Data Integration for Model-centric Engineering using openCAESAR

The Navy Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) has identified an increasing inability to associate and control large amounts of data generated and manipulated by the growing number of domain/discipline-specific tools. Tools used currently in SSP engineering processes work very well for their intended use, but even as they become more powerful, the generated data and artifacts effectively become more siloed and thus it’s very difficult to maintain alignment and keep track of changes. The lack of rigorous integration and management creates data gaps and inconsistencies which then lead systems engineers to rely on erroneous analyses and potentially come to faulty conclusions. Okean Solutions proposes the Data Integration for MOdel-centric eNgineering (DIMON, like “diamond”) system to transition Navy SSP systems engineering processes to a more efficient digital working environment. Data integration enables information from different sources and representations to be curated, compared, and combined so that it can be used as the authoritative description of an engineering program/product. Data integration relies on software infrastructure such as repositories, databases, and mechanisms that manage and run the environment. Model-centric engineering involves the representation of domain data in semantically rigorous ways, thereby creating ontological models. DIMON allows project data from different domains to be incrementally compared, merged and analyzed in a consistent manner. DIMON lowers barriers to working with different cross-vendor data creation and manipulation tools while avoiding product/vendor lock-in. DIMON leverages an open-source technology developed and maintained by NASA JPL called openCAESAR. The acronym stands for Computer Aided Engineering for Systems ARchitecture which is a software platform designed to enable different engineering teams to effectively share and manage a variety of data in order to perform domain-specific program development activities. The openCAESAR system provides ontological description, or modeling, of various system data. In CAESAR, the data is modeled via ontological instances with precise syntax and logical semantics, and thus no longer tool-specific. Often referred to as a “semantic data warehouse” openCAESAR is fully compatible with the OWL (OWL 2) semantic web language.  The main goals of the proposed solution, through Phase II, is to develop the DIMON software platform that is semantically rigorous, extensible, multi-domain, and enables collaboration among different user roles. The solution will address compatibility problems with COTS tools currently in use as well as facilitate incorporation of new tools. DIMON will leverage the openCAESAR platform which will provide semantically-driven data integration. DIMON will utilize adaptors to interface with target COTS tools and utilize SSP ontologies.