Sensor Ontology
This module contains terms and relations necessary for representing basic sensor entities.
Ana Teresa Correia, Institut fuer angewandte Systemtechnik Bremen GmbH (ATB-Bremen)
Dragan Stokic, Institut fuer angewandte Systemtechnik Bremen GmbH (ATB-Bremen)
Product Service System (PSS) working group
Copyright (c) 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 Open Applications Group
detecting device
a device or instrument designed to detect the presence of a particular object or substance and to emit a signal in response
material artifact that bears a detector role
detecting function
detecting is the function that provides information
detecting process
a process that discovers or determines the existence, presence, or fact of some entity
detector role
role held by an entity that is designed to detect the presence of a particular object or substance and to emit a signal in response
detector specification
design specification that prescribes a detector
observation
an information content entity that represents a remark, statement, or comment based on something one has seen, heard, or noticed by an observer
observer
a person or a system that watches or notices or measures something to gain information
an agent that has an observer role
observer role
agent role held by a person, organized group of agents, or engineered system when it perceives or notices an entity and distinguishes that entity from other entities in its environment
observing process
a planned process executed by an observer which may produce an observation
sensing function
a sensing function might inhere in different entities: a machine, in lots of different things of different kinds…
the function of reacting to the environment
sensing process
a process to detect especially in response to a stimulus
sensor
From SSN: A sensor can do (implements) sensing: that is, a sensor is any entity that can follow a sensing method and thus observe some Property of a FeatureOfInterest. Sensors may be physical devices, computational methods, a laboratory setup with a person following a method, or any other thing that can follow a Sensing Method to observe a Property. https://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/ssn/wiki/SSN.html#Sensor
We are thinking here about physical sensor not virtual sensors/soft sensor
a material entity that responds to changes in its environment
sensor measurement process
measurement of the value of an attribute of a sensor
sensor role
this role may be held by entities other than sensors
role held by an entity that responds to changes in its environment
sensor specification
design specification that prescribes a sensor
transducer
Any device by which variations in one physical quantity (e.g. pressure, brightness) are quantitatively converted into variations in another (e.g. voltage, position)
a loudspeaker that transforms electrical energy into sound energy
material entity when it is used for transforming energy between two different forms
material artifact that bears a transducer role
transducer role
role held by an entity that transforms energy between two different forms
transducer specification
design specification that prescribes a transducer
PSSProvider owns a PSS (inverse to PSS belongsTo PSSProvider)
is part of
relates something to another thing that it is some component or portion of, regardless of how that whole-part relationship is manifested
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mereology/