A Model-Based Approach to the Verification of Program Supervision Systems

This paper is concerned with the verification of knowledge-based systems for a task called program supervision (PS). Our aim is to highlight how the model on which a particular PS system is based influences the properties that the knowledge base must fulfil. Adopting this point of view allows us to go beyond verification techniques that do not exploit the intended use of the embodied knowledge. We distinguish the following elements in the specification of a knowledge-based system: task definition, problem-solving method, and domain model. Our verification approach is based on the PS ontology and on the requirements that both the PS task and problem-solving method enforce on the domain knowledge of a specific application. The de nition of the verification issues for the knowledge base is done in a way dependent both on the PS task and the particular PS problem solving method, but independently of the knowledge representation scheme or the specific application. This work in the modelling and property determination for the PS task has as additional outcomes a categorisation of the properties and some guidelines to determine the adequacy of the expert's knowledge with respect to the requirements of the PS problem-solving method. We also intend to rely on this approach in our future work on the verification of the PS problem-solving methods