Inferences for Temporal Object Descriptions in a Terminological Representation System: Design and Implementation

This paper describes design and implementation of an assertional component (ABox) of a temporal terminological representation system. With this ABox, and the temporal TBox developed by Martin Fischer (see KIT-Report 99), it is possible to handle temporal object descriptions, and to infer ''new'' (implicit) knowledge. An ABox query language offers a variety of possible queries to get certain information. It is examined how existing algorithms for an ABox of a conventional terminological system can be transferred to the temporal system. Besides completely new algorithms have to be developed, because new problems arise with the temporal extension.