Design of ontologies for the digital twin of buildings

The article describes the design of ontological models for the digital twin of buildings. The architecture of the digital twin of buildings proposed in the article includes a whole complex of models, among which ontologies play one of the main roles. The set of digital twin ontologies includes: ontology of the building information model, ontology of the energy model, ontology of building engineering systems, ontology of building computer models, ontology of the building management system and others. As a result of the work, a whole set of independent basic ontologies was created, suitable for reuse. The paper describes the classes of basic ontologies and their inter-class relations. The modular construction principle greatly facilitates the creation of digital twin ontologies that have intersecting sets of concepts and relationships from their subject area. Using a set of basic ontologies, it is possible to create the ontologies necessary for the functioning of the digital twin of buildings. The article provides an example of design of ontology of an automated building management system. The paper’s novelty is in the detailed description of ontologies compared to well-known ontologies, having new necessary classes, subclasses, and relationships added. This greatly expands the scope of the description of the subject area. Ontologies significantly facilitate data exchange between the embedded models and the service programs of the digital twin, as well as between the digital twin and users or external software.