A study on object-oriented knowledge representation

Abstract

This thesis is a study on object-oriented knowledge representation. The study defines the main concepts of the object model. It also shows pragmatically the use of object-oriented methodology in the development of a concrete software system designed as the solution to a specific problem.The problem is to simulate the interaction between several animals and various other objects that exist in a room. The proposed solution is an artificial intelligence (Al) program designed according to the object-oriented model, which closely simulates objects in the problem domain. The AI program is conceived as an inference engine that maps together a given knowledge base with a database. The solution is based conceptually on the five major elements of the model, namely abstraction, encapsulation, modularity, hierarchy, and polymorphism.The study introduces a notation of class diagrams and frames to capture the essential characteristics of the system defined by analysis and design. The solution to the problem allows the application of any object-oriented programming language. Common Lisp Object System (CLOS) is the language used for the implementation of the software system included in the appendix.