Mereotopological assembly joint information representation for collaborative product design

In this paper we discuss an ontology-based representation method for differentiating assembly joints in collaborative and intelligent product design. As design becomes increasingly knowledge-intensive, intelligent, and collaborative, the need becomes more critical for computational frameworks that enable product development by effectively supporting the formal representation, capture, retrieval, and reuse of product knowledge. Joints are a key aspect of assembly models that are often ambiguous when model sharing takes place. Although various joints may have similar geometries and topologies, the physical implications of the selected joining processes may vary significantly. It is possible to attach notes and annotations to geometric entities in order to distinguish joints; however, such textual information does not readily prepare the model for downstream activities, such as simulation and analysis. As an illustration, analysts must read and interpret the annotations in order to develop the appropriate boundary conditions. In this work, we present an assembly design ontology that explicitly represents assembly constraints, including joining constraints, and infers any remaining implicit ones. By relating concepts through ontology technology rather than just defining data syntax, assembly and joining concepts can be captured in their entirety or extended as necessary. By using the knowledge captured by the ontology, similar looking joints can be differentiated. For this research, we used a mereotopology, which is a region-based theory for parts, and the Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) to represent the difference of joints and to define assembly design terms and their relationships. We also used SWRL so that the joining rules can be reasoned to differentiate assembly joints. Finally, by using an ontology, various geometrically and topologically similar joints are successfully differentiated in a standard and machine-interpretable manner.     

Design formalism for collaborative assembly design

Joints in product design are common because of the limitations of component geometric configurations and material properties, and the requirements of inspection, accessibility, repair, and portability. Collaborative product design is emerging as a viable alternative to the traditional design process. The collaborative assembly design (AsD) methodologies are needed for distributed product development. Existing AsD methodologies have limitations in capturing the non-geometric aspects of designer's intent on joining and are not efficient for a collaborative design environment. This paper introduces an AsD formalism and associated AsD tools to capture joining relations and spatial relationship implications. This AsD formalism allows the joining relations to be modeled symbolically for computer interpretation, and the model can be used for inferring mathematical and physical implications. An AsD model generated from the AsD formalism is used to exchange AsD information transparently in a collaborative AsD environment. An assembly relation model and a generic assembly relationship diagram are to capture assembly and joining information concisely and persistently. As a demonstration, the developed AsD formalism and AsD tools are applied on a connector assembly with arc weld and rivet joints.     

Ontology-based feature mapping and verification between CAD systems

Data interoperability between computer-aided design (CAD) systems remains a major obstacle in the information integration and exchange in a collaborative engineering environment. The use of CAD data exchange standards causes the loss of design intent such as construction history, features, parameters, and constraints, whereas existing research on feature-based data exchange only focuses on class-level feature definitions and does not support instance-level verification, which causes ambiguity in data exchange. In this paper, a hybrid ontology approach is proposed to allow for the full exchange of both feature definition semantics and geometric construction data. A shared base ontology is used to convey the most fundamental elements of CAD systems for geometry and topology, which is to both maximize flexibility and minimize information loss. A three-branch hybrid CAD feature model that includes feature operation information at the boundary representation level is constructed. Instance-level feature information in the form of the base ontology is then translated to local ontologies of individual CAD systems during the rule-based mapping and verification process. A combination of the Ontology Web Language (OWL) and Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) is used to represent feature classes and properties and automatically classify them by a reasoner in the target system, which requires no knowledge about the source system.     

