Knowledge base management system with enhanced explanation of derived

Abstract

A knowledge representation system which allows a user to utilize a description language to generate, maintain and access information in a knowledge base is disclosed. The knowledge representation system includes an explanation subsystem which explains where the derived information that is stored for a particular object was obtained from. A first level explanation function will provide a user with an explanation of the immediate source of the pieces of derived information that are stored for an object in the knowledge base. A complete explanation function provides a complete explanation by continuing to explain how the immediate source for each piece of the information itself received the information, until the source of the information is told information or the result of a rule firing. The explanation subsystem also explains subsumption inferences, which explain why a particular concept or rule antecedent is satisfied by a particular object. The explanation that is generated may be limited in a number of ways in accordance with the needs of a user. An error handling subsystem facilitates the detection of the source of real errors. Upon the detection of a real error, an error object is preferably created for the inconsistent object and for every other object that is affected by the error. The error objects, which may be printed out or explained, store all of the information associated with the corresponding object at a time when the data structures include the error information.