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Towards a Robot Task Ontology Standard

Published

Author(s)

Stephen B. Balakirsky, Craig I. Schlenoff, Sandro R. Fiorini, Signe Redfield, Marcos Barreto, Hirenkumar Nakawala, Joel L. Carbonera, Larisa Soldatova, Julita Bermejo-Alonso, Fatima Maikore, Paulo J. Goncalves, Elena D. Momi, S. Veera Ragavan, Tamas Haidegger

Abstract

Ontologies serve robotics in many ways, particularly in describing and driving autonomous functions. These functions are built around robot tasks. The goal of a recently established international study group is to develop a knowledge representation that addresses task structure, with decomposition into subclasses, categories and/or relations. It includes attributes, both common across tasks and specific to particular tasks and task types. The purpose of this knowledge representation is to provide a common way of representing tasks across domains and sub-domains, addressing both the relationships between tasks and platforms and the relationships between tasks and users. This paper provides an overview of the task ontology concept, its structure, functions and development approach.
Proceedings Title
Proceedings of the Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC)
Conference Dates
June 4-8, 2017
Conference Location
Los Angeles, CA, US

Keywords

artificial intelligence, AI, robotics, ontologies, knowledge representation, tasks

Citation

Balakirsky, S. , Schlenoff, C. , Fiorini, S. , Redfield, S. , Barreto, M. , Nakawala, H. , Carbonera, J. , Soldatova, L. , Bermejo-Alonso, J. , Maikore, F. , Goncalves, P. , Momi, E. , Ragavan, S. and Haidegger, T. (2017), Towards a Robot Task Ontology Standard, Proceedings of the Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference (MSEC), Los Angeles, CA, US, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=922477 (Accessed October 6, 2025)

Issues

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Created June 8, 2017, Updated September 29, 2025
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