Claire Palmer

A model-driven ontology approach for manufacturing system interoperability and knowledge sharing

The requirements for the interoperability of semantics and knowledge have become increasingly important in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), in the drive towards knowledge-driven decision support in the manufacturing industry. This article presents a novel concept, based on the Model Driven Architecture (MDA). The concept has been implemented under the Interoperable Manufacturing Knowledge Systems (IMKS) project in order to understand the extent to which manufacturing system interoperability can be supported using radically new methods of knowledge sharing. The concept exploits the capabilities of semantically well-defined core concepts formalised in a Common Logic-based ontology language. The core semantics can be specialised to configure multiple application-specific knowledge bases, as well as product and manufacturing information platforms. Furthermore, the utilisation of the expressive ontology language and the generic nature of core concepts help support the specification of system mechanisms to enable the verification of knowledge across multiple platforms. An experimental demonstration, using a test case based on the design and manufacture of an aerospace part, has been realised. This has led to the identification of several benefits of the approach, its current limitations as well as the areas to be considered for further work.

Towards a formal manufacturing reference ontology

Due to the advancement in the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), manufacturing industry and its many domains employ a wide range of different ICT tools. To be competitive, industries need to communicate effectively within and across their many system domains. This communication is hindered by the diversity in the semantics of concepts and information structures of these different domain systems. Whilst international standards provide an effective route to information sharing within narrowly specified domains, they are themselves not interoperable across the wide range of application domains needed to support manufacturing industry due to the inconsistency of concept semantics. Formal ontologies have shown promise in removing interpretation problems by computationally capturing the semantics of concepts, ensuring their consistency and thus providing a verifiable and shared understanding across multiple domains. The research work reported in this paper contributes to the development of formal reference ontology for manufacturing, which is envisaged as a key component in future interoperable manufacturing systems. A set of core manufacturing concepts are identified and their semantics have been captured in formal logic based on exploiting and extending existing standards’ definitions, where possible combined with an industrial investigation of the concepts required. A successful experimental investigation has been conducted to verify the application of the ontology based on the interaction between concepts in the design and manufacturing domains of an aerospace component.

Extending product lifecycle management for manufacturing knowledge sharing

Product lifecycle management provides a framework for information sharing that promotes various types of decision-making procedures. For product lifecycle management to advance towards knowledge-driven decision support, then this demands more than simply exchanging information. There is, therefore, a need to formally capture best practice through-life engineering knowledge that can be fed back across the product lifecycle. This article investigates the interoperable manufacturing knowledge systems concept. Interoperable manufacturing knowledge systems use an expressive ontological approach that drives the improved configuration of product lifecycle management systems for manufacturing knowledge sharing. An ontology of relevant core product lifecycle concepts is identified from which viewpoint-specific domains, such as design and manufacture, can be formalised. Essential ontology-based mechanisms are accommodated to support the verification and sharing of manufacturing knowledge across domains. The work has been experimentally assessed using an aerospace compressor disc design and manufacture example. While it has been demonstrated that the approach supports the representation of disparate design and manufacture perspectives as well as manufacturing knowledge feedback in a timely manner, areas for improvement have also been identified for future work.

An automated system for batch hazard and operability studies

Abstract A widely used hazard identification technique within the process industry is HAZOP (hazard and operability study). To overcome the repetitive and time-consuming nature of the technique automated systems are being developed. This work considers batch processes, in which material undergoes processing in distinct stages within the plant equipment items according to a set of operating procedures, rather than each equipment item remaining in a “steady state”, as is normal for continuous plants. In batch plants deviations that can lead to hazards can arise both from deviations from operating procedures and process variable deviations. Therefore, the effect of operator actions needs to be considered. CHECKOP is an automated batch HAZOP identification system being developed as a joint project between HAZID Technologies Ltd. and Loughborough University. CHECKOP uses a state-based approach to HAZOP analysis. CHECKOP takes a plant description and a set of operating instructions as input and produces a HAZOP report automatically. The overall system architecture and the details of the major components of the systems will be described. Examples of incorrect plant operation along with the resulting output generated by CHECKOP will be shown. The advantages and limitations of CHECKOP will be discussed.

