Functional content and architecture of software laboratory for ontological data analysis

Abstract

The article presents the functionality and architecture of the software laboratory for ontological analysis and through this prism the methodology of this analysis. The methodological complex of ontological analysis and the procedure for its application provide extraction from the data of multidimensional observations and measurements of the knowledge domain of its semantic model in the form of a formal ontology a set of formal concepts, each of which is determined by extent and intent. In the set of formal concepts, a partial order is revealed (a binary relation of generalization) and intensional relations are revealed that reflect the connections between the elements of the concepts extents. The developed software laboratory differs from the well-known tools for constructing formal ontologies based on empirical object-feature data (i.e., based on data presented in the generally recognized form of a measurement results registration protocol), first of all, by taking into account the realities of accumulating information about the knowledge domain under study. In the general case, they cause the incompleteness and inconsistency of the initial data, for the processing of which the apparatus of multi-valued vector logic is involved. Another unique difference of the software laboratory is the consideration of a priori known (i.e., known before measurements) constraints on the properties existence during the primary processing of empirical data binary relations of conditionality and incompatibility of objects properties of the studied knowledge domain. The presented software laboratory is implemented on the Excel table processor platform and the programming language Visual Basic for Application. The main motive for this choice was to ensure the availability and facilitate the familiarization of ontological data analysis technology by a very wide range of users who use Excel in their professional work.