Inference method and apparatus for use with knowledge base system and knowledge base system support method and apparatus using the inference method and apparatus

An inference method for use with a knowledge base system utilizing frames and a rule,

• each of said frames representing an associated object by a slot comprising an attribute name of the associated object and a value of the slot, said rule comprising a condition description part including a plurality of conditions each stipulating a state of an associated one of the frames and an operation description part stipulating an operation to be executed when the plurality of conditions stipulated by the condition description part are satisfied, the method comprising:
• a step of specifying a sequence of condition judgements for satisfaction of the respective conditions associated with the respective frames of the condition description part of the rule;
• a step of checking whether or not a frame which satisfies the sequence of condition judgements is stored in an inference memory means;
• storing a frame which previously satisfied the sequence of condition judgements in the inference memory means;
• judging, according to the specified sequence of the condition judgments whether or not the conditions of the condition description part respectively associated with the frames are satisfied, and executing the operation described in the operation description part when it is judged that all the conditions of the condition description part are satisfied;
• analyzing a result of an execution of the judging achieved on a condition related to each frame associated with the rule;
• and
• deriving an optimal judging sequence for judging satisfaction of conditions respectively related to the frames of the condition description part of the rule based on the analyzed result.