Toward an Interoperability and Integration Framework to Enable Digital Thread

TLDR

The study began by asking whether existing technology can support cross‑domain digital artifact data sharing for a digital thread, and the proposed framework has since undergone revisions. The article investigates the feasibility of an interoperability and integration framework that would enable a digital thread and outlines future demonstrations to advance its practical deployment. The authors performed a comprehensive review of model‑based systems engineering and designed a Semantic Web‑enabled framework for capturing, storing, transferring, validating, and version‑controlling digital thread data. The framework was demonstrated to acquire, parse, and query digital data using Semantic Web technology, generating a decision table that visualizes the decision data.

Abstract

This article discusses ongoing research investigating the feasibility of supporting an interoperability and integration framework to enable the digital thread, or an authoritative source of truth with current technology. The question that initiated this exploratory research was, “Is there current technology that can enable cross-domain digital artifact data sharing needed for the digital thread?” A thorough review and investigation of current state-of-the-art model-based systems engineering was performed by reviewing literature and performing multiple site visits and interviews with organizations at the forefront of digital engineering. After this initial investigation and review, a Semantic Web-enabled framework that would allow data in the thread to be captured, stored, transferred, checked for completeness and consistency, and changed under revision change control management began to be formed. This framework has gone through revisions. This paper reflects the most current demonstration of the framework and its capability of acquiring digital data, and parsing and querying the data using Semantic Web technology to generate a decision table that allows the decision data to be visualized. The article concludes with future demonstrations of the framework to further advance toward a framework that can enable a digital thread in practice.