The construction and use of an ontology to support a simulation environment performing countermeasure evaluation for military aircraft

Abstract

This dissertation describes a research study conducted to determine the benefits and use of ontology technologies to support a simulation environment that evaluates countermeasures employed to protect military aircraft. Within the military, aircraft represent a significant investment and these valuable assets need to be protected against various threats, such as man-portable air-defence systems. To counter attacks from these threats, countermeasures are deployed, developed and evaluated by utilising modelling and simulation techniques. The system described in this research simulates real world scenarios of aircraft, missiles and countermeasures in order to assist in the evaluation of infra-red countermeasures against missiles in specified scenarios. Traditional ontology has its origin in philosophy, describing what exists and how objects relate to each other. The use of formal ontologies in Computer Science have brought new possibilities for modelling and representation of information and knowledge in several domains. These advantages also apply to military information systems where ontologies support the complex nature of military information. After considering ontologies and their advantages against the requirements for enhancements of the simulation system, an ontology was constructed by following a formal development methodology. Design research, combined with the adaptive methodology of development, was conducted in a unique way, therefore contributing to establish design research as a formal research methodology. The ontology was constructed to capture the knowledge of the simulation system environment and the use of it supports the functions of the simulation system in the domain. The research study contributes to better communication among people involved in the simulation studies, accomplished by a shared vocabulary and a knowledge base for the domain. These contributions affirmed that ontologies can be successfully use to support military simulation systems