Knowledge Acquisition in the Consul System

Abstract

Ma ny knowledge-based systems feature general ma chinery that operat es on externally supplied information . These systems must solve the acquisition problem : how to represent the external knowledge . determine it it is adequate . and inco rp orate it into the know l ed ge base . As a mediator bet ween users and interactr ve services. the Consul system must understand the intent and behavi or of programs that perform interacti ve functions . To Consul . understanding a function means classifying a description of it in a highly structured . prebuilt know ledge base . A special form alism has been designed in wh ich a ser vice builder both programs functions and describes their actions. The resulting functional descriptions are then translated and interacti vel y classi fi ed into Consul 's knowledge base by Cons_~JI's acquisition co mponent . The acquisition dialogue with the service builder will be shown to be robust with respect to the information provided by the service builder. Inference ru les are automaticall y generated to acc ount tor discrepancies between a program 's specifications and expectations derived from Consul's knowledge base .