A generic, object-oriented case-knowledge representation scheme, and its integration into a wider information management scenario

Abstract: A knowledge base management system (KBMS) realises a combination of techniques found in database management systems and knowledge-based systems. At the data model and knowledge representation level, many systems of this kind constitute a marriage of the relational data model and the rule-based reasoning. Experience has shown that either approach is restricted in the way it can express the demanding information and knowledge structures required for applications like decision support systems. Two new technologies offer an exciting new integrated approach to knowledge management. Object-oriented database management systems (OODBMS) provide an object model that supports powerful abstraction mechanisms to facilitate the modelling of highly structured information. Whereas case-based reasoning (CBR) systems are knowledge bases which organise their capabilities around a memory of past cases and the notion of similarity. Both types of system are built upon two fundamental concepts: 1) the retrieval of entities with potentially complex structure, called objects in the former, and cases in the latter type of system; 2) the organisation of those entities in collections with common characteristics. In an OODBMS such collections are termed extents, and in CBR they are usually called categories. In either system, the conceptual meta notion to represent both, objects as well as extents, and cases as well as categories, is the class.
Revolving around a Conceptual Case Class and extending a standard object model, this paper proposes a novel and general approach to represent case-knowledge and to build KBMSs. The work presented here is a spin-off of the design of an object query language within the ESPRIT project Lynx.