Maintaining constraint-based applications

Abstract

Many knowledge-based applications require knowledge maintenance to keep the application functional throughout its lifecycle. In this paper we present iCAM, a constraintbased knowledge maintenance system that operates in a hospital's material management domain. iCAM uses consistency algorithms to assist users in placing orders and making order corrections, and to ensure that maintenance activities are consistent with the department's ordering environment. This approach allows iCAM to interact with the user to revise orders and/or to update the knowledge base. For the user, there is not much distinction between these two tasks. This is one of iCAM's greatest strengths; order corrections and knowledge maintenance are carried out in a similar manner, since both are based on inconsistencies with respect to the existing knowledge base. iCAM has various constraint types that support physical and policy restrictions. It also allows maintenance to be done by a number of users while maintaining the integrity of the knowledge base by a system of role restrictions.

Conversational Modeling for Constraint Satisfaction

“…Vision can play a useful role. The early work on MAPSEE (Mackworth 1977) used constraint satisfaction to interpret sketch maps (albeit represented as plotter commands). Guns et al (2023) worked with pictures of Sudoku puzzles.…”

Explaining Ourselves: Human-Aware Constraint Reasoning

“…Of course, one's needs and preferences may change, so maintaining an up-to-date understanding of and by the user also presents a challenge (Nordlander, Freuder, and Wallace 2007). Fortunately, there is a body of work on "dynamic constraint satisfaction" that may mitigate the computational issues that can be especially challenging in a fast changing real-time environment.…”