Publisher's Synopsis
This book provides easy access to the field of deduction systems, a sub-field of Artificial Intelligence. It presents basic terminology and methods of deduction systems in a concise way, supported by numerous examples and diagrams. The book reflects the state of the art in this area, showing deduction to be an essential prerequisite of intelligent behaviour, with deduction components a vital constituent of most AI systems.;The first chapter is a survey of automated deduction, offering several applications. The core of the book introduces the basics in an intelligible manner, helped by the use of examples. Guided by a four-layer model of a deduction system, it introduces the relevant logics, calculi, representation and control mechanisms. The authors deal with the special treatment of equality, and explain the problems connected with the equality relation together with some approaches designed to overcome such problems. The final sections present the foundations of logic programming and introduce automation of proofs by complete induction.;Automated deduction has a tradition in Germany, where the Markgraf Group was initiated 10 years ago: the authors of this book are all members of the Markgraf Karl Group and contributed to the development of the Markgraf Karl Refutation Procedure, one of the most powerful deduction systems available.
