Date of Award
12-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Engineering (ME)
Department
Mechanical Engineering
Committee Chair/Advisor
Gregory Mocko
Committee Member
Gang Li
Committee Member
Bing Li
Abstract
The development of the US Army’s next-generation of ground vehicle systems is supported by simulations that predict vehicle performance and inform engineering design choices in the design and acquisition process. In this paper, we describe the development of an Integrated Ontology Suite to support modeling and simulation of next generation military ground vehicles. The ontology suite is intended to address model reuse challenges and increase the shared understanding of ground vehicle system simulations. It is intended to function in a Model Library structure that stores, documents, assembles, and executes vehicle simulations. The ontology suite consists of four domain ontologies: Vehicle operations (VehOps), Operational environment (Env), Ground vehicle architecture (VehArch), and Simulation model ontology (SimMod) and one integration ontology. The separate domain ontologies allow for extensibility, while the integration ontology establishes semantic relationships across the domain ontologies. The ontology suite, developed using the Web Ontology Language (OWL), leverages existing ground vehicle modeling and simulation knowledge (SAE J2998 and SAE J3049) and extends the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and Common Core Ontologies (CCO) to ensure semantic compatibility. Based on our experience, we provide recommendations for ontology development and demonstrate the use of the ontology suite to support ground vehicle development. Examples from the Deep Orange development project and existing Simulink vehicle dynamics simulation are used demonstrate the functionality of the ontology suite for modeling the key performance requirements, representing testing procedures to verify the vehicle performance, specifying the vehicle architecture including major systems and subsystems, and capturing model components and simulations. Finally, we discuss how the ontology is used to realize a library of simulation models and identify approaches to support the reuse of simulation models within the vehicle development process.
Recommended Citation
Louis, Edward, "Supporting US Army Next-Generation Ground Vehicle Simulation Modeling Using an Integrated Ontology Suite" (2022). All Theses. 3914.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3914