Explain: Abductive reasoning with example.

·         Abductive reasoning is a process that tries to form plausible explanations for abnormal observations.

     ·         Uncertainty is an important issue in abductive reasoning.

     ·         The formal definition of abductive reasoning is –

Reasoning that derives an explanatory hypothesis, from a given set of facts. The inference result is a hypothesis that, if true, could explain the occurrence of given facts.

·         Ex.: Dendral, an expert system to construct 3D structure of chemical compounds. Fact: Mass spectrometer data of the compound and its chemical formula. Knowledge base: Chemistry

Reasoning: Form a hypothetical 3D structure that satisfies the chemical formula, and that would most likely produce the given mass spectrum.

·         Many other reasoning processes like image understanding, criminal investigation, etc. can also be seen as abductive reasoning.