Ontology definition languages for Multi-Agent Systems: the Geographical Information Ontology case study
Luis Carmelo Rada Mota, João B. Bento, Luis Miguel Botelho · Adaptive Agents and Multi-Agents Systems · 2002
In the scope of the AgentCities project, we worked on the definition of a Geographical Information Ontology, intended for a wide use, in particular in agent systems. Since the choice of the best modeling approach was not clear, we decided to express the ontology in four different languages: UML, RDF, DAML+OIL and Ontolingua. This paper describes the results of this modeling and highlights the most interesting characteristics of each approach from our point of view. We recognized that each approach has its own advantages and specific use scenarios, but we conclude that, due to its history, expressive power and tools, Ontolingua is the most powerful solution for our modeling needs. Furthermore, we present proposals to solve some open questions and shortcomings: the introduction of actions in the analyzed frameworks, the creation of a XML[3] syntax for Ontolingua and the definition of decidable subsets for Ontolingua.