A Framework for Part-of Reasoning in Description Logics

Abstract

For many domains natural models require the ability to represent information about is-a as well as about part-of. A knowledge representation system supporting these relations needs a flexible representation as well as specialized services. For instance, with respect to representation we would like to be able to represent such items as the fact that all parts of an object or all objects in a certain relation to an object belong to a specific type, or that there are only a certain number of parts for a particular part-whole relation. The desired services may include checking whether one type is a sub-type of another, recognizing whether an object belongs to a particular type and support for instantiation of composite objects.