What is Knowledge Representation?

Knowledge Representation in AI describes the representation of knowledge. Basically, it is a study of how

the beliefs, intentions, and judgments of an intelligent agent can be expressed suitably for automated
reasoning. One of the primary purposes of Knowledge Representation includes modeling intelligent behavior
for an agent.

Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR, KRR) represents information from the real world for a
computer to understand and then utilize this knowledge to solve complex real-life problems like
communicating with human beings in natural language. Knowledge representation in AI is not just about storing
data in a database, it allows a machine to learn from that knowledge and behave intelligently like a human
being.

The different kinds of knowledge that need to be represented in AI include:

 Objects
 Events
 Performance
 Facts
 Meta-Knowledge
 Knowledge-base

Now that you know about Knowledge representation in AI, let’s move on and know about the different types of
Knowledge.

Different Types of Knowledge

There are 5 types of Knowledge such as:
  Declarative Knowledge – It includes concepts, facts, and objects and expressed in a declarative
sentence.
 Structural Knowledge – It is a basic problem-solving knowledge that describes the relationship
between concepts and objects.
 Procedural Knowledge – This is responsible for knowing how to do something and includes rules,
strategies, procedures, etc.
 Meta Knowledge – Meta Knowledge defines knowledge about other types of Knowledge.
 Heuristic Knowledge – This represents some expert knowledge in the field or subject.

These are the important types of Knowledge Representation in AI. Now, let’s have a look at the cycle of
knowledge representation and how it works.

Cycle of Knowledge Representation in AI

Artificial Intelligent Systems usually consist of various components to display their intelligent behavior. Some of
these components include:

 Perception
 Learning
 Knowledge Representation & Reasoning
 Planning
 Execution

Here is an example to show the different components of the system and how it works:

Example
The above diagram shows the interaction of an AI system with the real world and the components involved in
showing intelligence.

 The Perception component retrieves data or information from the environment. with the help of this
component, you can retrieve data from the environment, find out the source of noises and check if the
AI was damaged by anything. Also, it defines how to respond when any sense has been detected.
 Then, there is the Learning Component that learns from the captured data by the perception
component. The goal is to build computers that can be taught instead of programming them. Learning
focuses on the process of self-improvement. In order to learn new things, the system requires
knowledge acquisition, inference, acquisition of heuristics, faster searches, etc.
 The main component in the cycle is Knowledge Representation and Reasoning which shows the
human-like intelligence in the machines. Knowledge representation is all about understanding
intelligence. Instead of trying to understand or build brains from the bottom up, its goal is to understand
and build intelligent behavior from the top-down and focus on what an agent needs to know in order to
behave intelligently. Also, it defines how automated reasoning procedures can make this knowledge
available as needed.
 The Planning and Execution components depend on the analysis of knowledge representation and
reasoning. Here, planning includes giving an initial state, finding their preconditions and effects, and a
sequence of actions to achieve a state in which a particular goal holds. Now once the planning is
completed, the final stage is the execution of the entire process.

So, these are the different components of the cycle of Knowledge Representation in AI. Now, let’s understand
the relationship between knowledge and intelligence.

What is the Relation between Knowledge &

Intelligence?
In the real world, knowledge plays a vital role in intelligence as well as creating artificial intelligence. It
demonstrates the intelligent behavior in AI agents or systems. It is possible for an agent or system to act
accurately on some input only when it has the knowledge or experience about the input.

Let’s take an example to understand the relationship:

Post Graduate Diploma in Artificial Intelligence Course
Explore Curriculum

In this example, there is one decision-maker whose actions are justified by sensing the environment and using
knowledge. But, if we remove the knowledge part here, it will not be able to display any intelligent behavior.

Now that you know the relationship between knowledge and intelligence, let’s move on to the techniques of
Knowledge Representation in AI.

Techniques of Knowledge Representation in AI

There are four techniques of representing knowledge such as:
Now, let’s discuss these techniques in detail.

Logical Representation
Logical representation is a language with some definite rules which deal with propositions and has no
ambiguity in representation. It represents a conclusion based on various conditions and lays down some
important communication rules. Also, it consists of precisely defined syntax and semantics which supports
the sound inference. Each sentence can be translated into logics using syntax and semantics.

Syntax Semantics
 It decides how we can construct legal
sentences in logic.  Semantics are the rules by which we can
 It determines which symbol we can use in interpret the sentence in the logic.
knowledge representation.  It assigns a meaning to each sentence.
 Also, how to write those symbols.

Advantages:

 Logical representation helps to perform logical reasoning.

 This representation is the basis for the programming languages.

Disadvantages:

 Logical representations have some restrictions and are challenging to work with.
 This technique may not be very natural, and inference may not be very efficient.
Semantic Network Representation
Semantic networks work as an alternative of predicate logic for knowledge representation. In Semantic
networks, you can represent your knowledge in the form of graphical networks. This network consists of nodes
representing objects and arcs which describe the relationship between those objects. Also, it categorizes the
object in different forms and links those objects.

This representation consist of two types of relations:

 IS-A relation (Inheritance)

 Kind-of-relation

Advantages:

 Semantic networks are a natural representation of knowledge.

 Also, it conveys meaning in a transparent manner.
 These networks are simple and easy to understand.

Disadvantages:

 Semantic networks take more computational time at runtime.

 Also, these are inadequate as they do not have any equivalent quantifiers.
 These networks are not intelligent and depend on the creator of the system.

Frame Representation
A frame is a record like structure that consists of a collection of attributes and values to describe an entity in
the world. These are the AI data structure that divides knowledge into substructures by representing
stereotypes situations. Basically, it consists of a collection of slots and slot values of any type and size. Slots
have names and values which are called facets.