Research on Product Configuration Knowledge Representation and Sharing Based on Ontology

Valid product knowledge representation is crucial for knowledge sharing and reuse in product configuration. An ontology-based knowledge representation approach on product configuration was proposed aimed at solving some problems on product configuration knowledge representation and sharing at present. Representation hierarchy of product knowledge ontology was analyzed, configuration knowledge classified levels and some relative concepts were presented such as component, function, port, resource, relation and constraint etc. Then product configuration knowledge ontology model was established and ontology modeling language DAML+OIL was used for representing configuration knowledge. Finally, water pump was used as an example to demonstrate the modeling approach. As a result, the configuration model is easy to representation and sharing.