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The adoption of digital twins in manufacturing is enhanced by the development and implementation of ontologies, which are machine-interpretable representations of domain knowledge. These ontologies enable the representation of complex data models and their logical relationships. They are created by consolidating data from various sources, published easily, and used across disciplines to form databases. Data management requires structured storage and the ability to be queried manually or via an API. A generic and specific ontology, hosted in the Fraunhofer Edge Cloud, facilitates this and is used in the ICNAP Research Linked Data Lab for managing and querying Linked Data datasets, thus supporting decision-making through standardized communication and information processing.
Topic Fields | |
Published | 2021 |
Involved Institutes | |
Project Type | ICNAP Research/Transfer Project |
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The development and implementation of an ontology is seen as beneficial to the adoption of digital twins in manufacturing. Ontologies are understood as digital representations and reusable pieces of domain knowledge expressed in a machine-interpretable language that allow even the most complex data models to be represented with logical relationships. Picture 6 illustrates an extract of the developed domain-specific ontology as it could be applied in the industry. The realisation begins with the consolidation of data from heterogeneous data sources. The use of ontologies across multiple disciplines, the easy publication of ontologies, and the creation of corresponding databases characterise the core task in the comprehensive implementation. To manage the data, it must be stored in a structured way and be possible to query this data manually and via an API. Therefore, a generic and specific ontology was developed, which is hosted in the Fraunhofer Edge Cloud. The introduction of this ontology in the ICNAP Research Linked Data Lab allows Linked Data type datasets to be managed, manipulated and queried. Consequently, the developed ontology is employed as a conventional data schema and enables decision support through information processing and standardised communication.
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