FIDOE: A Framework for Intelligent Distributed Ontologies in Engineering Available to Purchase

This paper presents FIDOE, a Framework for Intelligent Distributed Ontologies in Engineering. FIDOE consists of a suite of logic rules and templates for interactively developing relationships between properties of linked ontologies. The logical rules embedded in FIDOE automatically operate on various discipline-specific ontologies to systematically identify influences, direct and indirect, of proposed design modifications on other aspects of the design through common domain concepts. Once potential influences are identified, FIDOE enables the user to precisely define the domain relationships, using predefined templates, between the identified domain concepts that enumerate influence types. This tool, thus, provides a pervasive, real time awareness of the implications of design changes during the design process in a distributed environment. The application of FIDOE to distributed and multidisciplinary design problems is detailed with the aid of an industry-provided printed circuit board (PCB) design. Here, commonalities among indirectly connected domain ontologies (electrical, mechanical and thermal domains) are identified using the developed query method and subsequent relationships are defined. These relationships are then applied to provide a collaborative understanding and awareness of the distributed process, all while demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach. This awareness was successfully able to address some previously identified industry concerns, returning promising results while laying a solid foundation for future work.