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KnowLang – A Formal Specification Model for Self-adaptive Systems

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Theories of Programming and Formal Methods

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14080))

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Abstract

KnowLang is a framework for knowledge representation and reasoning (KR &R) that aims at efficient and comprehensive knowledge structuring and awareness based on logical and statistical reasoning. It tackles both explicit representation of domain concepts and relationships and explicit representation of particular and general factual knowledge, in terms of predicates, names, connectives, quantifiers and identity. Moreover, it handles uncertain knowledge in which additive probabilities are used to represent degrees of belief. Other remarkable features are related to knowledge cleaning and knowledge representation for autonomic self-adaptive behaviour. Knowledge specified with KnowLang takes the form of a Knowledge Base (KB) that outlines a KR context. A special KnowLang Reasoner operates in this context to allow for knowledge querying and update. In addition, the reasoner can infer special self-adaptive behaviour.

At its very core, KnowLang is a formal specification language providing a comprehensive specification model aiming at addressing the knowledge representation problem of self-adaptive systems. The complexity of the problem necessitated the use of a specification model where knowledge can be presented at different levels of abstraction and grouped by following both hierarchical and functional patterns. In this paper, we outline the formal semantics of the KnowLang multi-tier specification model. The model is outlined in terms of layers dedicated to knowledge corpuses, KB operators, and inference primitives.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Bellman optimality principle: If a given state-action sequence is optimal, and we were to remove the first state and action, the remaining sequence is also optimal (with the second state of the original sequence now acting as initial state).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported, in part, by Science Foundation Ireland grant 13/RC/ 2094_P2 and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund through the Southern & Eastern Regional Operational Programme to Lero–the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software (www.lero.ie) and by University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lero–The Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Mike Hinchey & Emil Vassev

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  1. Mike Hinchey
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  2. Emil Vassev
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Correspondence to Emil Vassev .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. London South Bank University, London, UK

    Jonathan P. Bowen

  2. East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

    Qin Li

  3. University of Macau, Macau, China

    Qiwen Xu

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Hinchey, M., Vassev, E. (2023). KnowLang – A Formal Specification Model for Self-adaptive Systems. In: Bowen, J.P., Li, Q., Xu, Q. (eds) Theories of Programming and Formal Methods. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14080. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40436-8_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40436-8_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-40436-8

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