An ontological model for the dynamic configuration of a sociotechnical system by a digital community

The article addresses the development of a multi-aspect ontology for configuring a sociotechnical system according in accordance with the requirements imposed by changes in its operating environment. An aspect is defined as an ontology developed to meet the requirements of a specific problem domain and reflecting a particular representation of the content and structure of the knowledge being described. Configuration is carried out by members of a digital community composed of humans and software agents that interact and exchange services within a digital environment. The proposed ontology comprises the following aspects: the sociotechnical system; the digital community; dynamic configuration; configuration plan; decision support; profile; and context. A global ontology level has been constructed to capture the specific characteristics of the problem domain “dynamic configuration of sociotechnical systems” and to provide generalized concepts that ensure semantic interoperability among the aspects. The novelty of the proposed approach lies in the use of an original methodology for the development of multi-aspect ontologies to represent complex knowledge. The application of the multi-aspect ontology is demonstrated through the case of dynamically configuring the transportation department of a logistics company. The problem solution involves both humans and software agents possessing the competencies required to perform order processing, resource selection, route planning, and decision-making functions. The proposed ontology reduces the effort required to construct a knowledge model for the given problem domain and improves its quality through the reuse of established solutions for individual aspects. It also enables the extension of the domain knowledge model with additional aspects and provides a foundation for developing configuration scenarios for complex systems.