Formalisms and tools for knowledge integration using relational databases

Until now, the use of attribute tables, which enable approximate reasoning in tasks such as knowledge integration, has been posing some difficulties resulting from the difficult process of constructing such tables. Using for this purpose the data comprised in relational databases should significantly speed up the process of creating the attribute arrays and enable getting involved in this process the individual users who are not knowledge engineers. This article illustrates how attribute tables can be generated from the relational databases, to enable the use of approximate reasoning in decision-making process. This solution allows transferring the burden of the knowledge integration task to the level of databases, thus providing convenient instrumentation and the possibility of using the knowledge sources already existing in the industry. Practical aspects of this solution have been studied on the background of the technological knowledge of metalcasting. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.