| Summary: | 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 === Computing === M. Tech. (Information Technology)
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