Automatically generating assembly tolerance types with an ontology-based approach

In most cases, designers have to manually specify both assembly tolerance types and values when they design a mechanical product. Different designers will possibly specify different assembly tolerance types and values for the same nominal geometry. Furthermore, assembly tolerance specification design of a complex product is a highly collaborative process, in which semantic interoperability issues significantly arise. These situations will cause the uncertainty in assembly tolerance specification design and finally affect the quality of the product. In order to reduce the uncertainty and to support the semantic interoperability in assembly tolerance specification design, an ontology-based approach for automatically generating assembly tolerance types is proposed. First of all, an extended assembly tolerance representation model is constructed by introducing a spatial relation layer. The constructed model is hierarchically organized and consists of part layer, assembly feature surface layer, and spatial relation layer. All these layers are defined with Web Ontology Language (OWL) assertions. Next, a meta-ontology for assembly tolerance representations is constructed. With this meta-ontology, the domain-specific assembly tolerance representation knowledge can be derived by reusing or inheriting the classes or properties. Based on this, assembly tolerance representation knowledge is formalized using OWL. As a result, assembly tolerance representation knowledge has well-defined semantics due to the logic-based semantics of OWL, making it possible to automatically detect inconsistencies of assembly tolerance representation knowledge bases. The mapping relations between spatial relations and assembly tolerance types are represented in Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL). Furthermore, actual generation processes of assembly tolerance types are carried out using Java Expert System Shell (JESS) by mapping OWL-based structure knowledge and SWRL-based constraint knowledge into JESS facts and JESS rules, respectively. Based on this, an approach for automatically generating assembly tolerance types is proposed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by a practical example.     

A framework for collaborative top-down assembly design

This paper presents a new system framework for collaborative top-down assembly design. Different from current computer-aided design (CAD) systems, the framework allows a group of designers to collaboratively conduct product design in a top-down manner. In our framework, a multi-level and distributed assembly model is adopted to effectively support collaborative top-down assembly design. Meanwhile, fine-granularity collaborative design functionalities are provided. First, the coupled structural parameters involved in the distributed skeleton models of the product can be collaboratively determined by the correlative designers based on fuzzy and utility theory. Second, agent based design variation propagation is achieved to ensure the consistency of the multi-level and distributed assembly model during the whole design process. Third, collaborative design of assembly interfaces between the components assigned to different designers is supported. The prototype implementation shows that our framework works well for supporting practical collaborative top-down assembly design.     

A hierarchical assembly knowledge representation framework and microdevice assembly ontology

Microdevice assembly knowledge is dispersed in different product development phases, such as assembly design, assembly simulation and assembly process, and a lot of essential knowledge is implicit and heterogeneous. It is difficult for researchers and computer-aided systems to share and reuse different assembly knowledge quickly and accurately, leading to inefficient and inaccurate assembly process planning. To integrate and structurally represent the assembly design knowledge, assembly simulation knowledge and assembly process knowledge of microdevice, this paper proposes a hierarchical assembly knowledge representation framework and develops a microdevice assembly ontology. There are four layers in the framework, including the organizational structure, the structural relationship, the assembly accuracy, and the process characteristics. The assembly design knowledge that is integrated involves the basic properties of the assembly object as well as the spatial, mating, and assembly relationship, etc. Assembly simulation knowledge refers to the permissible range of assembly force and contact force. Knowledge of assembly processes comprises assembly sequence and operating method of the part. The microdevice assembly ontology is developed based on METHONTOLOGY, and implemented with Protégé. The corresponding SWRL rules have been established to inference the implicit knowledge in assembly design. An ignition target assembly knowledge model based on the microdevice assembly ontology is constructed. In the assembly task of the ignition target, engineers can quickly and accurately access the required assembly knowledge from the ignition target assembly knowledge model, thus verifying the integrity and validity of the microdevice assembly ontology.     

A hybrid ontology approach for integration of obsolescence information

Information sharing among distributed obsolescence management systems is a challenge because of the heterogeneity of data (data with different forms and representations). Indeed, this is the main hurdle that exists for current tools managing product obsolescence. This paper presents a hybrid ontology approach for the integration of obsolescence information that combines a global ontology that provides a shared vocabulary for the specification of the semantics of obsolescence domain knowledge, along with local ontologies that describe structures of multiple data sources distributed in various obsolescence management tools. A procedure is provided for mapping local ontologies to the global ontology by quantifying relationships between classes and identifying groups of classes with a clustering method. Ontologies and rules of identifying relationships are realized with OWL (Web Ontology Language) and SWRL (Semantic Web Rule Language). With the application of the hybrid ontology approach, a unified view of data is provided to support decision making for efficient obsolescence management and a structure where new sources of information can be easily added with little modification in the future.     

