Peirce: a tool for experimenting with abduction

Abduction, defined as the stating and entertaining of a hypothesis, is addressed. The Red system for blood antibody identification, which comprises the authors´ primary domain for research into abductive problem solving, is described. How viewing it and other abductive systems in terms of the goals is aiding in understanding abduction in general and allows experimentation with abduction techniques is discussed. A description is also given of Peirce, a tool providing a programmable interface between the goals of abduction and the abductive-assembly method for meeting those goals. Peirce´s simple interface allows knowledge engineers to determine when a method is appropriate for invocation and how the process selects a method for invocation.<>