Ontological foundations for feature-based product modelling

The work presented in the thesis strives from the need of providing ontological foundations for product knowledge management; in particular, it provides an ontological characterisation of engineering features on the grounds of foundational theories of ontology engineering. Inasmuch as feature-based models are employed for disparate application tasks, on the one side we develop a high-level understanding of features by distinguishing the domain entities that are modelled in their terms. In this manner, we aim at an ontology that is not strictly committed to specific application requirements but it is broadly applicable to product knowledge representation. On the other hand, we focus on the representation of (some aspects of) the physical layouts of material products. The notion of form feature plays a relevant role in this context and attention will be paid in the different ways in which it can be understood and represented according to engineering conceptualisations.