AUTOMATED SUPPORT FOR CREATION AND MAINTENANCE OF LARGE SITUATION BASED ONTOLOGIES

IN THE CONTEXT OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT, ONTOLOGY IS THE TASK OF EXTRACTING THE NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF A GIVEN EINGEERING, MANUFACTURING, BUSINESS, OR LOGISTICAL DOMAIN AND STORING IT INAN EXPRESSIVELY RICH, USABLE, COMPUTATIONALLY FEASIBLE REPRESENTATIONAL MEDIUM. AN ARRAY OF ONTOLOGY DATABASES IN USE ACROSS A WIDE VARIETYOF SUCH SYSTEMS WOULD REVOLUTIONIZE THE TASKS OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION MODELING. HOWEVER, AT PRESENT THERE EXISTS NO GENERAL THEORETICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE NATURE OF ONTOLOGICAL INFORMATION AS IT RELATES SPECIFICALLY TO THE ABOVE DOMAINS; NOR ARE THERE ANYMETHODS DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR CAPTURING ONTOLOGICAL INFORMATION AND DEVELOPING AND MAINTAINING THIS INFORMATION IN A SHAREABLE, RESUABLE, STANDARDIZED DESCRIPTIVE FORM; HENCE, NEITHER ARE THERE ANY COMPUTATIONAL TOOLS DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY TO COMPLEMENT THESE METHODS. IN THIS PROJECT WE WILL BASE AN APPROACH TO THESE THEORETICAL, METHDOLOGICAL, AND COMPUTATIONAL SHORTFALLS ON A RECENT POWERFUL THEORY OF INFORMATION KNOWN AS SITUATION THEORY. SPECIFICALLY, WE WILL 1) DEVELOP A FORMAL SITUATION THEORETICALLY BASED FOUNDATION FOR ONTOLOGY; 2) REFINE THE AIR FORCE IDEF5 ONTOLOGY DESCRIPTION CAPTURE METHODOLOGY FOR ONTOLOGY CREATION; AND 3) BEGIN INITIAL WORK ON THE PROTOTYPES OF A SUITE OFSOFTWARE SUPPORT TOOLS FOR THE CREATION AND MAINTENANCE OF LARGE SITUATION-BASED ONTOLOGIES. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS - THE IMPORTANCE OF ONTOLOGY DEVELOPMENT WILL CONTINUE TO GROW OVER THE NEXT DECADE. THE SITUATION THEORETIC RESULTS OF THIS PROJECT WILL MOVE THE ONTOLOGY TECHNOLOGY FROM THE CONCEPT PHASE TO A SYSTEMS ENGINEERING DISCIPLINE. THE REFINEMENT OF IDEF5 METHODOLOGY WILLMAKE THIS TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE TO THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE AND THE TOOLS RESULTING FROM THIS PROJECT WILL ENABLE THE COST EFFECTIVE CREATION,REUSE, AND MAINTENANCE OF LARGE ONTOLOGIES BY