An Editor for the Conceptual Models of Interactive Knowledge-Acquisition Tools

Abstract Computer-based tools can help system builders to create knowledge bases for expert systems. An important class of such knowledge-acquisition tools comprises programs that contain detailed models of families of application tasks. Users enter knowledge about particular applications into these tools in terms of the predefined task models that the tools incorporate. For example, the OPAL knowledge-acquisition program uses a model of the task of administering cancer therapy to provide a framework that allows cancer specialists to enter the knowledge that defines individual cancer-treatment plans. This paper describes PROTEGE, an interactive program that assists knowledge engineers in the construction of task models, and that automatically generates custom-tailored knowledge-acquisition tools based on those models. Domain experts independently use the graphical tools that PROTEGE generates to enter the knowledge that defines individual applications. The methodology separates the problems of creating models of application tasks from the entry of content knowledge, expediting the development of expert systems when multiple knowledge bases are required for related tasks.