Flora-2 is an open source semantic rule-based system for

knowledge representation and reasoning Knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR, KR&R, KR²) is the field of artificial intelligence (AI) dedicated to representing information about the world in a form that a computer system can use to solve complex tasks such as diagnosing a medic ...

. The language of the system is derived from

F-logic F-logic ( frame logic) is a knowledge representation and ontology language. F-logic combines the advantages of conceptual modeling with object-oriented, frame-based languages and offers a declarative, compact and simple syntax, as well as the wel ...

HiLog HiLog is a programming logic with higher-order syntax, which allows arbitrary terms to appear in predicate and function positions. However, the model theory of HiLog is first-order. Although syntactically HiLog strictly extends first order logic, Hi ...

, W. Chen, M. Kifer and D.S. Warren (1993)
''HiLog: A Foundation for Higher-Order Logic Programming''
Journal of Logic Programming, 1993. and Transaction logic.A.J. Bonner and M. Kifer (1993), ''Transaction Logic Programming'', International Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP), 1993. Being based on F-logic and HiLog implies that object-oriented syntax and higher-order representation are the major features of the system. Flora-2 also supports a form of defeasible reasoning called ''Logic Programming with Defaults and Argumentation Theories'' (LPDA). Applications include intelligent agents, Semantic Web, knowledge-bases networking,

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exi ...

management, integration of information, security policy analysis, automated database normalization, and more. Flora-2 relies on the XSB system for its inference engine. The design and architecture of Flora-2 are described in a number of works. Details of the system and its use are described in the Flora-2 User's Manual. Flora-2 is available for all major computing platforms, including

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

and other flavors of

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

, Microsoft Windows, and

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

History

Flora-2 is a successor to the Flora system (1998–1999) and incorporates the experience gained developing and using the original Flora system. The Flora-2 project started around year 2000 by Guizhen Yang and Michael Kifer. In later years it was led by Michael Kifer and had many other contributors.

Projects using Flora-2

TaOPiS
is a social semantic Web application for supporting self-organizing communities.
Baze
is a database development environment similar to

Access Access may refer to: Companies and organizations * ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network * Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom * Access Co., a Japanese software company * Access Healthcare, an Indian BPO se ...

and Base.
ReasonablePython
is a module which adds F-Logic to Python.M. Schatten (2007
''Reasonable Python or how to Integrate F-Logic into an Object-Oriented Scripting Language''
Intelligent Engineering Systems (INES-2007), IEEE, pp. 297-300. * Th
FRDCSA
project is developing an extension to the Perl XSB interface for supporting access to Flora-2 and HiLog from Perl and the FreeKBS3 system.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Flora-2 Web site''
Logic programming languages