We propose TP-compilation, a new inference technique for probabilistic logic programs that is based on forward reasoning. TP-compilation proceeds incrementally in that it interleaves the knowledge compilation step for weighted model counting with forward reasoning on the logic program. This leads to a novel anytime algorithm that provides hard bounds on the inferred probabilities. The main difference with existing inference techniques for probabilistic logic programs is that these are a sequence of isolated transformations. Typically, these transformations include conversion of the ground program into an equivalent propositional formula and compilation of this formula into a more tractable target representation for weighted model counting. An empirical evaluation shows that TP-compilation effectively handles larger instances of complex or cyclic real-world problems than current sequential approaches, both for exact and anytime approximate inference. Furthermore, we show that TP-compilation is conducive to inference in dynamic domains as it supports efficient updates to the compiled model.

@article{VlasselaerIJAR16,
  author = {Vlasselaer, Jonas and Van den Broeck, Guy and Kimmig, Angelika and Meert, Wannes and De Raedt, Luc},
  title = {Tp-Compilation for Inference in Probabilistic Logic Programs},
  journal = {International Journal of Approximate Reasoning},
  month = Jun,
  year = {2016},
  url = "https://starai.cs.ucla.edu/papers/VlasselaerIJAR16.pdf",
  issn = "0888-613X",
  doi = "10.1016/j.ijar.2016.06.009",
  keywords   = {journal}
}