VTechWorks staff will be away for the winter holidays starting Tuesday, December 24, 2024, through Wednesday, January 1, 2025, and will not be replying to requests during this time. Thank you for your patience, and happy holidays!
 

Constraint satisfaction - an alternate approach to unification in Prolog

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorSundararajan, Renganathanen
dc.contributor.departmentComputer Science and Applicationsen
dc.date.accessioned2015-08-07T14:18:09Zen
dc.date.available2015-08-07T14:18:09Zen
dc.date.issued1987en
dc.description.abstractProlog is a linear resolution theorem prover with restrictions on the form of the clauses to prune the search space. Although Prolog has been widely used for implementing natural language systems, database systems, knowledge based expert systems and other A.I tasks, it has many limitations. The inferencing is symbolic and all the computations are performed in the Herbrand universe. Prolog has no notion of function evaluation. The uniform parameter passing mechanism, viz unification, is syntactic and too restrictive in nature. Moreover, Prolog uses a depth first search strategy combined with chronological backtracking which renders the SLD-Resolution incomplete. In this thesis, we study the incorporation of a constraints solver into Prolog. The generalization of unification into a constraints satisfaction algorithm allows the incorporation of function evaluation into unification. Constraint satisfaction is used to replace unification thus enhancing the power of Prolog. This idea could possibly be extended to other contexts where unification is used. Constraints can also appear as goals in the body of a rule. We discuss the enhancement in expressive power leading to an efficient solution of a larger class of problems. We also discuss ways of compiling the constraint solver and the modifications that are needed to be made in the Warren abstract machine for Prolog. An interpreter for the extended Prolog (written in Prolog) incorporating a constraint solver is presented along with examples illustrating its power.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.format.extentvii, 82 leavesen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/56192en
dc.language.isoen_USen
dc.publisherVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
dc.relation.isformatofOCLC# 17726674en
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subject.lccLD5655.V855 1987.S877en
dc.subject.lcshProlog (Computer program language)en
dc.titleConstraint satisfaction - an alternate approach to unification in Prologen
dc.typeThesisen
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
thesis.degree.disciplineComputer Science and Applicationsen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
LD5655.V855_1987.S877.pdf
Size:
2.38 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Masters Theses