Bayesian networks have been used extensively in diagnostic tasks such as medicine, where they represent the dependency relations between a set of symptoms and a set of diseases. A criticism of this type of knowledge representation is that it is restricted to this kind of task, and that it cannot cope with the knowledge required in other artificial intelligence applications. For example, in computer vision, we require the ability to model complex knowledge, including temporal and relational factors. In this paper we extend Bayesian networks to model relational and temporal knowledge for high-level vision. These extended networks have a simple structure which permits us to propagate probability efficiently. We have applied them to the domain of endoscopy, illustrating how the general modelling principles can be used in specific cases.

The analysis of decision making under uncertainty is closely related to the analysis of probabilistic inference. Indeed, much of the research into efficient methods for probabilistic inference in expert systems has been motivated by the fundamental normative arguments of decision theory. In this paper we show how the developments underlying those efficient methods can be applied immediately to decision problems. In addition to general approaches which need know nothing about the actual probabilistic inference method, we suggest some simple modifications to the clustering family of algorithms in order to efficiently incorporate decision making capabilities.

An expert classification system having statistical information about the prior probabilities of the different classes should be able to use this knowledge to reduce the amount of additional information that it must collect, e.g., through questions, in order to make a correct classification. This paper examines how best to use such prior information and additional information-collection opportunities to reduce uncertainty about the class to which a case belongs, thus minimizing the average cost or effort required to correctly classify new cases.

Although the notion of diagnostic problem has been extensively investigated in the context of static systems, in most practical applications the behavior of the modeled system is significantly variable during time. The goal of the paper is to propose a novel approach to the modeling of uncertainty about temporal evolutions of time-varying systems and a characterization of model-based temporal diagnosis. Since in most real world cases knowledge about the temporal evolution of the system to be diagnosed is uncertain, we consider the case when probabilistic temporal knowledge is available for each component of the system and we choose to model it by means of Markov chains. In fact, we aim at exploiting the statistical assumptions underlying reliability theory in the context of the diagnosis of timevarying systems. We finally show how to exploit Markov chain theory in order to discard, in the diagnostic process, very unlikely diagnoses.

This paper describes some results of research on associate systems: knowledge-based systems that flexibly and adaptively support their human users in carrying out complex, time-dependent problem-solving tasks under uncertainty. Based on principles derived from decision theory and decision analysis, a problem-solving approach is presented which can overcome many of the limitations of traditional expert-systems. This approach implements an explicit model of the human user's problem-solving capabilities as an integral element in the overall problem solving architecture. This integrated model, represented as an influence diagram, is the basis for achieving adaptive task sharing behavior between the associate system and the human user. This associate system model has been applied toward ongoing research on a Mars Rover Manager's Associate (MRMA). MRMA's role would be to manage a small fleet of robotic rovers on the Martian surface. The paper describes results for a specific scenario where MRMA examines the benefits and costs of consulting human experts on Earth to assist a Mars rover with a complex resource management decision.

The paper describes aHUGIN, a tool for creating adaptive systems. aHUGIN is an extension of the HUGIN shell, and is based on the methods reported by Spiegelhalter and Lauritzen (1990a). The adaptive systems resulting from aHUGIN are able to adjust the C011ditional probabilities in the model. A short analysis of the adaptation task is given and the features of aHUGIN are described. Finally a session with experiments is reported and the results are discussed.

The trajectory of a robot is monitored in a restricted dynamic environment using light beam sensor data. We have a Dynamic Belief Network (DBN), based on a discrete model of the domain, which provides discrete monitoring analogous to conventional quantitative filter techniques. Sensor observations are added to the basic DBN in the form of specific evidence. However, sensor data is often partially or totally incorrect. We show how the basic DBN, which infers only an impossible combination of evidence, may be modified to handle specific types of incorrect data which may occur in the domain. We then present an extension to the DBN, the addition of an invalidating node, which models the status of the sensor as working or defective. This node provides a qualitative explanation of inconsistent data: it is caused by a defective sensor. The connection of successive instances of the invalidating node models the status of a sensor over time, allowing the DBN to handle both persistent and intermittent faults.

In Moral, Campos (1991) and Cano, Moral, Verdegay-Lopez (1991) a new method of conditioning convex sets of probabilities has been proposed. The result of it is a convex set of non-necessarily normalized probability distributions. The normalizing factor of each probability distribution is interpreted as the possibility assigned to it by the conditioning information. From this, it is deduced that the natural value for the conditional probability of an event is a possibility distribution. The aim of this paper is to study methods of transforming this possibility distribution into a probability (or uncertainty) interval. These methods will be based on the use of Sugeno and Choquet integrals. Their behaviour will be compared in basis to some selected examples.

Bayes nets are relatively recent innovations. As a result, most of their theoretical development has focused on the simplest class of single-author models. The introduction of more sophisticated multiple-author settings raises a variety of interesting questions. One such question involves the nature of compromise and consensus. Posterior compromises let each model process all data to arrive at an independent response, and then split the difference. Prior compromises, on the other hand, force compromise to be reached on all points before data is observed. This paper introduces prior compromises in a Bayes net setting. It outlines the problem and develops an efficient algorithm for fusing two directed acyclic graphs into a single, consensus structure, which may then be used as the basis of a prior compromise.

Bayesian networks are directed acyclic graphs representing independence relationships among a set of random variables. A random variable can be regarded as a set of exhaustive and mutually exclusive propositions. We argue that there are several drawbacks resulting from the propositional nature and acyclic structure of Bayesian networks. To remedy these shortcomings, we propose a probabilistic network where nodes represent unary predicates and which may contain directed cycles. The proposed representation allows us to represent domain knowledge in a single static network even though we cannot determine the instantiations of the predicates before hand. The ability to deal with cycles also enables us to handle cyclic causal tendencies and to recognize recursive plans.