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Why Use a Unified Knowledge Representation?

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Engineering of Intelligent Systems (IEA/AIE 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2070))

Abstract

In a unified knowledge representation, data, information and knowledge are all represented in a single formalism. A unified knowledge representation based on “items” is described. Items contain two classes of constraints that apply equally to knowledge and to data. Items are compared to an if-then, or rule-based, knowledge representation. Simple chunks of knowledge that can only be represented by a number of rules are represented as single items. Rule-based formalisms are prone to the introduction of potential maintenance hazards caused by one rule being hidden within another. A single operation for items enables some of these hidden relationships to be removed. Items make it difficult to analyse the structure of a whole application. To make the inherent structure of items clear, ‘objects’ are introduced as item building operators. The use of objects to build items enables the hidden links in the knowledge to be identified. A single operation for objects enables all of these hidden links to be removed from the conceptual model thus simplifying maintenance.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of IT, University of Technology, Sydney, PO Box 123, NSW 2007, Australia

    John Debenham

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  1. John Debenham
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Intelligent Manufacturing and Business Processes Computer and Automation Research Institute, Kende utca 13-17, 1111, Budapest, Hungary

    László Monostori  & József Váncza  & 

  2. Department of Computer Science 601 University Drive, Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, 78666-4616, USA

    Moonis Ali

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Debenham, J. (2001). Why Use a Unified Knowledge Representation?. In: Monostori, L., Váncza, J., Ali, M. (eds) Engineering of Intelligent Systems. IEA/AIE 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2070. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45517-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45517-5_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42219-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45517-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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