Reusable Components for Knowledge Modelling

This book addresses issues of knowledge modelling and reuse.What is the appropriate framework for modelling intelligent problem solving? How best to model reusable knowledge resources? How should libraries of reusable components be organized? I try to answer these questions by describing a comprehensive approach to the specification, organization, configuration and use of reusable components for knowledge models. Hence, the book addresses both theoretical and engineering issues. It proposes a clear theoretical basis to clarify the nature of problem solving methods, but at the same time it shows how to structure practical libraries of reusable components and use them in application development. The general ideas concerning modelling and reuse presented in this book are instantiated in the area of parametric design and, as a result, the book also proposes a number of specific design technologies. These include a characterization (task ontology) of the class of parametric design problems, a generic model of parametric design problem solving and a number of specific problem solving methods for parametric design. Finally, the book also illustrates how to apply these reusable components to develop executable application models in the domains of elevator configuration and office allocation.

Publication(s)

IOS Press, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 1999.