Theory and semantic refinement of bridge ontology based on multi-ontologies

Multiontologies environments are common in semantic Web and knowledge representation applications. The key problem of these applications is how to represent the complex relationships between ontologies. For the purpose of solving the problem, This work analyzed and classified the relationships between multiontologies, then proposed the theory of bridge ontology. The bridge ontology is a peculiar ontology, has four-layer structures, and is able to express the twelve kinds of relations between multiontologies. Subsequently, on the premise of keeping the semantic consistency, the detailed discussions focused on the semantic checking and refining methods for the multiontologies with bridge ontology. Bridge ontology can be created and maintained conveniently, and is effective in the applications based on multiontologies. It has the advantages of low-cost, scalable, robust in the Web circumstance, avoiding the unnecessary ontology extending and integration, and promoting ontology reuse.