Multi-Context Systems with Preferences

Tiep Le, Tran Cao Son, Enrico Pontelli

Abstract: This paper presents an extension of the Multi-Context Systems (MCS) framework to allow preferences to be expressed at the context level. The work is motivated by the observation that a casual use of preference logics at a context level in MCS can lead to undesirable outcomes (e.g., inconsistency of the MCS). To address this issue, the paper introduces the notion of a ranked logic, suitable for use with multiple sources of preferences, and employs it in the definition of weakly and strongly-preferred equilibria in a Multi-Context Systems with Preferences (MCSP) framework. The usefulness of MCSP is demonstrated in two applications: modeling of distributed configuration problems and finding explanations for distributed abductive diagnosis problems.