Hercules Dalianis
Abstract
A tool is presented to merge two STEP/EXPRESS AP schemata using semi-automatic methods. The need to integrate or merge two schemata or ontologies is very common today; for example, it maybe necessary to integrate two models describing car manufacturing from two different car manufacturing companies that just merged and need a common car manufacturing model. This task is usually carried out manually and is time consuming. By using a tool to automate the process the speed and accuracy of the integration process increase. We have developed a tool, implemented in a set of Perl programs, that automates the process of schema integration, by using various matching algorithms. Each algorithm proposes a set of cross schema links, sorted by expected reliability. This suggested linked concept file is used by the tool to integrate two schemata. The user can during this process interact and rename the integrated concepts in case of conflict i.e. whenever two concepts are synonyms or homographs. The validation of the integrated schema or the original schemata is carried out using an automatic natural language generation tool which will not be presented here.