COLAB

Appeared in Volume 6/2, May 1993

COLAB is a hybrid knowledge representation system emphasizing the horizontal and vertical compilation of knowledge bases. It has been designed as a COmpilation LABoratory aiming at a synergetic collaboration of different knowledge representation and reasoning formalisms. It is comprised of subsystems dealing with different kinds of knowledge, that can also be used as stand-alone systems. The COLAB representation architecture splits into two main parts: an affirmative part, sometimes called 'assertional', and a taxonomic part.

The affirmative part provides efficient reasoning with different kinds of relational or functional knowledge using tailored inference engines. For affirmative knowledge represented as constraint nets, COLAB supplies constraint propagation techniques (CONTAX). Relational knowledge in the form of Horn rules is processed by forward (FORWARD) and backward (RELFUN) chaining. The backward component is also suited for expressing (non-deterministic) functional dependencies. Taxonomic knowledge is represented by intensional concept definitions which are automatically arranged in a subsumption hierarchy (TAXON). Dynamic cooperation of the subsystems is organized through access primitives acting as an interface to the respective reasoning services.

The COLAB software, developed at DFKI and the Univ. of Kaiserslautern, is now available for experimental use. Based on Common Lisp, users can employ (parts of) individual systems, tight bilateral integrations, or the entire COLAB system.

Please direct requests to the address of the principle system developer of the subsystem coming closest to your interests; requests for the entire system should be directed to Harold Boley. Do not forget to send us your surface address.

RELFUN contact:

Harold Boley
Tel: +49 631 205 3459
Email: 
boley@informatik.uni.kl.de

TAXON contact:

Philipp Hanschke
Tel: +49 631 205 3460
Email: hanschke@dfki.uni.kl.de

CONTAX contact:

Manfred Meyer
Tel: +49 631 205 3468
Email: meyer@dfki.uni.kl.de

FORWARD contact:

Knut Hinkelmann
Tel: +49 631 205 3467
Email: hinkelma@dfki.uni.kl.de

Surface address for contacts:

DFKI 
Postfach 2080
W 6750 Kaiserslautern, Germany
Fax: +49 631 205 3210