------------------------------ README ------------------------------
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION  OF MOTEL 
-----------------------------

MOTEL  is a  logic-based  knowledge  representation  languages of  the
KL-ONE family.   It contains as a kernel  the ALC  language which is a
decidable sublanguage of first-order predicate logic.

Whereas ALC is a  single-agent knowledge representation language, i.e.
ALC is only able to represent general world knowledge or the knowledge
of one  agent  about the  world,  MOTEL  is a   multi-agent  knowledge
representation  system. The MOTEL  language  allows modal contexts and
modal concept forming  operators which allow  to represent  and reason
about the  believes and wishes of  multiple  agents. Furthermore it is
possible to represent defaults and stereotypes.

Beside   the  basic   resoning facilities   for  consistency checking,
classification, and realization, MOTEL provides an abductive inference
mechanism.   Furthermore it  is able  to   give  explanations for  its
inferences.

Keywords:        Knowledge representation, Modal Logic, Stereotypes, 
                 Default Reasoning, Abduction.

Contact Address: Ullrich Hustadt                       
                 Max-Planck-Institut f"ur Informatik         
                 Geb"aude 44, Im Stadtwald             
                 66123 Saarbr"ucken, Germany             

                 e-mail: Ullrich.Hustadt@mpi-sb.mpg.de
                 voice:  +49 681 302 5431
                 fax:    +49 681 302 5401

The  latest  version  of MOTEL can be received  by anonymous ftp  from
mpi-sb.mpg.de (139.19.1.1):/pub/tools/motel.tar.Z

This compressed tar-file contains the  MOTEL sources (one PROLOG file)
and the  user manual (one Postscript  file). If you have  any problems
getting  the system or any questions  concerning MOTEL you can send an
e-mail message to the address given above.

To run MOTEL, you need one of the following PROLOG systems:
- SWI-Prolog (Version 1.6.17 June 1993)
- Quintus Prolog Release 3.1.1 
- SICStus 2.1