Ontology-based Transformation from an Extended Functional Model to Fmea

Conceptual design knowledge concerning with functions of products and phenomena unintended by designers is scattered around various forms such as the functional model and the FMEA sheet, which are dependent on engineering tasks. Aiming to promote sharing of such knowledge among designers, this paper proposes a knowledge transformation system from extended functional models to FMEA sheets based on ontology engineering. The extended functional model includes both knowledge about functional structures and possible faulty behaviors. In order to transform the models, the system uses two ontologies for the two knowledge models, each of which defines fundamental concepts in each model to capture the target world from its own viewpoint. The system transforms the knowledge models using ontology mapping knowledge, which specifies the correspondences (mapping) between concepts in the ontologies. This paper discusses the contents of the ontologies, the ontology mapping knowledge, and the trasformation system.