Empowering the Model-driven Engineering of Robotic Applications using Ontological Semantics and Reasoning

Abstract

This work discusses two scenarios in which the model-driven engineering of robotic applications can be improved using ontological semantics and reasoning. The objective of the presented approach is to facilitate reuse and interoperability between cooperating software and hardware components. Central to the presented approach is the usage of ontologies and description logics as knowledge representation frameworks for the axiomatic description of component metadata models. In the first scenario, we show how application templates can be created using the concept of placeholders in which requirements for integrating external components can be axiomatically specified and eligible components can be computed using subsumption reasoning. The second scenario extends this idea for the inference of compatibilities between cooperating components. The practical applicability of the approach is demonstrated by a concrete use case from the ReApp project.