Case Base Management Systems: Providing Database Support to Case-based Reasoners

Case-based reasoning offers a new approach for developing knowledge-based systems. Unlike the rule-based paradigm, in which domain knowledge is encoded in the form of production rules, in the case-based approach the problem solving experience of the domain expert is captured by cases. These cases are stored in a knowledge base, called a casebase. Current case-based systems are mostly research prototypes (programming-in-the-small), designed primarily to refine the concepts in case-based reasoning. A number of research issues need to be resolved to facilitate the transition of these prototypes to large application systems (programming-inthe- large). The primary issue that will help the transition is to develop data management support for these prototypes. In this paper, we analyze this data management support and propose a new concept called a casebase management system to perform data management functions for case-based systems. We discuss the research issues that should be addressed to develop casebase management systems.

Overview