From conventional KBS to cooperative KBS: control model

The idea of integrating interaction and cooperation in the development of knowledge based systems (KBS) has grown rapidly during the last few years. The specificity of cooperative KBS in comparison with conventional KBS lies in the fact that they integrate the features of “interaction” and “cooperation”. The authors´ approach focuses essentially on the “cooperation” elements. Such systems incorporate the user in the problem solving and decision making loop. As the user guides and participates in the problem solving, it becomes essential to turn the simple communication with the system into a real cooperation between the two partners. Modeling the cooperation as a communication activity at the conceptual level seems proved to be essential during the development of KBS. However, it is clear that such a system has to understand the user´s needs and goals. So, the authors decided to model his/her preferences and knowledge in the domain. A dynamic specification of man-system cooperation is required. Therefore, the “cooperation plan” must be dynamically constructed. It is based on the environment constraints as well as the expert´s and the user´s conceptual model description. Tasks and methods can be viewed as a good structures for knowledge representation. The authors present the latest results for producing a theoretical and practical framework for the design of cooperative KBS