DL+log: Tight integration of Description Logics and Disjunctive Datalog

The integration of Description Logics and Datalog rules presents many semantic and computational problems. In particular, reasoning in a system fully integrating Description Logics knowledge bases (DL-KBs) and Datalog programs is undecidable. Many proposals have overcomed this problem through a "safeness" condition that limits the interaction between the DL-KB and the Datalog rules. Such a safe integration of Description Logics and Datalog provides for systems with decidable reasoning, at the price of a strong limitation in terms of expressive power. In this paper we define DL+log, a general framework for the integration of Description Logics and disjunctive Datalog. From the knowledge representation viewpoint, DL+log extends previous proposals, since it allows for a tighter form of integration between DL-KBs and Datalog rules which overcomes the main representational limits of the approaches based on the safeness condition. From the reasoning viewpoint, we present algorithms for reasoning in DL+log, and prove decidability and complexity of reasoning in DL+log for several Description Logics. To the best of our knowledge, DL+log constitutes the most powerful decidable combination of Description Logics and disjunctive Datalog rules proposed so far. Copyright © 2006, American Association for Artificial Intelligence.