Rule-based system

In computer science, a rule-based system is a computer system in which domain-specific knowledge is represented in the form of rules and general-purpose reasoning is used to solve problems in the domain.

Two different kinds of rule-based systems emerged within the field of artificial intelligence in the 1970s:

• Production systems, which use if-then rules to derive actions from conditions.
• Logic programming systems, which use conclusion if conditions rules to derive conclusions from conditions.

The differences and relationships between these two kinds of rule-based system has been a major source of misunderstanding and confusion.

Both kinds of rule-based systems use either forward or backward chaining, in contrast with imperative programs, which execute commands listed sequentially. However, logic programming systems have a logical interpretation, whereas production systems do not.