IEEE/RAS Standard for

                               Ontologies for Robotics and Automation

INTRODUCTION

Scope

The Ontologies for Robotics and Automation (ORA) standard defines an overall ontology that allows for the representation of, reasoning about, and communication of knowledge in the robotics and automation domain. This ontology includes key terms as well as their definitions, attributes, constraints, and relationships. Sub-parts of this standard include a linguistic framework, generic concepts (an upper ontology), a methodology to add new concepts, and sub-domain ontologies.

Purpose

The purpose of the standard is to provide an overall ontology and associated methodology for knowledge representation and reasoning in robotics and automation, together with the representation of concepts in an initial set of application domains. The standard provides a unified way of representing knowledge and provides a common set of terms and definitions, allowing for unambiguous knowledge transfer among any group of human, robots, and other artificial systems.

Need for the Project

One of the basic requirements for any type of robot communication (whether with other robots or humans) is the need for a common vocabulary along with clear and concise definitions. With the growing complexity of behaviors that robots are expected to perform as well as the need for multi-robot and human-robot collaboration, the need for a standard and well-defined knowledge representation is becoming more evident. The standard knowledge representation methodology and terminology:

    1) more precisely defines the concepts in the robot’s knowledge representation,

    2) ensures common understanding among members of the community, and

    3) facilitates more efficient data integration and transfer of information among robotic systems.

Information included in this knowledge representation includes, but is not limited to, robot hardware and software activities and goals, the environment, cause and effects of performing actions, relationship among other robots and people.

Stakeholders for the Standard

WG sponsors are Robot manufacturers, system integrators, robot end-users (part manufacturers, automotive industry, construction industry, service and solution providers, etc.), robot equipment suppliers, robot software developers, and researchers/developers.

Working group organization

The ORA working group is comprised of four subgroups entitled:

   - Upper Ontology Methodology (UpOM),

   - Autonomous Robots (AuR),

   - Service Robots (SeR), and

   - Industrial Robots (InR), as shown below.

MEETING INFORMATION

Meeting Notices

The ORA WG meetings are held presentially, at least once a year during IEEE ICRA/IROS conferences, and by teleconference once a month.

PUBLIC LINKS

APPROVED MEETING MINUTES AND AGENDAS

MEMBER ROSTER

CONTACT INFORMATION

For further information or to join the ORA working group, please contact the WG:

  - Chair: Craig Schlenoff (craig.schlenoff@nist.gov), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA

  - Vice-Chair: Edson Prestes (prestes@inf.ufrgs.br), Federal University of Rio Grande Do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil

  - Secretary: Paulo Gonçalves (paulo.goncalves@ipcb.pt), Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (IPCB), Portugal

RELATED LINKS

IEEE Robotics & Automation Sciety

IEEE Standards Association