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Title
Building the Semantic Web for the Process Industries with ISO 15926: Integration, Sharing, Exchange, and Hand-over of Plant Lifecycle Information on the basis of the ISO 15926-2 Data Model, ISO 15926-4 Reference Data, and ISO 15926-7 Implementation Methodology
Description
ISO 15926 has three main parts:
Part 2 - data model - a fully generic, data-driven, 4D model with 201 entity types Part 4 - reference data - core classes, object models, reference individuals Part 7 - implementation methods (in OWL) - using templates, being n-ary relations
The Properties of the templates refer to reference data in a standard RDF/OWL manner. The semantics of any template type, so its "internals", are modelled in terms of Part 2 entity types.
The purpose of ISO 15926 is to provide a Lingua Franca for computer systems, thereby integrating the information produced by them. Although set up for the process industries with large projects involving many parties, and involving plant operations and maintenance lasting decades, the technology can be used by anyone willing to set up a proper vocabulary of reference data linked with Part 4.
Each computer program maps its data from its internal format to a standard format defined by ISO 15926. That data then is stored in a System Façade, each system has its own System Façade. A Façade is an RDF quad store, set up to a standard schema and API, as defined in Part 7. Any Façade only stores the data for which the Façade owner is responsible.
Data can be queried by means of SPARQL, and also can be "handed over" from one Façade to another in cases where data custodianship is handed over (e.g. from a contractor to a plant owner, of from a manufacturer to the owners of the manufactured goods). Façades have a standard API for population, handing over, information exchange, and querying.
One can set up Façades for the consolidation of data by handing over data produced by various systems and stored in their System Façades. Examples are: a Façade for a project discipline, a project, a plant, or even for a company in a fiscal year).
In any implementation a restricted number of Façades can be involved, with different rights. This is done by means of setting up a matrix called a CPF (= Confederation of Participating Façades). Using SOAP and WSDL an Ontology Browser can have access to one or more Façades in a given CPF, depending on the access rights.
Since the data model is a 4D (space-time) model, it is possible to present the data that was valid at any given point in time, thus providing a true historical record. It is expected that this will be used for Knowledge Mining.
Additional Information
The status of ISO 15926-7 is that it is in preparation for ISO ballot. If it passes that ballot it will have the status of Technical Specification (TS).
A TS must be tested on one or more projects, and if successful the standard can proceed with a ballot for DIS (Draft International Standard), and ultimately IS.
At present (2007) two cooperating implementation projects are active:
- the ADI Project [1] of FIATECH [2], to build the tools (which will then be made available in the public domain)
- the IDS Project [3] of POSC/Caesar [4], to define product models required for data sheets
