SBIR-STTR Award

In recent decades, the challenge of modern warfare has shifted from gathering as much information as possible to filtering and synthesizing the large quantity collected for human interpretation and action. Before a comprehensive view of any situation can be presented, all relevant data must be interpretable and accessible in a uniform manner. Tools exist enabling integration of enterprise systems; however, this activity is nearly always time-consuming and manpower-intensive. We propose an ontology mediation service that provides a lighter weight, lower cost, and more flexible alternative to full-scale system integration. The service will serve as a functional platform for more advanced research and convert between present-day data models using predictive analysis and automation. The solution will also be aggressively positioned for the future of data representation by using conceptual and semantic algorithms to construct a rich, machine-readable ontological representation of a given domain. We believe the need is best satisfied by a system that: 1) contains its own comprehensive foundation ontology, 2) can ingest example ontologies, 3) expands its internal ontology and improves its automated mapping ability, 4) translates and outputs to any format that can be read in, and 6) uses web services and integrates seamlessly with a Service-Oriented Architecture.

During Phase I, Dragon developed a prototype mediation application that uses an underlying Web Ontology Language (OWL) ontology to perform translation between systems. OMS surpasses traditional mediation tools by automating and standardizing the mapping exercise between system formats, and by encouraging true knowledge management across organizations. OMS can serve as a centralized “router,” translating messages between any number of systems in real time. We believe our mediation service makes possible a truly integrated enterprise. Phase II has three key goals: to improve the mapping process in terms of ease-of-use and translation capabilities; to upgrade the architecture to a deployment-ready state; and to provide installation, configuration tools and documentation to support future deployment. We intend to migrate to an architecture capable of achieving mature performance, stability and security attributes. To assist system integration efforts, we have defined a step-by-step integration process. We will undertake an ambitious effort to assist both automated and manual mapping activities by employing intelligent agents to mine existing data repositories. Finally, we will implement a configurable business rules engine to handle differences in data structure, format, and classification tagging between systems. The Phase II product will serve an important existing need in both DoD and private industry.

Keywords:
Ontology, Mediation, Web Services, Interoperability, Systems Integration, Owl, Rdf, Soa