Combining Multiple Knowledge Representation Technologies Into Agent Programming Languages

In most agent programming languages in practice a programmer is committed to the use of a single knowledge representation technology. This paper argues this is not necessarily so. It is shown that rational agent programming languages allow for the combination of various such technologies. Specific issues that have to be addressed to realize such integration for rational agents that derive their choice of action from their beliefs and goals are discussed. Two techniques to deal with these issues which enable the integration of multiple knowledge representation techniques are presented: a meaning-preserving translation approach that maps one representation to another, and an approach based on so-called bridge rules which add additional inference power to a system combining multiple knowledge representation technologies.