Ontology Validation of Manufacturing Execution Systems Through the Analysis of Semantic Descriptions

Current manufacturing systems are comprised of heterogeneous software and hardware components that exchange information on various levels. These levels have distinct functionalities and target different timeframes but they have to communicate for the effective and efficient operation of an enterprise. On one hand, the present trend in industry 4.0 promotes smart manufacturing systems. On the other hand, new product variants, assets, machinery, and diverse manufacturing technologies are constantly added to the manufacturing systems. Hence, the capability of a manufacturing system to follow the dynamic changes of the industry and customers becomes essential. In order to realize this, integration is required to link those individual levels, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), and subsequently perform physical operations in the shop floor. In that sense, using standards becomes significant in order to avoid inconsistent and redundant systems and integration architectures. The ISA-95 standard, from the International Society of Automation (ISA), describes the interface needed for integration of enterprise and control levels by specifying a uniform terminology and a coherent collection of concepts and models. The objective of this thesis work is to demonstrate an approach for designing a generic manufacturing systems model using a Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR&R) formalism, i.e., an ontology, conformant to ISA-95 that allows easy extendibility. The main contribution of the approach lies in the addition of standard and use case specific semantic rules that connect the core concepts and increase the expressivity and reasoning capabilities of the model. Ontologies are flexible and easy to update and enable the reuse of knowledge, which should be considered with the abundance of data available in modern systems. The proposed model describes the system based on products, processes, and resources involved in manufacturing. The applicability, extendibility, and reusability of the proposed model has been validated by its application in an industrial use case as a proof of concept

Modèle ontologique contextuel pour les patients atteints de la maladie pulmonaire obstructive chronique

L'informatique ubiquitaire est considérée comme l'une des réalisations scientifiques les plus marquantes de la dernière décennie. Cette vision a créé une révolution dans les interactions des utilisateurs finaux à partir le concept de sensibilité au contexte. L'informatique ubiquitaire offre une nouvelle opportunité pour remodeler la forme des solutions conventionnelles en fournissant des services personnalisés en fonction des situations contextuelles de chaque environnement. Des centaines d'architectures théoriques ont été développées dans le but de mettre en oeuvre l'idée de systèmes sensible au contexte. Cependant, l'informatique ubiquitaire est encore pratiquement non applicable en raison de nombreux défis, surtout que les architectures proposées se présentent toujours comme une solution générale qui permet de satisfaire n'importe quel type d'application et toutes sortes d'utilisation. OBJECTIFS: Cette thèse vise à concevoir et valider un modèle contextuel pour les systèmes de soins de santé ubiquitaires et spécifiquement destinés à aider les patients souffrant de la maladie pulmonaire obstructive chronique (MPOC). LA MÉTHODE: Les informations contextuelles sont très importantes pour les applications de soins de santé sensibles au contexte, en particulier celles utilisées pour surveiller les patients atteints de maladies chroniques qui sont affectées par des conditions concevables. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une nouvelle classification de contexte pour le domaine médical qui couvre tous les aspects influençant la santé des patients. La grande échelle de cette classification le rend apte pour être une référence générale pour de divers projets de recherche s'intéressant au contexte médical. Ensuite, nous proposons un modèle contextuel à base d’ontologies capable de gérer la structure complexe du domaine de la MPOC de manière cohérente, en proportion de la nature dynamique de cet environnement. Ce nouveau modèle ontologique constitue le noyau de notre perception pour la mise en oeuvre de la solution de soins de santé ubiquitaire. Le modèle présenté examine son efficacité dans la gestion de l’une des maladies les plus vulnérables au contexte, où il prouve ainsi sa capacité à adapter les services de soins de santé à titre personnel et en fonction des conditions actuelles et prévues. Le modèle proposé a montré des résultats prometteurs dépassant 85% approuvé par un groupe de spécialistes expérimentés dans le domaine des maladies pulmonaires. Ubiquitous computing is considered one of the most impactful scientific achievements in the last decade. This conception created tremendous revolution in the end-user interactions through the concept of context-awareness. Ubiquitous computing offers a new opportunity to redesign the pattern of conventional solutions where it can easily tailor its processes upon existing contextual situations. Hundreds of theoretical architectures have been developed to enable context-awareness computing in pervasive settings. However, ubiquitous computing is still practically not feasible due to many challenges, but most importantly, that the proposed models always present themselves as a general solution to all kinds of real-life applications. OBJECTIVES: This thesis aims to design and validate a contextual model for health-care context-aware systems to support patients suffer from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). METHODS: The contextual information is important for developing Context-Aware Healthcare Applications, especially those used to monitor patients with chronic diseases which are affected by perceived conditions. In this thesis, we propose a novel context categorization within the medical domain which covers all the context aspects. Then, we propose an ontology-based model able to handle the complex contextual structure of the COPD domain coherently, and in proportion to the dynamic nature of that environment. This new ontological context is the core of our perception for implementing the ubiquitous healthcare solution. The presented model examines its effectiveness in managing one of the most context-sensitive diseases, thereby demonstrating its ability to adapt health care services on a personal basis and in accordance with current and projected events. The proposed model has shown promising results exceeding 85% approved by a group of experienced specialists in respiratory and lung diseases