Artificial

Intelligence
Lecturer
Rabiya Tahir
[email protected]
Lecture # 09
Knowledge Based Agent
 Today’s Lecture

• A knowledge-based agent
• The Wumpus World
• Syntax , semantics
• What is logic?

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 Big Idea

• Drawing reasonable conclusions from a set of data

(observations, beliefs, etc) seems key to
intelligence.
• Logic is also a strong formal system that we can
programs computers to use.
• Maybe we can reduce any AI problem to figuring
out how to represent it in logic and apply standard
proof techniques to generate solutions.
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 A knowledge-based agent

• A knowledge-based agent includes a knowledge base and an inference system.

• A knowledge base is a set of representations of facts of the world.
• Each individual representation is called a sentence.
• The sentences are expressed in a knowledge representation language.
• The agent operates as follows:
1. It TELLs the knowledge base what it perceives.
2. It ASKs the knowledge base what action it should perform.
3. It performs the chosen action.
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 Architecture of a
knowledge-based agent

• Knowledge Level.
• The most abstract level: describe agent by saying what it knows.
• Example: A taxi agent might know that the Golden Gate Bridge
connects San Francisco with the Marin County.
• Logical Level.
• The level at which the knowledge is encoded into sentences.
• Example: Links(GoldenGateBridge, SanFrancisco, MarinCounty).
• Implementation Level.
• The physical representation of the sentences in the logical level.
• Example: ‘(links goldengatebridge sanfrancisco
marincounty) 6
 The Wumpus World environment

• The Wumpus computer game.

• The agent explores a cave consisting of rooms
connected by passageways.
• Looking somewhere in the cave is the Wumpus, a beast
that eats any agent that enters its room.
• Some rooms contain bottomless pits that trap any agent
that wanders into the room.
• Occasionally, there is a heap of gold in a room.
• The goal is to collect the gold and exit the world without
being eaten.
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 A typical Wumpus world

• The agent always

starts in the field
[1,1].
• The task of the
agent is to find the
gold, return to the
field [1,1] and
climb out of the
cave.
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 Agent in a Wumpus world: Percepts

• The agent perceives

• a stench in the square containing the wumpus and in the adjacent
squares (not diagonally)
• a breeze in the squares adjacent to a pit
• a glitter in the square where the gold is
• a bump, if it walks into a wall
• a woeful scream everywhere in the cave, if the wumpus is killed
• The percepts will be given as a five-symbol list: If there is a stench,
and a breeze, but no glitter, no bump, and no scream, the percept is
[Stench, Breeze, None, None, None]
• The agent can not perceive its own location. 9
 Wumpus actions

• go forward
• turn right 90 degrees
• turn left 90 degrees
• grab means pick up an object that is in the same square as the agent
• shoot means fire an arrow in a straight line in the direction the agent is
looking. The arrow continues until it either hits and kills the wumpus or
hits the wall. The agent has only one arrow. Only the first shot has any
effect.
• climb is used to leave the cave. Only effective in start field.
• die, if the agent enters a square with a pit or a live wumpus. (No take-
backs!)

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 Wumpus goal

The agent’s goal is to find the gold and bring it back to the start as quickly
as possible, without getting killed.

• 1000 points reward for climbing out of the cave

with the gold
• 1 point deducted for every action taken
• 10000 points penalty for getting killed

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 Wumpus world characterization

• Fully Observable No – only local perception

• Deterministic Yes – outcomes exactly specified
• Episodic No – sequential at the level of actions
• Static Yes – Wumpus and Pits do not move
• Discrete Yes
• Single-agent? Yes – Wumpus is essentially a natural
feature
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 A typical Wumpus world

• The agent always

starts in the field
[1,1].
• The task of the
agent is to find the
gold, return to the
field [1,1] and climb
out of the cave.
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The Wumpus agent’s first step

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Later

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Exploring a wumpus world

AA agent
agent
BB breeze
breeze
GG glitter
glitter
OK
OK safe
safecell
cell
PP pit
pit
SS stench
stench
WW wumpus
wumpus

