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This paper presents the design and development of a prototype document retrieval system using a knowledge-based systems approach. Both the domain-specific knowledge base and the inferencing schemes are based on a fuzzy set theoretic framework. A query in natural language represents a request to retrieve a relevant subset of documents from a document base. Such a query, which can include both fuzzy terms and fuzzy relational operators, is converted into an unambiguous intermediate form by a natural language interface. Concepts that describe domain topics and the relationships between concepts, such as the synonym relation and the implication relation between a general concept and more specific concepts, have been captured in a knowledge base. The knowledge base enables the system to emulate the reasoning process followed by an expert, such as a librarian, in understanding and reformulating user queries. The retrieval mechanism processes the query in two steps. First it produces a pruned list of documents pertinent to the query. Second, it uses an evidence combination scheme to compute a degree of support between the query and individual documents produced in step one. The front-end component of the system then presents a set of document citations to the user in ranked order as an answer to the information request.
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