基于本体共享的专家系统模型

提出了基于本体共享的专家系统模型,该模型充分利用了本体的共享特性.通过利用本体对知识进行表示,用SWRL编写规则,可以有效的表示知识之间的关系,有利于知识的共享和重用.     

Representing and Reasoning About XML with Ontologies

The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) has reached a wide acceptance as the relevant standardization for representing and exchanging data on the Web. Unfortunately, XML covers the syntactic level but lacks semantics, and thus cannot be directly used for the Semantic Web. Currently, finding a way to utilize XML data for the Semantic Web is challenging research. As we have known that ontology can formally represent shared domain knowledge and enable semantics interoperability. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate how to represent and reason about XML with ontologies. Firstly, we give formalized representations of XML data sources, including Document Type Definitions (DTDs), XML Schemas, and XML documents. On this basis, we propose formal approaches for transforming the XML data sources into ontologies, and we also discuss the correctness of the transformations and provide several transformation examples. Furthermore, following the proposed approaches, we implement a prototype tool that can automatically transform XML into ontologies. Finally, we apply the transformed ontologies for reasoning about XML, so that some reasoning problems of XML may be checked by the existing ontology reasoners.     

Integrity validation in semantic engineering design environment

A collaborative engineering design environment has been devised based on semantic Web technologies. The Semantic Engineering Design Environment (SEDE) consists of Engineering Ontology, Design Rules, Design Database, and Design Data Web Service. The Design Data Web Service provides users APIs (Application Programming Interface) so that distributed Design Participants interface each other. The domain knowledge of design objects can be logically expressed by OWL (Web Ontology Language). Design rules regarding change management are encoded in XQuery and stored as database triggers. Once design data changes, associated design rules will be validated by database systems. In this paper we introduce the overall architecture of the collaborative engineering design environment and present working scenarios with examples.     

基于SWRL的软件需求一致性验证方法

需求质量已经成为确保软件项目成功的一个重要因素,对复杂软件系统的需求进行检查和验证,是需求工程中非常重要的工作。在基于领域本体的需求获取和分析等相关工作基础上,提出了一种基于本体和语义规则的需求一致性验证方法,将自然语言描述的需求分解成若干结构良好的最小需求项,使用领域本体的概念模型对其进行形式化和结构化的表示。通过领域本体中的知识来映射需求语义,采用语义万维网规则语言（SWRL）来定义需求一致性验证的推理规则,并通过实例对此方法进行了分析和验证。     

Semantic Web based innovative design knowledge modeling for collaborative design

This paper describes a study about how to use the Semantic Web technologies for innovative design knowledge modeling in a multi-agent distributed design environment. Semantic Web based knowledge modeling for innovative design is proposed as prelude to the meaningful agent communication and knowledge reuse for collaborative work among multidisciplinary organizations. A model for innovative design is proposed at first, based on which a knowledge schema is brought forward. For sharing the design knowledge among an internet-based or distributed work team, even globally, A RDF-based knowledge model is presented to realize its representation on Semantic Web. A Semantic Web based repository for innovative design and its API for topper Semantic Web applications have been also constructed. The proposed knowledge modeling extends traditional product modeling with capabilities of innovative design, knowledge sharing and distributed problem solving, and is employed as a content language within the messages in the proposed multi-agent system architecture. The proposed approach is viewed as a promising knowledge management method that facilitates the implementation of computer supported cooperative work in innovative design of Semantic Web applications.     

