PRINCE (EP 5246)
Prolog Integrated with Constraints and Environment for Industrial
and Financial Applications
This page contains some information regarding the project, with some
additional detail on the contributions of the academic partners (in
the areas of program analysis and transformation). These partners can
be contacted for more information on these topics. For more
information on the project in general please contact the project
coordinator or the other partners.
COORDINATOR
CONTACT POINT
- Guy Alain Narboni (PrologIA)
Tel. +33-91 268636
Fax +33-91 41 96 37
PARTNERS and ASSOCIATED PARTNERS
- R. Bosch GmbH (Germany): Reinhard Weber
Tel. +49 711-811 6384
Fax +49 711-811 6800
- CEFI, Faculté des Sciences Economiques (France): Christophe Bisire
Tel. +33 4227 4266
Fax +33 4238 9585
- Banque La Hénin (France): Gilbert Osio
Tel. +33 1-4451 2020
Fax +33 1-4451 2839
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Dept. of Computer Science (Belgium):
Maurice Bruynooghe
Tel. +32 1-620 1015
Fax +32 1-620 5308
- University of Bristol, Dept. of Computer Science (United Kingdom):
John Gallagher
Tel. +44 272-303 307
Fax +44 272-251 154
- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Facultad de Informática
(Spain): Manuel Hermenegildo
Tel. +34 1-336 7435
Fax +34 1-3524819
- FAW (Germany)DASA AG (ex MBB) (Germany): Reinhard Skuppin
Tel. +49 731-501 413
Fax +49 731-591 999
- DASA AG (ex MBB) (Germany): Thomas Buckle
Tel. +49 89-607 27892
Fax +49 89-607 23583
Start Date: September 1990
End Date: January 1995
Duration: 53 months
Status: completed
Abstract
The Prince project is concerned with constraint logic programming. It
is developing a new constraint logic programming (CLP) language
heavily based on PROLOG III technology.
RATIONALE
In order to apply the technology to large-scale applications,
performance, robustness and expressiveness must be improved. This is
the aim of Prince. Its general objectives are: to bring a 'PROLOG
III'-like system to a high level of industrial applicability and
usefulness, and to validate and augment the industrial significance of
such systems by applying them effectively to real-life applications.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION AND APPROACH
This project is a continuation of the Esprit I project P1106. Its aim
was the further development of Prolog and its validation by KBS in
technical areas. It demonstrated the potential of the Constraint Logic
Programming (CLP) approach through the successful development of
Prolog III. To be applicable to large-scale applications, however,
such a system must still gain in performance, robustness, and
expressiveness.
The general objectives of this project are threefold:
- to bring a 'Prolog III'-like system to a higher level of
industrial applicability and usefulness by means of global
compilation, improvements to constraint-solving algorithms, more
specific constraint domains, and better programming environments.
- to validate and augment the industrial significance of such
systems by applying them effectively to real-life applications
provided and developed by IT users who are partners in this
project. The application work will concern the areas of finance,
industrial systems engineering, and production planning and
scheduling.
- to integrate the experience of a major Prolog manufacturer,
PrologIA, into a new joint system which would then have the means to
become a significant industrial force. PrologIA has developed the
Prolog II+ compiler and Prolog III, a major example of a constraint
logic programming language.
APPLICATION DESCRIPTIONS
- Application in the financial domain. The
development of a forecasting tool which evaluates bank profits on the
bases of, on the one hand, certain techniques currently used for the
projection of balance sheets and, on the other hand, the analysis of
strategic planning taking into account hypotheses concerning the
modifications of the environment as they might arise in years to come.
- Industrial systems engineering. The chosen application
for this project demands substantial extensions to the model-based
diagnosis methodology developed in a previous project. Two technical
application fields will serve as testbeds for the new language:
- System analysis with respect to reliability and safety of automotive
systems;
- Fault detection and isolation in a satellite sub-system. Scheduling
application.
This last task will concentrate on the two main issues raised
in the project description:
- the application of CLP to algorithms for Prince Prolog System (PPS)
problems (e.g. resource based approaches);
- the improvement of the scheduling algorithm to make it applicable to
as great a variety of industrial scheduling problems as possible (this
includes topics such as scheduling with intermediate products,
aggregation of orders, partial execution of orders, replanning, and
possibly others).
Work to date, problems encountered and remaining activities
The kernel of the Prince Prolog system (Prolog IV) is now finished. It
includes a compiler, as well as the following solvers:
- Equations and disequations over rational trees.
- Linear numerical constraints using Gaussian elimination and Simplex
algorithms.
- Numerical constraints using intervals.
A set of analysis and program transformation tools has also been
developed. These tools allow performing several optimizations on
source programs prior to compilation with the objective of increasing
the performance of the resulting compiled code. In addition, the
activities of the project have produced numerous theoretical results
in the areas of language design and implementation, constraint solving
algorithms, global analysis, and program transformation for constraint
logic programming languages.
Current activities include:
- Conformity with the ISO Prolog draft standard.
- Completion of the development environment.
- Solver optimization.
The first version of the product will be marketed by March 1995, over
a limited range of platforms. More ports will be performed by June
1995.
ROLES OF PARTNERS
-
Compilation of the standard Prolog part of Prolog III: PrologIA.
-
Compilation of constraints and first integration of the system:
PrologIA.
-
Pre-compilation and global analysis: KUL, Bristol, and Madrid
universities.
-
Development of specific constraint domains for industrial applications
and improvement of existing algorithms: PrologIA.
-
Development environment and software engineering: PrologIA.
-
Validation through industrial applications: BOSCH, Banque la Henin,
FAW, CEFI, DASA (ex MBB).
-
Integration into industrial system: PrologIA.
-
Management and information dissemination: PrologIA, KUL, BOSCH, FAW.
EXPLOITATION
-
PrologIA: Co-ordinating contractor. Distribution of a user-friendly,
efficient, compiled version of the new CLP Language which will satisfy
the needs of industrial users, computer service companies involved in
medium term applied research and universities. An industrial version
of the product that includes the specifications required by industry
will have a much wider potential market. The production of
applications by means of this tool.
-
Bosch: Partner, industrial interest. Getting further experience on CLP
and its industrial potential. Efficient systems engineering tools for
complex technical systems and diagnosis especially in vehicles and
autonomous mobile systems. Shorter development cycles. Applying linear
constraint programming in different fields of system engineering:
FMEA, fault detection and isolation.
-
La Henin Banque: Associated Partner, industrial repercussion. The
proposed software is of great industrial interest as banks have a
growing need for general evaluation systems in connection with the
assessment of the growth of interest rates and in general risk
factors.
-
DASA (ex: MBB): Associated Partner, industrial interest. MBB is
interested in investigating the applicability of CLP-base methods to
complex dynamic satellite control sub-systems, especially for
diagnostic purposes. The experience with extended CLP can support and
improve the development of future ground test facilities.
-
CEFI, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, University of Bristol and
University of Madrid: Associated Partners. The academic partners
intend to exploit the results of the project in a non-commercial
way. The results of the non-confidential work-packages will be
published, and used in their doctoral curriculae. They will use the
results as a basis for continued research on abstract interpretation,
program transformation and constraint solving in Logic Programming.
Other Comments
BIM (Belgium) was initially a partner of the Prince Project, involved
in the compilation of the standard Prolog. However it left the
consortium before the end of the project.
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