Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

Making Heterogeneous OntologiesInteroperable Through Standardisation

AMeta Ontology Language to be Standardised forOntology Integration and Interoperability (OntoIOp)

AEGIS Conference

Christoph Lange1,2, Till Mossakowski1,3,4,Christian Galinski5, Oliver Kutz1,3

1 University of Bremen, Germany 2Computer Science, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany3SFB/TR 8 “Spatial cognition”, University of Bremen, Germany 4DFKI GmbH, Bremen, Germany

5International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm), Vienna, Austria

2011-11-30

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 1

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

Background: The OASIS EU project

OASIS = Open architecture for AccessibleServices Integration and Standardisation

Goal: an innovative reference architecture(based on ontologies and semanticservices) that allows plug and play andcost-effective interconnection of existingand new services in all domains requiredfor the independent and autonomousliving of the elderly and enhancing theirQuality of Life

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 2

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

Interoperable Assistive TechnologyAssistive technology increasingly relies on communication

among users,between users and their devices, andamong these devices.

Making such ICT accessible and inclusive is costly or evenimpossibleWe aim at more interoperable

devices,services accessing these devices, andcontent delivered by these services

. . . at the levels ofdata and metadatadatamodels and data modelling methodsmetamodels as well as a meta ontology language

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 3

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

Our Big Picture of Interoperability

Ontology

Ontology Language/Logic

Knowledge Software Agents

written in

Concepts/Data/Individuals

represented in terms of

Service Description

Service Descr. Language

written in

Service

satisfies

processes

refers to

Target (Device)accesses

Service-Oriented Architecture

Smart Environment

Target Description

conforms to

Device

Target Descr. Language

written in

Ontology

Ontology Language/Logic

Concepts/Data/Individuals

Service Description

Service Descr. Language

Service Target (Device)

Target Description

Device

Target Descr. Language

Knowledge Infrastructure

map

ping

s fo

rin

tero

pera

bilit

y

Hardware

Data

Models

Metamodels

For now we focus onthe “content”/“knowledge” column

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 4

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

An Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Use Case

ScenarioClara instructs her wheelchair to get her to the kitchen (next door tothe living room). For dinner, she would like to take a pizza from thefreezer and bake it in the oven. (Her diet is vegetarian.) Afterwardsshe needs to rest in bed.

Existing AAL ontologies (e.g. OpenAAL, http://openaal.org)cover the core of these concepts:

. . . but not all required conceptse.g. food ingredients⇒ need other ontologies/modules. . . not necessarily at the required level of complexity e.g.space/time⇒ need other logics

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 5

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

An Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Use Case

ScenarioClara instructs herwheelchair to get her to the kitchen (next doorto the living room). For dinner, she would like to take a pizza fromthe freezer and bake it in the oven. (Her diet is vegetarian.)Afterwards she needs to rest in bed.

Existing AAL ontologies (e.g. OpenAAL, http://openaal.org)cover the core of these concepts:

. . . but not all required conceptse.g. food ingredients⇒ need other ontologies/modules. . . not necessarily at the required level of complexity e.g.space/time⇒ need other logics

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 5

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

An Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Use Case

ScenarioClara instructs herwheelchair to get her to the kitchen (next doorto the living room). For dinner, she would like to take a pizza fromthe freezer and bake it in the oven. (Her diet is vegetarian.)Afterwards she needs to rest in bed.

Existing AAL ontologies (e.g. OpenAAL, http://openaal.org)cover the core of these concepts:

. . . but not all required conceptse.g. food ingredients⇒ need other ontologies/modules

. . . not necessarily at the required level of complexity e.g.space/time⇒ need other logics

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 5

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

An Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Use Case

ScenarioClara instructs herwheelchair to get her to the kitchen (next doorto the living room). For dinner, she would like to take a pizza fromthe freezer and bake it in the oven. (Her diet is vegetarian.)Afterwards she needs to rest in bed.

