Expressing and reasoning on features of robot-centric workplaces using ontological semantics

This paper presents a novel ontology-based approach that uses Description Logics as a knowledge representation framework for the description, aggregation, propagation, and interlinkage of features pertaining to robots and robot-centric workplaces. We show how different classification systems for capabilities and components can be axiomatically linked together, how features can be propagated along compound components, and how complex features can be computed on the basis of combining role inclusion, role composition, and general concept inclusion axioms. In a second use case that is related to the logical deduction of potential hazards for a given workplace configuration, we show that the presented approach is applicable to similar modeling problems.