Semantic Information Mediation among Multiple Product Ontologies

The concept of shared ontologies has been the basis for some substantial work in enterprise and product modelling environments. Albeit their success, there has almost always been problems with single shared product ontologies and the associated ontological commitment in real-world environments, especially when semantic conflicts have to be resolved. The main objective of this work is to tackle these issues through the development of a mediation mechanism that is capable of handling multiple related product ontologies, while keeping the autonomy of each participating entity. The notion of product concept hierarchies is introduced, each of which represents a domain-related ontology of a participating partner in the product process. Mappings that supersede the capabilities of existing generic approaches are defined, which are centred around product modelling-specifics. Such specifics encompass leaf nodeÑleaf node, non-leaf nodeÑleaf node and non-leaf nodeÑnon-leaf node relationships across ontologies. These mappings are prerequisites for modelling generalisation, specialisation, part-of and is-a relationships among product ontologies. Furthermore, a product data management-specific relationship called alternative is introduced, which allows the specification of optional terms in related ontologies. Based on this fundament, mediation is introduced, which resolves semantic conflicts between different sites along the product process. The entire system (ontologies, mappings, mediator, and architecture) are accompanied by examples, which stem from an industrial scenario.