Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Inference Algorithm Performance And Selection Under Constrained Resources, Brett J. Borghetti

Theses and Dissertations

Knowing that reasoning over probabilistic networks is, in general, NP-hard, and that most reasoning environments have limited resources, we need to select algorithms that can solve a given problem as fast as possible. This thesis presents a method for predicting the relative performance of reasoning algorithms based on the domain characteristics of the target knowledge structure. Armed with this knowledge, the research shows how to choose the best algorithm to solve the problem. The effects of incompleteness of the knowledge base at the time of inference is explored, and requirements for reasoning over incompleteness are defined. Two algorithms for reasoning …