Ontology-based industrial plant description supporting simulation model design and maintenance

Industrial plants and processes are becoming very complex and sophisticated. Appropriate control algorithms, being necessary for their efficient operation, can be tested and fine-tuned on simulation models; for advanced process control the models are even necessary. Therefore, the fundamental precondition for control algorithm design is to implement and fine-tune a simulation model. Since plant description methods used nowadays are insufficient for describing modern flexible plants, this paper presents an ontology-based approach to the plant description. The proposed paradigm enables querying and inferring new pieces of knowledge. The solution supports the efficient integration of diverse engineering tools, such as simulators, SCADA systems, or even proprietary software used in particular projects. The proposed approach supports reasoning techniques and efficient utilization of domain specific languages for each engineer or expert. Ontologies comprise explicitly specified knowledge, enable to interchange it between automation tools and can guarantee consistency of the whole integrated solution. The presented approach can be used for both continuous and discrete systems, especially the large-scale ones. A practical example, describing a passive house with ontology individuals and generating a structure of a simulation model automatically by the implemented tool, is involved in this paper.