KBSSF(ID:5411/kbs001)

for Knowledge Based Systems Specification Language, but pronounced "KSF".

Conceptual modelling language developed as part of the VITAL system


References:
  • Jonker, W. and J.W. Spee: Yet Another Formalisation of KADS Conceptual Models. In Proceedings of the 6th European Knowledge Acquisition for Knowledge-Based Systems Workshop (EKAW-92), May 18-22, Heidelberg/Kaiserslautern, T. Wetter et al. (eds.), Current Developments in Knowledge Acquisition, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, no 599, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1992. view details
  • in´t Veld, L. ; Willem Jonker, and J. W. Spee: The Specification of Complex Reasoning Tasks in Language Comparison KBSSF. In J. Treur and Th. Wetter (eds.): Formal Specification of Complex Reasoning Systems, Ellis Horwood, New York, 1993. view details
  • Fensel, Dieter and van Harmelen, Frank "A Comparison of Languages which Operationalise and Formalise KADS Models of Expertise" The Knowledge Engineering Review, 9(2), 1994. view details Abstract: In the field of Knowledge Engineering, dissatisfaction with  the rapid-prototyping approach has led to a number of more principled  methodologies for the construction of knowledgebased systems. Instead of  immediately implementing the gathered and interpreted knowledge in a  given implementation formalism according to the rapid-prototyping  approach, many such methodologies centre around the notion of a  conceptual model: an abstract, implementation independent description of  the relevant problem solving expertise. A conceptual model should  describe the task which is solved by the system and the knowledge which  is required by it. Although such conceptual models have often been  formulated in an informal way, recent years have seen the advent of  formal and operational languages to describe such conceptual models more  precisely, and operationally as a means for model evaluation. In this  paper, we study a number of such formal and operational languages for  specifying conceptual models. In order to enable a meaningful comparison  of such languages, we focus on languages which are all aimed at the same  underlying conceptual model, namely that from the KADS method for  building KBS. We describe eight formal languages for KADS models of  expertise, and compare these languages with respect to their modelling  primitives, their semantics, their implementations and their  applications. Future research issues in the area of formal and  operational specification languages for KBS are identified as the result  of studying these languages. The paper also contains an extensive  bibliography of research in this area.


    External link: Online copy Extract: FORKADS
    FORKADS has been developed at the IBM Germany Scientific Center in Heidelberg. It was one of the first published approaches to formal KADS models.
    Contrary to the languages described so far, FORKADS aims not only at operationalizing KADS models, but also at giving formal foundations to KADS models. Furthermore, the aim is to use this language as a (or perhaps even the only) communication medium between the people responsible for knowledge acquisition and those responsible for system design. For this purpose, the main foundation of FORKADS is a first-order logical language which is extended with notions of concept heterarchies and procedural attachment. In many respects FORKADS is rooted in the LLILOG language Extract: KBSSF
    KBSSF is developed by PTT Research in Groningen, The Netherlands as the language for describing conceptual models in the VITAL project. Thus, like QIL, KBSSF is not originally intended to describe KADS models, but the conceptual models of VITAL are very close in spirit to those in KADS, and [JoS92], [VJS93] show how KBSSF can be used to represent KADS models.
    KBSSF is primarily aimed at formalising conceptual models, and thus shares this aim with languages like (ML)2 and QIL. KBSSF has many of its roots in software engineering, notably
    the techniques of algebraic specification languages. Extract: (ML)2
    (ML)2  is a language for formalizing KADS models of expertise. It was developed in the course of the ESPRIT Projects "REFLECT" and "KADS-II" and a bilateral research project of the Netherlands Energy Research Foundation ECN and the University of Amsterdam. Although a subset of (ML)2 can be operationalized to
    allow explorative prototyping it is mainly introduced as a formalization language.