SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MODEL ELEMENT IDENTIFICATION

• US 20080243801A1
• Filed: 03/27/2007
• Published: 10/02/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Allium US Holding LLC
• Original Assignee: IHS Global Incorporated (Markit Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Todhunter, James
• Granted Patent: US 9,031,947 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation

Abstract

A problem analysis system and method, given at least one entity represented in an entity-relation-entity relationship, automatically formulates a query that is automatically submitted via a knowledge search tool to a database of mereological and functional relationships, and responses to this query from the database are automatically provided. The query can be formatted as a natural language query, a Boolean query, a key word query, or a query according to the query syntax of a database management system.

Claims

1. A problem analysis method for identifying elements of a system, comprising:

providing a system element store comprising machine readable representations of system models comprising system elements;

extracting system elements from at least one system model and automatically formulating a query from the system elements;

using the query, searching one or more knowledge bases for component elements useful to form the system elements; and

at least one of storing and displaying the component elements in association with the system elements used to form the query.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising, prior to formulating the query, classifying the system elements as:

a whole element of a whole-part relationship,

an entity element of an entity-relation-entity relationship,

a pair of entity elements of an entity-relation-entity relationship, or

a relation element of an entity-relation-entity relationship.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein searching the one or more knowledge bases comprises submitting the query to a knowledge search engine and formatting the query to be compatible with the knowledge search engine.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein formatting the query includes formatting the query as either a natural language query, a Boolean query, a key word query, or query according to the query syntax of a data base management system.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the knowledge search engine comprises a semantic indexing and search tool and the one or more knowledge bases comprises a semantic analysis knowledge base.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the system models include device functional models and the component elements include one or more device component elements.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the system models include process functional models and the component elements include one or more process component elements.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more knowledge bases comprise one or more knowledge bases selected from a group consisting of:

one or more locally accessible knowledge bases;

one or more knowledge bases containing corporate knowledge;

and one or more publicly accessible knowledge bases.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising representing a system element graphically linked to one or more other system elements.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more knowledge bases comprise one or more mereology and functional relationship databases.

11. A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions stored in at least one storage device and executable by at least one processor to perform a problem analysis method for identifying elements of a system, the method comprising:

providing a system element store comprising machine readable representations of system models comprising system elements;

extracting system elements from at least one system model and automatically formulating a query by transforming the system elements;

using the query, searching one or more knowledge bases for component elements useful to form the system elements; and

at least one of storing and displaying the component elements in association with the system elements used to form the query.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the one or more knowledge bases comprise one or more mereology and functional relationship databases.

13. The method according to claim 11, further comprising, prior to formulating the query, classifying the system elements as:

a whole element of a whole-part relationship,

an entity element of an entity-relation-entity relationship,

a pair of entity elements of an entity-relation-entity relationship, or

a relation element of an entity-relation-entity relationship.

14. A problem analysis system comprising:

an element store comprising machine readable representations of system models comprising system elements;

a query formulator configured to extract system elements from at least one system model and to automatically formulate a query from the system elements;

a knowledge search engine configured to receive the query and search one or more knowledge bases for component elements useful to form the system elements.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the query formulator is further configured, prior to formulating the query, to classify the system elements as:

a whole element of a whole-part relationship,

an entity element of an entity-relation-entity relationship,

a pair of entity elements of an entity-relation-entity relationship, or

a relation element of an entity-relation-entity relationship.

16. The system according to claim 14, wherein the query formulator is configured to format the query to be compatible with the knowledge search engine.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the query formulator is configured to format the query as either a natural language query, a Boolean query, a key word query, or a query according to the syntax of a relational database management system.

18. The system according to claim 14, wherein knowledge search engine comprises a semantic indexing and search tool and the one or more knowledge bases comprises one or more semantic analysis knowledge base.

19. The system according to claim 14, further comprising one or more functional modeling tools.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the one or more functional modeling tools includes a device functional modeling tool and the component elements include at least one device component element.

21. The system according to claim 19, wherein the one or more functional modeling tools includes a process functional modeling tool and the component elements include at least one process component element.

22. The system according to claim 14, wherein the one or more knowledge bases comprises one or more databases selected from a group consisting of:

one or more locally accessible databases;

one or more knowledge bases containing corporate knowledge; and

one or more publicly accessible databases.

23. The system according to claim 14, further comprising a computer program stored in a computer-readable storage medium for execution by a computer system, the computer system comprising:

one or more computer processing elements;

one or more display devices;

one or more user input devices; and

communication elements for communicating with the one or more knowledge bases.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein the system is configured to generate user-interactive screens on the one or more display devices configured to represent a system element graphically linked to one or more other system elements.

25. The system according to claim 14, wherein the one or more knowledge bases comprises one or more mereology and functional relationship databases.