Homogeneous (Uniform) Knowledge Representation

Architectures with global access to knowledge may store it in a uniform format in a central database, or may have it in a non-uniform format in a distributed fashion. The uniform method is often employed in systems with a general knowledge representation scheme like frames or first order predicate calculus. The non-uniform method is often used in loosely-coupled architectures for storing speciality knowledge not for general use. Knowledge uniformity is more an issue for modular, rather than centralized, architectures.

The advantages of knowledge uniformity are:

1. modules may access all knowledge easily
2. when modules are added or changed, the interfaces of others do not have to be modified.
3. it is easier to modify modules to use new types of knowledge

The disadvantages of knowledge uniformity are:

1. the design limitation that all knowledge be expressed in the same format
2. inefficiency: if the knowledge is to be used by relatively few modules, it may waste memory and processing time to have it in a general format.

Homogeneous knowledge representation contrasts with heterogeneous representation.

Architectures having this agent property include:

• Theo
• Prodigy
• ICARUS
• Adaptive Intelligent Systems (AIS)
• A Meta-reasoning Architecture for 'X' (MAX)
• Soar

Return to the Table of Contents.

Current Location: Common - Properties-Homogeneous (Uniform) Knowledge Representation