Conceptual structures for modeling in CIM

The International Standards Organization (ISO) will release in 1993 the first version of the STEP standard, which is dedicated to the exchange of product model data, and is seen as the basis of the next generation of enterprise information modeling tools. Almost in the same time frame ANSI will release the Information Resource Dictionary System(IRDS) Conceptual Schema standard, which recommends the conceptual graphs (CGs) or other representation languages based on logic to be used for enterprise information modeling and integration. In this paper we develop the foundations for the utilization of conceptual structures (CS) in combination with EXPRESS and STEP Application Protocols in the field of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). The most important result described here is a mapping of EXPRESS into CGs. Around it we develop the architecture of a system able to analyze and translate some of the semantics of information models. Our overall strategy consists of representing the semantics of the language, including the informal meanings represented in the EXPRESS manual in plain English, in a systematic way in CS, and then use this block of knowledge, that can be processed by a machine, for the increasingly automatic analysis, translation and integration of enterprise information models. The work here described is one of the components of a prototype of a model management system under development at IBM, Kingston NY, coordinated by the CIM Architecture group

Basic conceptual structures theory

Although the theory of Conceptual Structures is over 10 years old, basic notions (like canonical graphs) are far from settled and are subject to constant extensions and reformulations. However, most of these are done in an informal way, which doesn't help in clarifying the issues involved. It is our hope that this paper will provide a first step towards the complete and rigorous account of Conceptual Structures (CS) Theory, which is needed for ongoing standardization and implementation efforts. Towards that goal, we present formal definitions of some of the central notions of CS theory (type, referent, concept, relation, conceptual graph, canonical formation rules, canon, and canonical graph) in its simplest form, i.e. no contexts nor coreference links are allowed and referents must be individuals. We thereby introduce higher-order types in order to enable the use of conceptual graphs at the metalevel, the restriction operation of the canonical formation rules is extended to make use of the relation hierarchy, we show the relationship between denotation and conformity relation, and we give a rigorous meaning to the canonical basis, among other things