Neurules: improving the performance of symbolic rules

In this paper, we present a method for improving the performance of classical symbolic rules. This is achieved by introducing a type of hybrid rules, called neurules, which integrate neurocomputing into the symbolic framework of production rules. Neurules are produced by converting existing symbolic rules. Each neurule is considered as an adaline unit, where weights are considered as significance factors. Each significance factor represents the significance of the associated condition in drawing the conclusion. A rule is fired when the corresponding adaline output becomes active. This significantly reduces the size of the rule base and, due to a number of heuristics used in the inference process, increases inference efficiency.