The Knowledge Acquisition and Representation Language, KARL

The Knowledge Acquisition and Representation Language (KARL) combines a description of a knowledge-based system at the conceptual level (a so-called model of expertise) with a description at a formal and executable level. Thus, KARL allows the precise and unique specification of the functionality of a knowledge-based system independent of any implementation details. A KARL model of expertise contains the description of domain knowledge, inference knowledge, and procedural control knowledge. For capturing these different types of knowledge, KARL provides corresponding modeling primitives based on Frame-Logic and Dynamic Logic. A declarative semantics for a complete KARL model of expertise is given by a combination of these two types of logic. In addition, an operational definition of this semantics, which relies on a fixpoint approach, is given. This operational semantics defines the basis for the implementation of the KARL interpreter, which includes appropriate algorithms for efficiently executing KARL specifications. This enables the evaluation of KARL specifications by means of testing.