Title: Enabling interoperability of STEP Application Protocols at meta-data and knowledge level

Authors: Ricardo Jardim-Goncalves, Nicolas Figay, Adolfo Steiger-Garcao

Addresses: Dep. de Eng. Electrotecnica e Computadores da Fac. de Ciencias e Tecnologia da Univ. Nova de Lisboa, UNINOVA, Portugal. ' European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V., Corporate Research Center, EADS – CCR, France. ' Dep. de Eng. Electrotecnica e Computadores da Fac. de Ciencias e Tecnologia da Univ. Nova de Lisboa, UNINOVA, Portugal

Abstract: Numerous proposals exist worldwide for the representation of data models and services for the main manufacturing activities. The ISO10303 STEP has developed more than 40 standard Application Protocols for product data representation, and they reflect the consolidated expertise of major industrial worldwide specialists working together for more than 20 years, covering the principal product data management areas for the main industries. However, these standards are focused on product data representation. A framework to enable them to interoperate at meta-model and knowledge levels permits the reuse of this existing expertise, extending its capabilities in complementary application domains, like advanced modelling tools, knowledge management and the emergent semantic web technologies. This paper proposes a framework for the development, usage and extension of integrated data and knowledge models, using as a reference existent standard-based protocols. The work results from the research and development completed by the authors under the umbrella of international projects.

Keywords: interoperability; ISO 10303; knowledge models; metamodelling; metadata; OWL; product data exchange; STEP; XML; product data representation; product data management; PDM; knowledge management; semantic web; data integration; innovation management; technology management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2006.010275

International Journal of Technology Management, 2006 Vol.36 No.4, pp.402 - 421

Published online: 12 Jul 2006 *

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