PowerLoom® Knowledge Representation & Reasoning System

Overview

PowerLoom® is the successor to the Loom® knowledge representation system. It provides a language and environment for constructing intelligent, knowledge-based applications. PowerLoom uses a fully expressive, logic-based representation language (a variant of KIF). It uses a natural deduction inference engine that combines forward and backward chaining to derive what logically follows from the facts and rules asserted in the knowledge base. While PowerLoom is not a description logic, it does have a description classifier which uses technology derived from the Loom classifier to classify descriptions expressed in full first order predicate calculus (see paper). PowerLoom uses modules as a structuring device for knowledge bases, and ultra-lightweight worlds to support hypothetical reasoning.

To implement PowerLoom we developed a new programming language called STELLA, which is a Strongly Typed, Lisp-like LAnguage that can be translated into Lisp, C++ and Java. PowerLoom is written in STELLA and therefore available in Common-Lisp, C++ and Java versions.

PowerLoom is being developed at the Intelligent Systems Division of USC's Information Sciences Institute (ISI).

Ontosaurus

Ontosaurus is a web-based browser for PowerLoom knowledge bases. A demo installation of the STELLA-based system can be seen in a Common Lisp or Java implementation. An early pre-release of Ontosaurus is already available for download, and we are also working on releasing the most recent version.

Latest Builds

These are the latest builds available. They are automatically generated from our source code repository and may be unstable.
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Last modified: Nov 12, 2008