GEKATOO - A GENERAL KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION TOOL

In this paper we outline the structure of GEKATOO, a tool supporting the Knowledge Engineer (KE) during the knowledge acquisition process for building Knowledge Based System (KBS) for different kinds of applications. GEKATOO provides modelling structures for the knowledge to be acquired. According to these structures, the acquired knowledge is organized in three areas, namely Domain, Competence, and Reasoning Methods. The Domain Area includes the description of the domain entities relevant for the problem solution. The Competence Area includes the description of the set of abilities required to solve the problem in terms of actions to be performed on domain objects. Competence is domain independent. The Reasoning Methods Area includes predefined, prototypical deduction procedures, among which the KE may select the most suitable one. GEKATOO supports the development of a conceptual model of the knowledge needed to build a KBS solving the given task. A first prototype of the system has been implemented in Common Lisp and CLOS on Xerox 1186 machines.