Release Date: 2015 July 31 Latest version: 1.0 Download: The OWL encoding can be downloaded here. Reference: http://www.ecbro.org/reference/ Namespace: http://www.ecbro.org/ns/ecbro# Editors:
Andreas Korger, University of Würzburg, DE Contributors:
(In alphabetical order)
Prof. Dr. Joachim Baumeister, University of Würzburg, DE Contact:
(Collaborations and contributions welcome:)
info[at]piri-safety.com
Abstract
The eCBRo Ontology is designed to represent semantic concepts and relationships relevant to the Case-Based Reasoning (CBR)[1] paradigm, utilizing the OWL2 Web Ontology Language[2]. Its primary goal is to offer a framework of classes, properties, and constraints that allow for the organization of information into specific cases in a manner that is both lightweight and adaptable. This ontology can be tailored to meet the individual needs of various CBR applications, with its elements demonstrated through practical examples in the fire safety domain.
Overview
Organizing knowledge into cases proves valuable across a wide range of domains. In many situations, the goal is not to develop a complete Case-Based Reasoning system from the outset. Instead, case bases and their internal structure tend to evolve incrementally, often integrating input from diverse and distributed sources before forming a mature CBR system. To support these early development phases—as well as other multimodal, distributed, and dynamic CBR scenarios—a flexible semantic framework is needed to represent layered semantic case features and related CBR knowledge.
Therefore, this website presents eCBRo, a lightweight ontology crafted with a case-centric semantic perspective. The ontology is described in detail and incrementally exemplified through use cases within the domain of fire safety. It illustrates how LLM-assisted case acquisition from a nuclear fire safety document and distributed case design within paradigms such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP)[3] can be effectively implemented.
The full ontology graph shows relationships between biomedical research concepts.
Use ontology visualization tools (like WebVOWL or OWLViz) to explore the complete structure.
Key Classes
ecbro:CBRConcept(Concepts with a particular meaning in a CBR context are derived from this class.)
described with:
in range of:
ecbro:Case(Represents an individual problem-solving episode, including problem description and its corresponding solution.)
ecbro:Client(Denotes the entity—often a person or system—that initiates or owns a case.)
ecbro:CaseBase(A container or collection that stores multiple cases used for retrieval and reasoning.)
ecbro:AttributeValue(Defines the value assigned to a particular attribute of a case, often used for similarity matching.)
ecbro:Attribute(Specifies a characteristic or property of a case, such as a symptom, location, or time.)
ecbro:Value(Represents any value used in the domain, typically as part of attribute-value pairs.)
ecbro:Input(Refers to the problem description or query presented to the CBR system for case retrieval.)
ecbro:Output(Represents the solution or outcome proposed by the CBR system based on retrieved cases.)
Key Properties
ecbro:partOf(Indicates that one entity is a component or subset of another larger entity.)
ecbro:hasAttribute(Links an entity to one of its defining characteristics or properties.)
ecbro:hasValue(Associates an attribute or property with a specific value or data.)
ecbro:hasAttributeValue(Connects an entity to a complex attribute-value pair that provides detailed information.)
ecbro:input(Refers to data or information provided as input to a process or case.)
ecbro:output(Denotes the result or outcome produced by a process or case.)
ecbro:hasInput(Links a case or process to its input components or data.)
ecbro:hasOutput(Links a case or process to its output components or results.)
Example 1(Represents the solution or outcome proposed by the CBR system based on retrieved cases.)
@prefix ecbro: http://www.ecbro.org/reference#
ecbro:case1 a cbr:Case ;
rdfs:label "Inspection Case 1"@en ;
rdfs:comment "School inspection found plant in front of door."@en ;
dct:description "The fire door should be easily accessible."@en .
ecbro:case2 a cbr:Case ;
rdfs:label "Inspection Case 2"@en ;
rdfs:comment "School inspection found bicycles badly parked."@en ;
dct:description "The fire ladder should be easily accessible."@en ;
ecbro:previous ecbro:case1 .
Example 2(Represents the solution or outcome proposed by the CBR system based on retrieved cases.)
@prefix ecbro: http://www.ecbro.org/reference#
ecbro:case2 a cbr:Case ;
rdfs:label "case 2"@en ;
rdfs:comment "school inspection found bicycles parked badly."@en ;
dct:description "The fire ladder should be easily accessible."@en ;
ecbro:partOf ecbro:caseBase1 ;
ecbro:previous ecbro:case1 ;
ecbro:hasAttributeValue [foaf:person, "Inspector Bob"] ,
[prov:entity, "Fire safety inspection 1"] ,
[geo:location, "eCBRo School"] ,
[skos:inScheme, eCBRo:fireSafetyInspections] ;
ecbro:hasAttributeValue
[
a ecbro:AttributeValue ; ecbro:hasAttribute foaf:person ; ecbro:hasValue "inspector"
] .
CBR Classes
ecbro:Description(Concepts with a particular meaning in a CBR context are derived from this class.) described with: in range of:
ecbro:Problem(Represents the issue or challenge to be addressed within the case-based reasoning process.)
ecbro:Solution(Defines the resolution or outcome proposed or applied to solve a given problem.)
ecbro:Similarity(Measures the degree of resemblance between cases to facilitate retrieval of relevant past experiences.)
CBR Properties
ecbro:hasDescription(Links a case or entity to its detailed description.)
ecbro:hasProblem(Associates a case with the problem it addresses.)
ecbro:hasSolution(Connects a case to the solution applied or proposed.)
ecbro:hasSimilarity(Represents the similarity relationship used for comparing cases.)
ecbro:retrieve(Refers to retrieving relevant past cases based on similarity measures.)
ecbro:reuse(Describes how information from retrieved cases is adapted to solve a new problem.)
ecbro:revise(Covers the evaluation and refinement of a reused solution in context.)
ecbro:retain(Specifies how new experiences are stored as cases for future use.)
Example 1(Represents the solution or outcome proposed by the CBR system based on retrieved cases.)
@prefix ecbro: http://www.ecbro.org/reference# .
ecbro:case2 a cbr:Case ;
ecbro:partOf ecbro:CaseBase ;
ecbro:hasDescription "If a fire happens, put it out with water." ;
ecbro:hasProblem "fire" ;
ecbro:hasSolution "water" ;
ecbro:previous ecbro:case1 ;
ecbro:hasAttributeValue [ontoai:SemanticEmbedding, ecbro:case2-embedding] ;
ecbro:hasAttributeValue [cbr:SimilarityAssessment , ecbro:similarityAss1] .
The full ontology graph shows relationships between biomedical research concepts. Use ontology visualization tools (like WebVOWL or OWLViz) to explore the complete structure.
Usage
You can use this ontology via owl:imports in your RDF/OWL project. It is provided as a .ttl (Turtle) and .rdf (RDF/XML) file.
Kolodner, J. L. (1993). Case-based reasoning. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.
Motik, B., Patel-Schneider, P. F., & Parsia, B. (2012). OWL 2 Web Ontology Language Document Overview (Second Edition). W3C Recommendation. Retrieved from https://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-overview/
Anthropic (2024–2025). Introducing the Model Context Protocol — a W3C-style whitepaper introducing MCP as an open standard to connect AI models with external tools and data sources. Released November 25, 2024, MCP enables secure, bidirectional integration across tools and datasets.
