A situated classification solution of a resource allocation task represented in a visual language

Abstract The Sisyphus room allocation problem-solving example has been solved using a situated classification approach. A solution was developed from the protocol provided in terms of three heuristic classification systems, one classifying people, another rooms, and another tasks on an agenda of recommended room allocations. The domain ontology, problem data, problem-solving method, and domain-specific classification rules, have each been represented in a visual language. These knowledge structures compile to statements in a term-subsumption knowledge representation language, and are loaded and run in a knowledge representation server to solve the problem. The user interface has been designed to provide support for human intervention in under-determined and over-determined situations, allowing advantage to be taken of the additional choices available in the first case, and a compromise solution to be developed in the second.