Inductive Synthesis of Logic Programs and Inductive Logic Programming

Abstract

Inductive Logic Programming deals with the problem of generating logic programs from examples, normally given as ground atoms. We briefly survey older methods (Shapiro’s MIS and Plotkin’s least general generalizations) which have set the foundations of the field and inspired more recent top-down and bottom-up approaches, respectively. Recent research has suggested that practical program induction requires a hypothesis space which is restricted a priori. We show that, if this trend is brought to the extreme consequence of requiring a well-defined and finite set of allowed clauses, efficient induction procedures can be devised to produce programs which are consistent and complete with the examples. On this basis, we suggest that “Examples + Hypothesis Space” can become an alternative way to specify a logic program. Software can be developed and reused by adding or modifying examples, and by refining the set of allowed clauses. Inductive synthesis is then proposed as a software engineering tool for the development, reuse and testing of logic programs.KeywordsLogic ProgramInductive Logic ProgrammingHorn ClauseInduction ProcedureHypothesis SpaceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.