Ontological Approach to Military Knowledge Modeling and Management

Ontologies have received increasing interest in the computer science community and their benefits are now recognized for military applications. In addition to explicitly encode a shared understanding of some domain, ontologies can be used in a wide range of applications including natural language processing, intelligent search engines, information retrieval, or as a means to facilitate interoperability between heterogeneous knowledge sources at a high level of abstraction. Our objective is to contribute to the building of ontological models in the information fusion domain and to exploit these models to provide enhanced knowledge management assistance to military commanders. In the paper, we first review the roles of ontologies for military applications. Then, we describe the characteristics of high-level information fusion processes and address methodological aspects related to ontological engineering. This leads us to derive an ontological approach to situation and threat assessment domain modeling. Finally, we present ontology-based knowledge management services that could be exploited in support of high-level information fusion processes. 1.0 INTRODUCTION In military environments, commanders and their staff are overwhelmed by the increasing amount of information available to them. Large volumes of information and data from heterogeneous information sources have to be integrated and interpreted in order to gain situational awareness. Both structured and unstructured data sources have to be managed. In the first case, different data models and formats have to be considered. In the latter, content extraction from unstructured data (e.g. military messages containing free text) using natural language processing techniques are required. Furthermore, the techniques being developed for data fusion and resource management in Decision Support Systems for Command and Control are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, particularly through the incorporation of methods for high-level reasoning processes. Providing commanders with intelligent information fusion systems or advanced decision aids requires a good understanding of the processes involved, their information requirements, and the development of formal domain models upon which reasoning processes can be based (e.g. knowledge-based systems, intelligent agents). In this context, we aim at contributing to the building of ontological models that could be used to automatically support information fusion processes. Furthermore, these models would enhance knowledge Paper presented at the RTO IST Symposium on “Military Data and Information Fusion”, held in Prague, Czech Republic, 20-22 October 2003, and published in RTO-MP-IST-040. RTO-MP-IST-040 17 1 Report Documentation Page Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. 1. REPORT DATE 00 MAR 2004 2. REPORT TYPE N/A 3. DATES COVERED 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Ontological Approach to Military Knowledge Modeling and Management 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER