REUSABLE ONTOLOGIES, KNOWLEDGE-ACQUISITION TOOLS, AND PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS - PROTEGE-II SOLUTIONS TO SISYPHUS-2

This paper describes how we applied the PROTEGE-II architecture to bui ld a knowledge-based system that configures elevators. The elevator-co nfiguration task was solved originally with a system that employed the propose-and-revise problem-solving method (VT). A variant of this tas k, here named the Sisyphus-2 problem, is used by the knowledge-acquisi tion community for comparative studies. PROTEGE-II is a knowledge-engi neering environment that focuses on the use of reusable ontologies and problem-solving methods to generate task-specific knowledge-acquisiti on tools and executable problem solvers. The main goal of this paper i s to describe in detail how we used PROTEGE-II to model the elevator-c onfiguration task. This description provides a starting point for comp arison 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 PROTEGE-II's m ain goal: to build domain-specific knowledge-acquisition tools. We use d PROTEGE-II's suite of tools to construct a knowledge-based system, c alled ELVIS, that includes a reusable domain ontology, a knowledge-acq uisition 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 ba se with the help of a task-specific knowledge-acquisition tool that PR OTEGE-II generated from the ontologies. After we constructed mapping r elations to connect the knowledge base with the method's code, the fin al executable problem solver solved the test case provided with the Si syphus-2 material. We have found that the development of ELVIS has aff orded a valuable test case for evaluating PROTEGE-II's suite of system -building tools. Only projects based on reasonably large problems, suc h as the Sisyphus-2 task, will allow us to improve the design of PROTE GE-II and its ability to produce reusable components. (C) 1996 Academi c Press Limited