Automatic Generation of OWL Ontologies from UML Class Diagrams Based on Meta- Modelling and Graph Grammars
Models are placed by modeling paradigm at the center of development process. These models are represented by languages, like UML the language standardized by the OMG which became necessary for development. Moreover the ontology engineering paradigm places ontologies at the center of development process; in this paradigm we find OWL the principal language for knowledge representation. Building ontologies from scratch is generally a difficult task. The bridging between UML and OWL appeared on several regards such as the classes and associations. In this paper, we have to profit from convergence between UML and OWL to propose an approach based on Meta-Modelling and Graph Grammars and registered in the MDA architecture for the automatic generation of OWL ontologies from UML class diagrams. The transformation is based on transformation rules; the level of abstraction in these rules is close to the application in order to have usable ontologies. We illustrate this approach by an example.
[1] AToM3. Home page: http://atom3.cs.mcgill.ca.2002.
[2] Laurent AUDIBERT, "UML2", http://www.lipn.univpa
ris13.fr/audibert/pages/enseignement/cours.htm, 2007.
[3] Fowler, Martin, "UML Distilled - Third Edition - A Brief Guide to the
Standard Object Modeling Language", 2003.
[4] G. Karsai, A. Agrawal, "Graph Transformations in OMG-s Model-
Driven Architecture", Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol 3062,
243-259, Springer Berlin /Heidelberg, juillet 2004.
[5] Sebastian Leinhos, http://diplom.ooyoo.de, 2006.
[6] OMG, "Ontology Definition Metamodel", V1.0,
http://www.omg.org/spec/ODM/1.0, May 2009.
[7] OMG, "Unified Modeling Language (OMG UML) Superstructure",
version 2.3, http://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.3/Superstructure. 2010.
[8] Python. Home page: http://www.python.org.
[9] SIDo Group, "ATL Use Case - ODM Implementation (Bridging UML
andOWL)",http://www.eclipse.org/m2m/atl/usecases/ODMImpleme
ntation/, 2007.
[10] Deborah L. McGuinness and Frank van Harmelen, "OWL Web
Ontology Language-Overview", http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-owlfeatures-
20040210/. W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004.
[11] Michael K. Smith, Chris Welty and Deborah L. McGuinness, "OWL
Web Ontology Language-Guide", http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/RECowl-
guide-2004 0210. W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004.
[12] Mike Dean, Guus Schreiber, Sean Bechhofer, Frank van Harmelen, Jim
Hendler, Ian Horrocks, Deborah L. McGuinness, "OWL Web Ontology
Language-Reference",http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-owl-ref-
20040210. W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004.
[13] W3C OWL Working Group, "OWL 2 Web Ontology Language
Document Overview". http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/REC-owl2-
overview-20091027. W3C Recommendation 27 October 2009.
[14] Kenneth Baclawski2, Mieczyslaw K. Kokar2, Paul A. Kogut1, Lewis
Hart5, Jeffrey Smith3, William S. Holmes III1, Jerzy Letkowski4, and
Michael L. Aronson1 "Extending UML to Support Ontology
Engineering for the Semantic Web".
[15] Dragan Ga┼íević, Dragan Djurić, Vladan Devedžić, Violeta Damjanović
"Converting UML to OWL Ontologies", 2004.
[16] Kilian Kiko, Colin Atkinson, "A Detailed Comparison of UML and
OWL",2008.
[17] Bardohl, R., H. Ehrig, J. De Lara and G. Taentzer (2004). "Integrating
Meta Modelling with Graph Transformation for Efficient Visual
Language Definition and Model Manipulation". Lecture Notes in
Computer Science 2984, pp.: 214-228.
[18] A. Chaoui, R. Elmansouri, Wafa Saadi, and E. Kerkouche, From UML
Sequence Diagrams to ECATNets: a Graph Transformation based
Approach for modelling and analysis, 2008.
[1] AToM3. Home page: http://atom3.cs.mcgill.ca.2002.
[2] Laurent AUDIBERT, "UML2", http://www.lipn.univpa
ris13.fr/audibert/pages/enseignement/cours.htm, 2007.
