This dissertation describes a research study conducted to determine the benefits and use of ontology technologies to support a simulation environment that evaluates countermeasures employed to protect military aircraft. Within the military, aircraft represent a significant investment and these valuable assets need to be protected against various threats, such as man-portable air-defence systems. To counter attacks from these threats, countermeasures are deployed, developed and evaluated by utilising modelling and simulation techniques. The system described in this research simulates real world scenarios of aircraft, missiles and countermeasures in order to assist in the evaluation of infra-red countermeasures against missiles in specified scenarios. Traditional ontology has its origin in philosophy, describing what exists and how objects relate to each other. The use of formal ontologies in Computer Science have brought new possibilities for modelling and representation of information and knowledge in several domains. These advantages also apply to military information systems where ontologies support the complex nature of military information. After considering ontologies and their advantages against the requirements for enhancements of the simulation system, an ontology was constructed by following a formal development methodology. Design research, combined with the adaptive methodology of development, was conducted in a unique way, therefore contributing to establish design research as a formal research methodology. The ontology was constructed to capture the knowledge of the simulation system environment and the use of it supports the functions of the simulation system in the domain. The research study contributes to better communication among people involved in the simulation studies, accomplished by a shared vocabulary and a knowledge base for the domain. These contributions affirmed that ontologies can be successfully use to support military simulation systems / Computing / M. Tech. (Information Technology)

Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Ahda Pionkoski Grilo Pavani / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Elétrica, 2015. / A operação de parte da rede de distribuição de forma ilhada alimentada por geradores distribuídos aumenta os índices de confiabilidade do sistema, caso de problemas com a conexão com a rede principal reduz o tempo de indisponibilidade do fornecimento de energia elétrica para um conjunto de cargas. Os geradores síncronos distribuídos por apresentarem regulador de velocidade e controle de excitação podem mais facilmente operar no modo ilhado. Um dos grandes desafios da operação ilhada, no entanto, é a redução drástica dos níveis de curto-circuito quando a rede passa a operar de forma ilhada, comprometendo as funções de proteção dos relés de sobrecorrente. Com isso, para a operação de forma segura de uma rede ilhada é necessário alterar o ajuste da proteção dos relés de sobrecorrente. Os relés digitais apresentam a possibilidade de armazenar dois ou mais ajustes distintos de proteção, e a seleção do ajuste a ser usado pode ser realizada via um sinal externo. Neste contexto, o objetivo desta dissertação é apresentar um método capaz de identificar o estado de conexão da rede com a subestação principal e, em caso de alteração deste estado, enviar um sinal para o relé de proteção para a seleção do ajuste adequado. O método proposto não depende de comunicação e baseia-se em um dispositivo simples composto basicamente por um tiristor, que pode ser instalado próximo ao relé. O dispositivo foi modelado no MatLab e utilizado em simulações computacionais de uma rede de distribuição para validar a metodologia proposta. A rede de distribuição simulada possui capacidade de operar de forma ilhada alimentada por dois geradores síncronos distribuídos. O método proposto apresentou bom desempenho e foi capaz de identificar a condição de operação do sistema e selecionar o ajuste da proteção de forma adequada. / The capacity of part of the system to keep an autonomous operation supplied by distributed generators improves the network reliability indices, since, in case of the loss of the connection with the utility grid, it reduces the frequency and duration of interruptions for the customers. Considering that distributed synchronous generators usually have excitation system and speed regulator, they can easily control the voltage and frequency of the system and operate in the islanded mode. However, one of the challenges of islanded operation is the drastically decrease of fault current level when the system is operating in the islanded mode compared to the main system connected condition. So, to ensure a safe grid operation the overcurrent protection settings should be changed. The microprocessor-based overcurrent relay have more than one setting group and thus have the possibility to change the tripping characteristics during the operation as a function of an input signal. In this context, the objective of this thesis is to present a method capable of identifying the grid state and send a signal to the overcurrent relay in order to change the overcurrent settings. The proposed method doesn¿t depend on the communication systems for the relays, and it is based on a simple device composed by one tyristor, which can be installed next to the relay. The device was modeled in MatLab and used in computational simulations considering a typical distribution system to validate the proposed method. The distribution grid used has the capacity of operating in islanded mode or connected to the utility grid mode. The proposed method has presented a good performance and it was able to identify the operation condition in order to select the suited protection setting.

This dissertation describes a research study conducted to determine the benefits and use of ontology technologies to support a simulation environment that evaluates countermeasures employed to protect military aircraft. Within the military, aircraft represent a significant investment and these valuable assets need to be protected against various threats, such as man-portable air-defence systems. To counter attacks from these threats, countermeasures are deployed, developed and evaluated by utilising modelling and simulation techniques. The system described in this research simulates real world scenarios of aircraft, missiles and countermeasures in order to assist in the evaluation of infra-red countermeasures against missiles in specified scenarios. Traditional ontology has its origin in philosophy, describing what exists and how objects relate to each other. The use of formal ontologies in Computer Science have brought new possibilities for modelling and representation of information and knowledge in several domains. These advantages also apply to military information systems where ontologies support the complex nature of military information. After considering ontologies and their advantages against the requirements for enhancements of the simulation system, an ontology was constructed by following a formal development methodology. Design research, combined with the adaptive methodology of development, was conducted in a unique way, therefore contributing to establish design research as a formal research methodology. The ontology was constructed to capture the knowledge of the simulation system environment and the use of it supports the functions of the simulation system in the domain. The research study contributes to better communication among people involved in the simulation studies, accomplished by a shared vocabulary and a knowledge base for the domain. These contributions affirmed that ontologies can be successfully use to support military simulation systems / Computing / M. Tech. (Information Technology)