A method for computer-aided specification of geometric tolerances

The paper describes a method for the generation of tolerance specifications from product data. The problem is nontrivial due to the increasing adoption of geometric dimensioning criteria, which call for the use of many types of geometric tolerances to completely and unambiguously represent the design intent and the many constraints deriving from manufacturing, assembly and inspection processes. All these issues have to be modeled and explicitly provided to a generative specification procedure, which may thus need a large amount of input data. The proposed approach tries to avoid this difficulty by considering that most precision requirements to be defined relate to the assembly process, and can be automatically derived by analyzing the contact relations between parts and the assembly operations planned for the product. Along with possible user-defined additional requirements relating to function, assembly requirements are used in a rule-based geometric reasoning procedure to select datum reference frames for each part and to assign tolerance types to part features. A demonstrative software tool based on the developed procedure has allowed to verify its correctness and application scope on some product examples.     

本体存储技术研究

Ontology是对一个特定领域中重要概念的共享的形式化的描述,由于具有明确性和共享性,它可以作为领域内不同主体之间进行交流的语义基础;更进一步的,Ontology可以帮助机器理解文档表达的语义信息.语义网络是Ontology的一个重要应用场景,Ontology用来描述网络资源的语义,从而使机器具有自动管理网络信息的能力.那么巨大的数据规模是语义网络环境下Ontology数据存储管理面临的一个突出问题,所以介绍了本体存储的方法、存储模式及几种典型的本体存储管理系统.讨论了当前本体存储模式的问题并展望了未来的发展方向.     

本体存储技术研究

Ontobgy是对一个特定领域中重要概念的共享的形式化的描述,由于具有明确性和共享性,它可以作为领域内不同主体之同进行交流的语义基础;更进一步的,Ontology可以帮助机器理解文档表达的语义信息。语义网络是Ontology的一个重要应用场景,Ontolcgy用来描述网络资源的语义,从而使机器具有自动管理网络信息的能力。那么巨大的数据规模是语义网络环境下Ontology数据存储管理面临的一个突出问题,所以介绍了本体存储的方法、存储模式及几种典型的本体存储管理系统。讨论了当前本体存储模式的问题并展望了未来的发展方向。     

一种基于语义的协同工作模型

针对产品制造领域,提出一种基于语义的协同工作模型。该模型分别以XML和RDF(S)作为协同信息的语法描述模式和语义描述模型,为协同信息提供机器呵处理和可理解能力;通过建立由个体Ontology和顶层Ontology构成的两层Ontology体系,以个体Ontology描述协同过程中个人或团体的领域背景知识,以顶层Ontology为概念和语义参照模型,建立协同信息之间的语义约束,为协同过程提供多领域知识共享和互操作环境。     

基于语义Web的开放本体导航工具设计与实现

语义Web是分布式环境下构建复杂系统的一种新兴技术。针对独立开发的本体存在语义不匹配和逻辑不一致等问题,利用一种具有偏好的、公理半序的、模块化的本体表示语言OSHOQP（D）,在开放本体需求分析的基础上,设计了基于语义Web技术的开放本体导航工具模型,使得本体能够并发地编辑和整合。系统由Wiki引擎、Agent、存储管理、本体管理器、导入／导出等模块构成。实现了基于语义Web技术的系统实验原型,为下一步研究开发较成熟的软件产品奠定了良好的基础。     

Collaborative virtual prototyping of product assemblies over the Internet

Product assembly design is a complex activity involving collaboration between several designers. Currently, many manufacturing firms out source the design and development of different portions of a product to different suppliers. Due to the absence of an integrated tool for collaborative product assembly design, designers currently follow an indirect approach. This makes collaboration an unorganized and inefficient activity. This paper discusses the architectural novelties and design considerations utilized to develop an integrated collaborative assembly design tool. Further, the scenarios of using such a tool are discussed in detail. This discussion highlights how the tool contributes towards making collaboration an organized and efficient activity and enables designers to rapidly design and prototype the product assembly.     

基于本体的大规模定制产品配置模型

依据产品配置领域的相关知识,提出一种基于本体的大规模定制产品配置概念模型,其中包括配置类型和约束类。定义模型中每个概念及其关系,运用Web本体语言对其进行形式化的描述,使用语义Web规则语言表达特定的约束规则,基于Protégé对该模型进行有效性检验。