5 is a prime number.

Following are some basic facts about propositional logic:

• Propositional logic is also called Boolean logic as it works on 0 and 1.

• In propositional logic, we use symbolic variables to represent the logic, and we can use any
symbol for a representing a proposition, such A, B, C, P, Q, R, etc.
• Propositions can be either true or false, but it cannot be both.
• Propositional logic consists of an object, relations or function, and logical connectives.
• These connectives are also called logical operators.
• The propositions and connectives are the basic elements of the propositional logic.
• Connectives can be said as a logical operator which connects two sentences.
• A proposition formula which is always true is called tautology, and it is also called a valid
sentence.
• A proposition formula which is always false is called Contradiction.
• A proposition formula which has both true and false values is called
• Statements which are questions, commands, or opinions are not propositions such as
"Where is Rohini", "How are you", "What is your name", are not propositions.
Syntax of propositional logic:

The syntax of propositional logic defines the allowable sentences for the knowledge
representation. There are two types of Propositions:

1. Atomic Propositions
2. Compound propositions

• Atomic Proposition: Atomic propositions are the simple propositions. It consists of a single
proposition symbol. These are the sentences which must be either true or false.

Example:

1. a) 2+2 is 4, it is an atomic proposition as it is a true fact.

2. b) "The Sun is cold" is also a proposition as it is a false fact.

• Compound proposition: Compound propositions are constructed by combining simpler or

atomic propositions, using parenthesis and logical connectives.

Example:

1. a) "It is raining today, and street is wet."

2. b) "Ankit is a doctor, and his clinic is in Mumbai."

Logical Connectives:
Logical connectives are used to connect two simpler propositions or representing a sentence
logically. We can create compound propositions with the help of logical connectives. There
are mainly five connectives, which are given as follows:

1. Negation: A sentence such as ¬ P is called negation of P. A literal can be either Positive literal
or negative literal.
2. Conjunction: A sentence which has ∧ connective such as, P ∧ Q is called a conjunction.
Example: Rohan is intelligent and hardworking. It can be written as,
P= Rohan is intelligent,
Q= Rohan is hardworking. → P∧ Q.
3. Disjunction: A sentence which has ∨ connective, such as P ∨ Q. is called disjunction, where P
and Q are the propositions.
Example: "Ritika is a doctor or Engineer",
Here P= Ritika is Doctor. Q= Ritika is Doctor, so we can write it as P ∨ Q.
4. Implication: A sentence such as P → Q, is called an implication. Implications are also known
as if-then rules. It can be represented as
If it is raining, then the street is wet.
Let P= It is raining, and Q= Street is wet, so it is represented as P → Q
5. Biconditional: A sentence such as P⇔ Q is a Biconditional sentence, example If I am
breathing, then I am alive
P= I am breathing, Q= I am alive, it can be represented as P ⇔ Q.
Following is the summarized table for Propositional Logic Connectives:

Truth Table:
In propositional logic, we need to know the truth values of propositions in all possible
scenarios. We can combine all the possible combination with logical connectives, and the
representation of these combinations in a tabular format is called Truth table. Following are
the truth table for all logical connectives:
Truth table with three propositions:

We can build a proposition composing three propositions P, Q, and R. This truth table is
made-up of 8n Tuples as we have taken three proposition symbols.
Precedence of connectives:

Just like arithmetic operators, there is a precedence order for propositional connectors or
logical operators. This order should be followed while evaluating a propositional problem.
Following is the list of the precedence order for operators:

Precedence Operators

First Precedence Parenthesis

Second Precedence Negation

Third Precedence Conjunction(AND)

Fourth Precedence Disjunction(OR)

Fifth Precedence Implication

Six Precedence Biconditional

Note: For better understanding use parenthesis to make sure of the correct interpretations. Such as
¬R∨ Q, It can be interpreted as (¬R) ∨ Q.
Logical equivalence:
Logical equivalence is one of the features of propositional logic. Two propositions are said to
be logically equivalent if and only if the columns in the truth table are identical to each other.

Let's take two propositions A and B, so for logical equivalence, we can write it as A⇔B. In
below truth table we can see that column for ¬A∨ B and A→B, are identical hence A is
Equivalent to B
Properties of Operators:

• Commutativity:
o P∧ Q= Q ∧ P, or
o P ∨ Q = Q ∨ P.
• Associativity:
o (P ∧ Q) ∧ R= P ∧ (Q ∧ R),
o (P ∨ Q) ∨ R= P ∨ (Q ∨ R)
• Identity element:
o P ∧ True = P,
o P ∨ True= True.
• Distributive:
o P∧ (Q ∨ R) = (P ∧ Q) ∨ (P ∧ R).
o P ∨ (Q ∧ R) = (P ∨ Q) ∧ (P ∨ R).
• DE Morgan's Law:
o ¬ (P ∧ Q) = (¬P) ∨ (¬Q)
o ¬ (P ∨ Q) = (¬ P) ∧ (¬Q).
• Double-negation elimination:
o ¬ (¬P) = P.

Limitations of Propositional logic:

• We cannot represent relations like ALL, some, or none with propositional logic. Example:
1. All the girls are intelligent.
2. Some apples are sweet.
• Propositional logic has limited expressive power.
• In propositional logic, we cannot describe statements in terms of their properties or logical
relationships.

Rules of Inference in Artificial intelligence

Inference:
In artificial intelligence, we need intelligent computers which can create new logic from old
logic or by evidence, so generating the conclusions from evidence and facts is termed as
Inference.

Inference rules:
Inference rules are the templates for generating valid arguments. Inference rules are applied
to derive proofs in artificial intelligence, and the proof is a sequence of the conclusion that
leads to the desired goal.

In inference rules, the implication among all the connectives plays an important role.
Following are some terminologies related to inference rules:

• Implication: It is one of the logical connectives which can be represented as P → Q. It is a

Boolean expression.
 • Converse: The converse of implication, which means the right-hand side proposition goes to
the left-hand side and vice-versa. It can be written as Q → P.
• Contrapositive: The negation of converse is termed as contrapositive, and it can be
represented as ¬ Q → ¬ P.
• Inverse: The negation of implication is called inverse. It can be represented as ¬ P → ¬ Q.

From the above term some of the compound statements are equivalent to each other, which
we can prove using truth table:

Hence from the above truth table, we can prove that P → Q is equivalent to ¬ Q → ¬ P, and
Q→ P is equivalent to ¬ P → ¬ Q.

Types of Inference rules:

1. Modus Ponens:

The Modus Ponens rule is one of the most important rules of inference, and it states that if P
and P → Q is true, then we can infer that Q will be true. It can be represented as:

Example:

Statement-1: "If I am sleepy then I go to bed" ==> P→ Q

Statement-2: "I am sleepy" ==> P
Conclusion: "I go to bed." ==> Q.
Hence, we can say that, if P→ Q is true and P is true then Q will be true.

Proof by Truth table:

2. Modus Tollens:
The Modus Tollens rule state that if P→ Q is true and ¬ Q is true, then ¬ P will also true. It
can be represented as:

Statement-1: "If I am sleepy then I go to bed" ==> P→ Q

Statement-2: "I do not go to the bed."==> ~Q
Statement-3: Which infers that "I am not sleepy" => ~P

Proof by Truth table:

3. Hypothetical Syllogism:

The Hypothetical Syllogism rule state that if P→R is true whenever P→Q is true, and Q→R
is true. It can be represented as the following notation:

Example:

Statement-1: If you have my home key then you can unlock my home. P→Q
Statement-2: If you can unlock my home then you can take my money. Q→R
Conclusion: If you have my home key then you can take my money. P→R

Proof by truth table:

4. Disjunctive Syllogism:
The Disjunctive syllogism rule state that if P∨Q is true, and ¬P is true, then Q will be true. It
can be represented as:

Example:

Statement-1: Today is Sunday or Monday. ==>P∨Q

Statement-2: Today is not Sunday. ==> ¬P
Conclusion: Today is Monday. ==> Q

Proof by truth-table:

5. Addition:

The Addition rule is one the common inference rule, and it states that If P is true, then P∨Q
will be true.

Example:

Statement: I have a vanilla ice-cream. ==> P

Statement-2: I have Chocolate ice-cream.
Conclusion: I have vanilla or chocolate ice-cream. ==> (P∨Q)

Proof by Truth-Table:
6. Simplification:

The simplification rule state that if P∧ Q is true, then Q or P will also be true. It can be
represented as:

Proof by Truth-Table:

7. Resolution:

The Resolution rule state that if P∨Q and ¬ P∧R is true, then Q∨R will also be true. It can be
represented as

Proof by Truth-Table: