Predicate logic as a modeling language: modeling and solving some machine learning and data mining problems with IDP3. Issue 6 (November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: BRUYNOOGHE, MAURICE; BLOCKEEL, HENDRIK; BOGAERTS, BART; DE CAT, BROES; DE POOTER, STEF; JANSEN, JOACHIM; LABARRE, ANTHONY; RAMON, JAN; DENECKER, MARC; VERWER, SICCO
• Is Part Of: Theory and practice of logic programming. Volume 15:Issue 6(2015)
• Page Start: 783
• Page End: 817
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Subjects: Logic programming -- Periodicals; Artificial intelligence -- Computer programs -- Periodicals; Constraint programming (Computer science) -- Periodicals; 005.115
• DOI: 10.1017/S147106841400009X
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1471-0684

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>This paper provides a gentle introduction to problem-solving with the IDP3 system. The core of IDP3 is a finite model generator that supports first-order logic enriched with types, inductive definitions, aggregates and partial functions. It offers its users a modeling language that is a slight extension of predicate logic and allows them to solve a wide range of search problems. Apart from a small introductory example, applications are selected from problems that arose within machine learning and data mining research. These research areas have recently shown a strong interest in declarative modeling and constraint-solving as opposed to algorithmic approaches. The paper illustrates that the IDP3 system can be a valuable tool for researchers with such an interest. The first problem is in the domain of stemmatology, a domain of philology concerned with the relationship between surviving variant versions of text. The second problem is about a somewhat related problem within biology where phylogenetic trees are used to represent the evolution of species. The third and final problem concerns the classical problem of learning a minimal automaton consistent with a given set of strings. For this last problem, we show that the performance of our solution comes very close to that of the state-of-the art solution. For each of these applications, we analyze the problem, illustrate the development of a logic-based model and explore how alternatives can affect the performance.</p> </abstract>