Ontologies for multi-agent systems in manufacturing domain

Ontologies play important role in knowledge sharing and exploration, particularly in communication in multi-agent systems. We briefly survey, compare and analyze current usage of ontologies in the area of manufacturing and compare it with the ontology modelling for the Semantic Web. We focus on the problem of scalable interoperability in open heterogeneous multi-agent systems, such as supply chains. A study of transformation of a particular ontology from the manufacturing domain into the form suitable for communication with Semantic Web agents is presented. We conclude with a discussion of what we see as the next important steps in the development of ontologies in the manufacturing domain in order to have more automated approaches for ontological knowledge integration.