The intention with the OSP Maritime Domain Ontology (MDO) is to provide a framework for assigning properties to a model, such as the type of physical system or the phenomena the model represents, and the type of capabilities of the model. Examples of model types range over hull, electric motor etc. and environment types of models like a wave-wind-and-current model.
A framework such as this can be used for communicating model properties across organizations, in the context of model sharing. Maritime domain model developers can communicate model capabilities in a standardized way by tagging models with MDO terms. Analogously, a company requesting models can communicate model requirements in a standardized way.
In a future centralized Maritime Domain Simulation Model Library, populated with a variety of pre-made models, one can envision a user querying the library with key search criteria, subsequently receiving a list of models that match the criteria.
Besides the above-mentioned equipment tags there is a need for attributes describing other simulation capabilities, in addition to more general high-level information such as information on model vendor, maker, model make, etc.
Within the scope of the OSP project, we have developed a first version of MDO, described in the document Towards a Maritime Domain Ontology. It should be noted that this version does not attempt to encompass all possible maritime equipment, along with all meaningful simulation properties. This version of MDO should rather be considered as a first attempt to map out a structure that can be used as foundation to achieve this.
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