[3] Fowler, Martin, "UML Distilled - Third Edition - A Brief Guide to the
Standard Object Modeling Language", 2003.
[4] G. Karsai, A. Agrawal, "Graph Transformations in OMG-s Model-
Driven Architecture", Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol 3062,
243-259, Springer Berlin /Heidelberg, juillet 2004.
[5] Sebastian Leinhos, http://diplom.ooyoo.de, 2006.
[6] OMG, "Ontology Definition Metamodel", V1.0,
http://www.omg.org/spec/ODM/1.0, May 2009.
[7] OMG, "Unified Modeling Language (OMG UML) Superstructure",
version 2.3, http://www.omg.org/spec/UML/2.3/Superstructure. 2010.
[8] Python. Home page: http://www.python.org.
[9] SIDo Group, "ATL Use Case - ODM Implementation (Bridging UML
andOWL)",http://www.eclipse.org/m2m/atl/usecases/ODMImpleme
ntation/, 2007.
[10] Deborah L. McGuinness and Frank van Harmelen, "OWL Web
Ontology Language-Overview", http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-owlfeatures-
20040210/. W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004.
[11] Michael K. Smith, Chris Welty and Deborah L. McGuinness, "OWL
Web Ontology Language-Guide", http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/RECowl-
guide-2004 0210. W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004.
[12] Mike Dean, Guus Schreiber, Sean Bechhofer, Frank van Harmelen, Jim
Hendler, Ian Horrocks, Deborah L. McGuinness, "OWL Web Ontology
Language-Reference",http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-owl-ref-
20040210. W3C Recommendation 10 February 2004.
[13] W3C OWL Working Group, "OWL 2 Web Ontology Language
Document Overview". http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/REC-owl2-
overview-20091027. W3C Recommendation 27 October 2009.
[14] Kenneth Baclawski2, Mieczyslaw K. Kokar2, Paul A. Kogut1, Lewis
Hart5, Jeffrey Smith3, William S. Holmes III1, Jerzy Letkowski4, and
Michael L. Aronson1 "Extending UML to Support Ontology
Engineering for the Semantic Web".
[15] Dragan Ga┼íević, Dragan Djurić, Vladan Devedžić, Violeta Damjanović
"Converting UML to OWL Ontologies", 2004.
[16] Kilian Kiko, Colin Atkinson, "A Detailed Comparison of UML and
OWL",2008.
[17] Bardohl, R., H. Ehrig, J. De Lara and G. Taentzer (2004). "Integrating
Meta Modelling with Graph Transformation for Efficient Visual
Language Definition and Model Manipulation". Lecture Notes in
Computer Science 2984, pp.: 214-228.
[18] A. Chaoui, R. Elmansouri, Wafa Saadi, and E. Kerkouche, From UML
Sequence Diagrams to ECATNets: a Graph Transformation based
Approach for modelling and analysis, 2008.
@article{"International Journal of Information, Control and Computer Sciences:49818", author = "Aissam Belghiat and Mustapha Bourahla", title = "Automatic Generation of OWL Ontologies from UML Class Diagrams Based on Meta- Modelling and Graph Grammars", abstract = "Models are placed by modeling paradigm at the center of development process. These models are represented by languages, like UML the language standardized by the OMG which became necessary for development. Moreover the ontology engineering paradigm places ontologies at the center of development process; in this paradigm we find OWL the principal language for knowledge representation. Building ontologies from scratch is generally a difficult task. The bridging between UML and OWL appeared on several regards such as the classes and associations. In this paper, we have to profit from convergence between UML and OWL to propose an approach based on Meta-Modelling and Graph Grammars and registered in the MDA architecture for the automatic generation of OWL ontologies from UML class diagrams. The transformation is based on transformation rules; the level of abstraction in these rules is close to the application in order to have usable ontologies. We illustrate this approach by an example.
", keywords = "ATOM3, MDA, Ontology, OWL, UML", volume = "6", number = "8", pages = "928-6", }
