Amalgams: A Formal Approach for Combining Multiple Case Solutions

How to reuse or adapt past solutions to new problems is one of the least understood problems in case-based reasoning. In this paper we will focus on the problem of how to combine solutions coming from multiple cases in search-based approaches to reuse. For that purpose, we introduce the notion of amalgam. Assuming the solution space can be characterized as a generalization space, an amalgam of two solutions is a third sulution which combines as much as possible from the original two solutions. We define amalgam as a formal operation over terms in a generalization space. We also discuss how amalgams may be applied in search-based reuse techniques to combine case solutions.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: ICCBR
• Authors: Santiago Ontañón, Enric Plaza
• Keywords: Automated Reasoning, Generalization Space, ICCBR 2010, Reuse, Solutions