Knowledge acquisition based on explicit representation

In recent years, knowledge-based systems have become one of the most popular approaches for solving engineering problems. Conventionally, knowledge acquisition and representation are treated as separate processes. Knowledge engineers are responsible for preparing question patterns and setting up personnel interviews with domain experts for knowledge acquisition. All acquired knowledge is manually interpreted, verified, and transformed into a predefined representation scheme. In this paper, a new acquisition method, called knowledge acquisition based on explicit representation (KAR), is proposed to facilitate the elicitation of design knowledge. KAR approach employs a structured knowledge representation scheme to drive the acquisition process. By exploiting the structured nature and well-defined axioms of the representation scheme, acquisition queries and verification rules are generated automatically. The acquired knowledge is verified and transformed into a format ready for reference. The proposed framework is expected to reduce the cost and effort of the knowledge base development process. To illustrate KAR, a VLSI interconnect design example is presented.