A Framework for Easing the Development of Applications Embedding Answer Set Programming

TL;DR

This paper introduces a framework that simplifies the integration of Answer Set Programming into various applications, including mobile and educational contexts, enhancing its practical usability.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel framework that facilitates embedding ASP into diverse applications, addressing interoperability and development challenges in real-world scenarios.

Findings

Framework successfully integrates ASP into mobile applications.

Demonstrated educational applications using the framework.

Enhanced interoperability with external systems.

Abstract

Answer Set Programming (ASP) is a well-established declarative problem solving paradigm which became widely used in AI and recognized as a powerful tool for knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR), especially for its high expressiveness and the ability to deal also with incomplete knowledge. Recently, thanks to the availability of a number of robust and efficient implementations, ASP has been increasingly employed in a number of different domains, and used for the development of industrial-level and enterprise applications. This made clear the need for proper development tools and interoperability mechanisms for easing interaction and integration with external systems in the widest range of real-world scenarios, including mobile applications and educational contexts. In this work we present a framework for integrating the KRR capabilities of ASP into generic applications. We show the use of the framework by illustrating proper specializations for some relevant ASP systems over different platforms, including the mobile setting; furthermore, the potential of the framework for educational purposes is illustrated by means of the development of several ASP-based applications.