Computational Semiotics : An Approach for the Study of Intelligent Systems Part I : Foundations

The aim of this paper is to introduce the theoretical foundations of an approach for intelligent systems development. Derived from semiotics, a classic discipline in human sciences, the theory developed provides a mathematical framework for the concept of knowledge and for knowledge processing. As a result, a new perspective to study and to develop intelligent systems emerges. Here, Part I, the focus is on the essentials of such a theory. It includes the background needed from semiotics and describes the relationship between semiotics, intelligent systems and cognition. A taxonomy of the elementary types of knowledge is proposed and a classification of knowledge, from the point of view of application in cognitive systems, is addressed. In addition, a mathematical definition of objects and object networks, two key concepts within the computational semiotics paradigm proposed here, is introduced. The issues of knowledge modeling and system development, within the framework of computational semiotics, is the subject of a companion paper, Part II, where an illustrative example concerning control of an autonomous vehicle is included as well.