Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-r6c6k Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-08T17:39:52.879Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Verification and validation of knowledge-based systems with formal specifications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Pedro Meseguer  and
Alun D. Preece
Pedro Meseguer
Affiliation:
Department de Llenguatges i Sistemes Informàtics, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona, Spain (email: meseguer@lis.upc.es)
Alun D. Preece
Affiliation:
Computing Science Department, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen A B9 2UE, Scotland (email: apreece@csd.abdn.ac.uk)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines how formal specification techniques can support the verification and validation (V&V) of knowledge-based systems. Formal specification techniques provide levels of description which support both verification and validation, and V&V techniques feed back to assist the development of the specifications. Developing a formal specification for a system requires the prior construction of a conceptual model for the intended system. Many elements of this conceptual model can be effectively used to support V&V. Using these elements, the V&V process becomes deeper and more elaborate, and it produces results of a better quality compared with the V&V activities which can be performed on systems developed without conceptual models. However, we note that there are concerns in using formal specification techniques for V&V, not least being the effort involved in creating the specifications.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Knowledge Engineering Review , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , December 1995 , pp. 331 - 343
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Batarekh, A, Preece, AD, Bennett, A and Grogono, P, 1991. “an expert system” Expert Systems with Applications 2 (4) 285–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellman, KL, 1990. “The modeling issues inherent in testing and evaluating knowledge-based systems” Expert Systems with Applications 1 (3) 199–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, BG and Shortliffe, EH, 1984. “The problem of evaluation” In: Buchanan, BG and Shortliffe, EH (eds.), Rule-Based Expert Systems: The MYCIN Experiments of the Stanford Heuristic Programming Project Chapter 30, pp 571–588. Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Chandrasekaran, B, 1983. “On evaluating Al systems for medical diagnosis” AI Magazine 4 (2) 34–37.Google Scholar
Fensel, D and van, Harmelen F, 1994. “A comparison of languages which operationalise and formalise KADS models of expertise” Knowledge Engineering Review 9(2) 105–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghezzi, C, Jazayeri, M and Mandrioli, D, 1991. Fundamentals of Software Engineering Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Ginsberg, A, 1988. “Knowledge-base reduction: A new approach to checking knowledge bases for inconsistency & redundancy” In: Proceedings of the 7th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 88) Volume 2, pp 585–589.Google Scholar
Haugh, J, 1988. “The application of formal specification techniques to knowledge-based system development” In: UK IT 88 Conference Publication pp 95–98, London. University College, Information Engineering Directorate.Google Scholar
Kemmerer, RA, 1985. “Testing formal specifications to detect design errors” IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 11(1) 32–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krause, PJ, Byers, P, Hajnal, S and Fox, J, 1990. “The use of object-oriented process specification for the verification and validation of decision support systems” In: Laurent, JP and Ayel, M (eds.), Verification, Validation and Test of KBS Wiley.Google Scholar
Laurent, JP 1992. “Proposals for a valid terminology in KBS validation” In: Neumann, B (ed.), Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Artificial intelligence (ECAI 92) pp 829–834, New York. Wiley.Google Scholar
Meseguer, P, 1992. “Incremental verification of rule-based expert systems” In Neumann, B (ed.), Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Artificial intelligence (ECAI 92) New York. Wiley.Google Scholar
Meseguer, P and Verdaguer, A, 1993. “Verification of multi-level rule-based expert systems: Theory and practice” International Journal of Expert Systems: Research and Applications 6 (2) 163–192.Google Scholar
Miller, LA, 1990. “Dynamic testing of knowledge bases using the heuristic testing approach” Expert Systems with Applications 1(3) 249–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Keefe, RM, Balci, O and Smith, EP, 1987. “Validating expert system performance” IEEE Expert 2 (4) 81–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plant, RT and Gold, D, 1990. “Increasing expert system reliability through the use of a formal specification” In: Culbert, C (ed), AAAI-90 Workshop on Knowledge Based Systems Verification, Validation and Testing. AAAI.Google Scholar
Potter, B, Sinclair, J and Till, D, 1991. An Introduction to Formal Specification and Z, Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Preece, AD, 1990. “Towards a methodology for evaluating expert systems” Expert Systems 7 (4) 215–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preece, AD, Shinghal, R and Batarekh, A, 1992. “Principles and practice in verifying rule-based systems” Knowledge Engineering Review 7 (2) 115–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rushby, J and Crow, J, 1990. “Evaluation of an expert system for fault detection, isolation, and recovery in the manned maneuvering unit” NASA Contractor Report CR-187466, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA.Google Scholar
Suwa, M, Scott, AC and Shortliffe, EH, 1982. “An approach to verifying completeness and consistency in a rule-based expert system” AI Magazine 3 (4) 16–21.Google Scholar
Treur, J and Wetter, T, editors, 1993. Formal Specification of Complex Reasoning Systems Ellis-Horwood.Google Scholar
Turing, A, 1950. “Computing machinery and intelligence” Mind 59 236–248.Google Scholar
van, Harmelen F and Aben, M, 1995. “Applying rule-base anomalies to KADS inference structures” In: Gamble, R and Landauer, C (eds.), Working Notes from IJCAI-95 Workshop on Verification and Validation of Knowledge-Based Systems.Google Scholar
Wielinga, BJ, Schreiber, AT and Breuker, JA, 1992. KADS: a modelling approach to knowledge engineering” Knowledge Acquisition 4(1) 5–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zualkernan, LA, Tsai, W-T and Kirani, S, 1992. “Testing expert systems using conventional techniques” In: Proceedings of the 16th Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference pp 320–325.Google Scholar