Theory and Practice of Logic Programming

Table of Contents - 2008 - Volume 8, Issue 03  

Regular Papers

Translating OWL and semantic web rules into prolog: Moving toward description logic programs

KEN SAMUELa1, LEO OBRSTa1, SUZETTE STOUTENBERGa2, KAREN FOXa2, PAUL FRANKLINa2, ADRIAN JOHNSONa2, KEN LASKEYa1, DEBORAH NICHOLSa1, STEVE LOPEZa2 and JASON PETERSONa2

a1 The MITRE Corporation, 7525 Colshire Drive, McLean, VA 22102-7508 (e-mail: samuel@mitre.org, lobrst@mitre.org, klaskey@mitre.org, dlnichols@mitre.org)

a2 The MITRE Corporation, 1155 Academy Park Loop, Colorado Springs, CO 80910-3716 (e-mail: suzette@mitre.org, kfox@mitre.org, pfranklin@mitre.org, abjohnson@mitre.org, slopez@mitre.org, jasonp@mitre.org)

Abstract

We are researching the interaction between the rule and the ontology layers of the Semantic Web, by comparing two options: 1) using OWL and its rule extension SWRL to develop an integrated ontology/rule language, and 2) layering rules on top of an ontology with RuleML and OWL. Toward this end, we are developing the SWORIER system, which enables efficient automated reasoning on ontologies and rules, by translating all of them into Prolog and adding a set of general rules that properly capture the semantics of OWL. We have also enabled the user to make dynamic changes on the fly, at run time. This work addresses several of the concerns expressed in previous work, such as negation, complementary classes, disjunctive heads, and cardinality, and it discusses alternative approaches for dealing with inconsistencies in the knowledge base. In addition, for efficiency, we implemented techniques called extensionalization, avoiding reanalysis, and code minimization.

(Received May 12 2006)

(Revised September 24 2007)

(Accepted October 18 2007)

KEYWORDS:

  • Semantic Web;
  • Logic programming;
  • Knowledge compilation;
  • Ontologies;
  • Rules