Extending SWRL rules for rules/concepts integration in hybrid ontologies

Abstract

Generally the reasoning on ontologies uses simple inference engine. But in view of insufficiencies of the supported languages, ontologies are extended by SWRL rules. The problem is absence of reasoners capable to interoperate ontologies and rules. The SWRL rules combine the individuals of ontology and don't change the concepts and the knowledge base. So the reasoning stays incomplete. In this paper, we propose enriching the comportment of the concepts of an ontology by rules. This enrichment is effected in two manners: 1) Binding attributes and roles of concepts with conditions. This aspect constitutes the major contribution of this work. 2) Creating rules for combining individuals and atoms of concepts. To overcome these, we propose an approach of extending SWRL by adding new keywords as OWL ontology classes and properties, and post-translating them using rewrite meta-rules. These internal and external enrichments of the concepts leads to hybrid ontology which makes it possible to improve, in terms of results, the quality of the reasoning. To mention and clarify the interest of this kind of reasoning, we use a case study inherent to interpretation of check up in preventive medicine.