Contracting Agency: Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)
Point of Contact: technology@kbsi.com

Overview

In the context of information management, the ontological enterprise is motivated not so much by the search for knowledge for its own sake, as in the natural and abstract sciences, but by the need to understand, design, engineer, and manage such systems effectively. In this case, ontology is the task of extracting the nature and structure of a given engineering, manufacturing, business, or logistical domain as revealed in the terminology used in that domain and storing it in a flexible, expressively rich representational format.

This project focused on the application of IDEF5, an Ontology Description Capture Method, in the construction of domain specific ontologies. KBSI developed an automated support environment for the capture of ontologies. The results of this project were applied to the construction of the ontologies required to provide intelligent support to information integration both within a single enterprise and across a network of CALS-compliant industries and government organizations.

Identification of major issues relevant to the rapid capture of large-scale domain ontologies.

Development of a formal logic and model theory for ontology capture.

Identification and characterization of the requirements of an ontology-capture method.

Development of preliminary design specifications of a prototype ontology-capture tool.