Dynamic Configuration in Cognitive Cyber-Agriculture Using Multi-Aspect Ontology

Abstract

The transition to Agriculture 5.0 led to the emergence of cognitive cyber-agricultural systems (CCASs) that incorporate human intelligence into the digital framework to create intelligent, adaptive, and efficient farming. This paper introduces a conceptual model for configuration of a CCAS supported by the mechanism of multi-aspect ontologies. The model offers a way to adapt CCAS behavior to an ever-changing environment through reconfiguration. The multi-aspect ontology integrates heterogeneous aspects representing multiple domain knowledge. These aspects provide reusable methods that can be employed for solving the dynamic configuration problem. The multi-aspect ontology mechanism provides interoperability for independent aspects represented using their internal formalisms, while also capturing the knowledge related to the CCAS configuration problem. With respect to the dynamic configuration problem, the ontology incorporates the aspects of CCAS, dynamic configuration, plan, human-machine team, decision support, profile, and context. An example from first-mile agriculture logistics—in which a human-machine team dynamically configures a CCAS—illustrates the key ideas introduced in the paper. This example demonstrates that the proposed model can be used to solve crucial problems in various agricultural scenarios related to dynamic configuration.