Reusable ontologies, knowledge-acquisition tools, and performance systems: PROTÉGÉ-II solutions to Sisyphus-2

International Journal of Human-Computer StudiesPublished 1 March 1996

Thomas E. Rothenfluh, John H. Gennari, Henrik Eriksson, Ángel R. Puerta, Samson W. Tu, Mark A. Musen

DOI10.1006/ijhc.1996.0017

Source URL

Citations56

SJR quartileQ1

SJR score1.39

SNIP2.34

TL;DR

The main goal of this paper is to describe in detail how PROTEGE-II was used to model the elevator-configuration task, and provide a starting point for comparison with other frameworks that use abstract problem-solving methods.

Abstract

This paper describes how we applied the PROTÉGÉ-II architecture to build a knowledge-based system that configures elevators. The elevator-configuration task was solved originally with a system that employed the propose-and-revise problem-solving method (VT). A variant of this task, here named the Sisyphus-2 problem, is used by the knowledge-acquisition community for comparative studies. PROTÉGÉ-II is a knowledge-engineering environment that focuses on the use of reusable ontologies and problem-solving methods to generate task-specific knowledge-acquisition tools and executable problem solvers. The main goal of this paper is to describe in detail how we used PROTÉGÉ-II to model the elevator-configuration task. This description provides a starting point for comparison with other frameworks that use abstract problem-solving methods. Beginning with the textual description of the elevator-configuration task, we analysed the domain knowledge with respect to PROTÉGÉ-II’s main goal: to build domain-specific knowledge-acquisition tools. We used PROTÉGÉ-II’s suite of tools to construct a knowledge-based system, called ELVIS, that includes a reusable domain ontology, a knowledge-acquisition tool, and a propose-and-revise problem-solving method that is optimized to solve the elevator-configuration task. We entered domain-specific knowledge about elevator configuration into the knowledge base with the help of a task-specific knowledge-acquisition tool that PROTÉGÉ-II generated from the ontologies. After we constructed mapping relations to connect the knowledge base with the method’s code, the final executable problem solver solved the test case provided with the Sisyphus-2 material. We have found that the development of ELVIS has afforded a valuable test case for evaluating PROTÉGÉ-II’s suite of system-building tools. Only projects based on reasonably large problems, such as the Sisyphus-2 task, will allow us to improve the design of PROTÉGÉ-II and its ability to produce reusable components.

Keywords

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