Ontology for design of active fall protection systems

This paper aims to develop an ontology (AFPS-Onto) which formalizes the knowledge of active fall protection system (AFPS) design, with attempt to facilitate knowledge sharing and reuse. METHONTOLOGY was adopted as a method to build the AFPS-Onto. The AFPS-Onto consists of nine core concepts: hazard, actor, task, ifc building element, construction method, constraint, safety resource, hazard control measure, and residual risk. The concepts, relations, attributes, and axioms were coded using Protégé. The ontology was evaluated through automated consistency checking, criteria-based and task-based evaluation. The AFPS-Onto fills the knowledge gap by providing a formal and shared vocabulary for the domain of AFPS design. This can promote knowledge reuse and sharing among professional engineers. In addition, the ontology can be used to develop knowledge-based systems to help design effective AFPS. Future effort can be made to develop ontologies of other control measures against fall from heights and combine them into a fall from heights ontology (FFH-Onto).