Creating signed directed graph models for process plants

Abstract Qualitative modelling using signed directed graphs is briefly described. The need for verification is discussed and the verification techniques for signed directed graph models of process plants are detailed.

A Manufacturing Core Concepts Ontology for Product Lifecycle Interoperability

This paper proposes a manufacturing core concepts ontology (MCCO) aimed at providing support for product life cycle interoperability. The potential focus of the work is interoperability across the production and design domains of product lifecycle. A core set of manufacturing concepts and their key relationships are identified in MCCO. Semantics are captured formally through heavyweight logic using rigorous rules and axioms. Three different levels of specialization have been identified according to the degree of specialization required. Each level provides an immediate route to interoperability for the concepts specialized from that level. MCCO enable knowledge sharing across design and production domains through core concepts. A successful initial experimental implementation has been done to demonstrate the working of MCCO.

Reference ontologies to support the development of global production network systems

We present the preliminary results for the capture and modelling of end-user information.An initial higher level reference core ontology for the development of reference ontologies.The formal logical modelling of Level 1 of the FLEXINET reference ontology using a Common Logic based approach. In competitive and time sensitive market places, organisations are tasked with providing product lifecycle management (PLM) approaches to achieve and maintain competitive advantage, react to change and understand the balance of possible options when making decisions on complex multi-faceted problems, global production networks (GPN) is one such domain in which this applies. When designing and configuring GPN to develop, manufacture and deliver product-service provision, information requirements that affect decision making become more complex. The application of reference ontologies to a domain and its related information requirements can enhance and accelerate the development of new product-service systems with a view towards the seamless interchange of information or interoperability between systems and domains.This paper presents (i) preliminary results for the capture and modelling of end-user information, (ii) an initial higher level reference core ontology for the development of reference ontologies and (iii) the formal logical modelling of Level 1 of the FLEXINET reference ontology using a Common Logic based approach.

Generating rules from data mining for collaboration moderator services

A Moderator is a knowledge based system that supports collaborative working by raising awareness of the priorities and requirements of other team members. However, the amount of advice a Moderator can provide is limited by the knowledge it contains on team members. The use of data mining techniques can contribute towards automating the process of knowledge acquisition for a Moderator and enable hidden data patterns and relationships to be discovered to facilitate the moderation process. A novel approach is presented, consisting of a knowledge discovery framework which provides a semi-automatic methodology to generate rules by inserting relationships discovered as a result of data mining into a generic template. To demonstrate the knowledge discovery framework methodology an application case is described. The application case acquires knowledge for a Moderator to make project partners aware of how to best formulate a proposal for a European research project by data mining summaries of successful past projects. Findings from the application case are presented.

Eliminating ambiguities in qualitative causal feedback

After a brief description of qualitative modelling, current methods to resolve ambiguities within qualitative modelling are discussed. Examples are given showing how unit-based qualitative modelling can lead to incorrect or ambiguous inference. A new modular approach is presented which overcomes this type of problem.

Exploiting unified modelling language UML as a preliminary design tool for Common Logic-based ontologies in manufacturing

This paper proposes a particular method which utilises the unified modelling language (UML) as a design visualisation tool for modelling ontologies based on the Common Logic knowledge representation language. The use of this method will enable Common Logic ontological concepts to be more readily accessible to general engineers and provide a valuable ontology design aid. The method proposed is explored using the knowledge frame language (KFL) which provides constructs to facilitate ontology building and is built on Common Logic. The major constructs of KFL are briefly defined and a description of how each construct may be represented in UML is given. Examples are presented showing how the constructs may be modelled in UML and a Common Logic-based implementation founded on a UML design is illustrated and discussed. The manufacturing domain is utilised as an experimental basis for demonstrating the proposed method.