Existing AAL ontologies (e.g. OpenAAL, http://openaal.org)cover the core of these concepts:

. . . but not all required conceptse.g. food ingredients⇒ need other ontologies/modules. . . not necessarily at the required level of complexity e.g.space/time⇒ need other logics

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 5

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

What do Devices Need to Know?

Some of the devices involved:kitchen light switch

freezer (aware of its contents)

wheelchair (with navigation)

Different Services and Devices need to understand differentaspects of the real world at different levels of complexity.

Quote from the “Hitchhiker”

“Suddenly [the door] slid open. ‘Thank you,’it said, ‘for making a simple door veryhappy.’”

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 6

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

Different Devices and their Knowledge

Light Switch: “light is switched on if and only if someone is inthe room and it is dark outside”Freezer: “a vegetarian pizza is a pizza whose toppings are allvegetarian”

Wheelchair: “two areas in a house (e.g. a working area in aroom) are either the same, or intersecting, or bordering, orseparated, or one is part of the other”

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 7

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

Different Devices = Different Logics

Which logics can intuitively capture these notions?Light Switch: propositional logic“light is switched on if and only if someone is in the room and itis dark outside” – light_on ≡ person_in_room ∧ dark_outsideFreezer: description logic (Pizza ontology)“a vegetarian pizza is a pizza whose toppings are all vegetarian”VegetarianPizza ≡ Pizza ⊓ ∀hasTopping.VegetarianWheelchair: first order logic (RCC-style spatial calculus)“two areas in a house (e.g. a working area in a room) are eitherthe same, or intersecting, or bordering, or separated, or one ispart of the other”∀a1, a2.equal(a1, a2) ∨ overlapping(a1, a2) ∨ bordering(a1, a2) ∨disconnected(a1, a2) ∨ part_of(a1, a2) ∨ part_of(a2, a1)

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 8

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

DOL (Distributed Ontology Language)The DOL standard (Distributed Ontology Language) specifies

ameta-language for logically heterogeneous,modular,interlinked, and documented ontologieswith a formal semantics and an XML, RDF and text syntaxthat is compatible to conforming existing and futureontology languages.

In practice, interoperability can only be achieved via standards:formulate consensual rules under participation of majorstakeholders (here: ontology language communities)improve suitability of products, processes and servicesfacilitate communicationreduce complexity (and thus costs)increase quality via certification

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 9

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

The Example in DOL (Excerpt)logic <http://purl.net/dol/logic/OWL>ontology OurAAL = <http://openaal.org/SAM/Ontology#>then logic <http://purl.net/dol/logic/Propositional> : {props light_on, person_in_room, dark_outside. light_on <=> person_in_room /\ dark_outsidewith person_in_room |-> Room that inverse locatedIn Person min 1%% also establish links to OpenAAL’s Device

} then logic <http://purl.net/dol/logic/OWL> : {Class: VegetarianPizzaEquivalentTo: Pizza that hasTopping only Vegetarian

%% also connect Pizza to the OpenAAL Devices Freezer and Oven} then logic <http://purl.net/dol/logic/CommonLogic> : {. (forall (a1 a2)

(or (equal a1 a2)...(part_of a2 a1))

%% plus another axiom that makes the "or" exclusivewith %% establish link to OpenAAL’s Room connectedTo Room

} end

Relevant DOL features used here: literal inclusion of existinglanguages; modular reuse; links between ontologiesLange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 10

Introduction Scenario Standard Conclusion

ISO Standardization Roadmap

The standardization of DOL (ISO 17347) so far involves expertsfrom ≈ 15 countries and various ontology-related communities.

Now:Working Drafts, towards Committee Draft (each stagereviewed by experts, voted upon)

2013: Draft International Standard2015: Final Draft, then International Standard

http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?OntoIOp

Lange et al. (U. Bremen/Infoterm) Making Heterogeneous Ontologies Interoperable Through Standardisation 2011-11-30 11