Answering Fuzzy Conjunctive Queries Over Finitely Valued Fuzzy Ontologies

Fuzzy Description Logics (DLs) provide a means for representing vague knowledge about an application domain. In this paper, we study fuzzy extensions of conjunctive queries (CQs) over the DL SROIQ based on finite chains of degrees of truth. To answer such queries, we extend a well-known technique that reduces the fuzzy ontology to a classical one, and use classical DL reasoners as a black box. We improve the complexity of previous reduction techniques for finitely valued fuzzy DLs, which allows us to prove tight complexity results for answering certain kinds of fuzzy CQs. We conclude with an experimental evaluation of a prototype implementation, showing the feasibility of our approach.