Functional and teleological knowledge in the multimodeling approach for reasoning about physical systems: a case study in diagnosis

The basic concepts of the multimodeling approach to the representation of physical systems are presented. Emphasis is placed on the exploitation of many, diverse models of a system for the execution of complex problem solving tasks, such as interpretation, diagnosis, design, simulation, etc. The considered models are based on different ontologies, representational assumptions, epistemological types, and aggregation levels. After a brief survey of the techniques adopted for representing structural and behavioral knowledge, attention is focused on function and teleology. A novel approach is proposed for defining, representing, and using these two types of knowledge which play a fundamental role both from the representation and reasoning perspectives. The fundamental claim is that while teleological knowledge concerns the specific purposes for which the system has been designed, functional knowledge is devoted to bridge the gap between such abstract purposes and the actual structure and behavior of the system, through the concepts of phenomena, processes, and functional roles. A clear definition is provided of all the various epistemological and ontological links existing between the different models