Jay Clemens
Intelligent systems developer Charles River Analytics has introduced an open-source programming language for developers to create probabilistic models and reasoning algorithms.
Figaro 2.0 was developed through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Probabilistic and Relational Inferences in Dynamic Environments program and is designed to derive conclusions from available evidence, Charles River said Monday.
Avi Pfeffer, principal scientist at Charles River, said the tool works to combine functional programming with object-oriented programming in order for users to develop probabilistic models and differentiate unknown from known facts.
“A well-established approach for reasoning under uncertainty is probabilistic reasoning. Typically, we create a probabilistic model over all the variables we’re interested in, observe the values of some of these variables, and query the model for values of other variables of interest,†added Pfeffer.
Figaro features model templates and built-in reasoning algorithms that are made to be applied to new models.
Charles River intends for developers to build and use models within the Scala programming language and Java application programs by using Figaro’s models that are Scala-compatible.