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Exploring a wumpus world

AA agent
agent
BB breeze
breeze
GG glitter
glitter
OK
OK safe
safecell
cell
PP pit
pit
SS stench
stench
WW wumpus
wumpus

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Exploring a wumpus world

AA agent
agent
BB breeze
breeze
GG glitter
glitter
OK
OK safe
safecell
cell
PP pit
pit
SS stench
stench
WW wumpus
wumpus

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Exploring a wumpus world

AA agent
agent
BB breeze
breeze
GG glitter
glitter
OK
OK safe
safecell
cell
PP pit
pit
SS stench
stench
WW wumpus
wumpus

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Exploring a wumpus world

AA agent
agent
BB breeze
breeze
GG glitter
glitter
OK
OK safe
safecell
cell
PP pit
pit
SS stench
stench
WW wumpus
wumpus

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Exploring a wumpus world

AA agent
agent
BB breeze
breeze
GG glitter
glitter
OK
OK safe
safecell
cell
PP pit
pit
SS stench
stench
WW wumpus
wumpus

21
Exploring a wumpus world

AA agent
agent
BB breeze
breeze
GG glitter
glitter
OK
OK safe
safecell
cell
PP pit
pit
SS stench
stench
WW wumpus
wumpus

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 Representing Knowledge

• The agent that solves the wumpus world can most

effectively be implemented by a knowledge-based
approach.
• Need to represent states and actions, update internal
representations, deduce hidden properties and
appropriate actions.
• Need a formal representation for the KB
• And a way to reason about that representation.
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 Representation, reasoning, and logic
• The object of knowledge representation is to express knowledge in a computer-
tractable form, so that agents can perform well.
• A knowledge representation language is defined by:
• its syntax, which defines all possible sequences of
symbols that constitute sentences of the language.
• Examples: Sentences in a book, bit patterns in computer memory.
• its semantics, which determines the facts in the world to
which the sentences refer.
• Each sentence makes a claim about the world.
• An agent is said to believe a sentence about the world. 24
 The connection between
sentences and facts

Semantics maps sentences in logic to facts in the world.

The property of one fact following from another is mirrored
by the property of one sentence being entailed by another. 25
 Logic in general

• Logics are formal languages for representing

information such that conclusions can be drawn
• Syntax defines the sentences in the language
• Semantics define the "meaning" of sentences
• i.e., define truth of a sentence in a world
• E.g., the language of arithmetic
• x+2 ≥ y is a sentence; x2+y > {} is not a sentence
• x+2 ≥ y is true iff the number x+2 is no less than
the number y
• x+2 ≥ y is true in a world where x = 7, y = 1 26

• x+2 ≥ y is false in a world where x = 0, y = 6

 Entailment
• Entailment means that one thing follows from
another:
KB ╞ α

• Knowledge base KB entails sentence α if and only if

α is true in all worlds where KB is true

• E.g., x+y = 4 entails 4 = x+y

• Entailment is a relationship between sentences (i.e.,
syntax) that is based on semantics
• A relationship between two sentences such that if the 
First is true, the second must also be true, as if: 
Her son drives her to work every day and Her son knows  27

how to drive  .
 Inference, Soundness, Completeness
• KB ├i α , sentence α can be derived from KB by
procedure i
• Soundness: i is sound if whenever KB ├i α, it is also true
that KB╞ α
• Completeness: i is complete if whenever KB╞ α, it is
also true that KB ├i α
• Preview: we will define a logic (first-order logic) which is
expressive enough to say almost anything of interest,
and for which there exists a sound and complete
inference procedure. That is, the procedure will answer
any question whose answer follows from what is known
by the KB.
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 Logic as a KR language

Multi-valued Modal Temporal Non-monotonic

Logic Logic

Higher Order
Probabilistic
Logic First Order

Fuzzy Propositional Logic

Logic

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Ontology and epistemology

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 Summery of Today’s Lecture
• A knowledge-based agent
• The Wumpus World
• Syntax , semantics

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