An ontology for the WWTP instrumentation, control and automation infrastructure

In this paper, we propose an ontology-based approach to model wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and their instrumentation, control and automation infrastructure, focusing on the electrical and mechanical components needed for measurement and actuations. In particular, we have extended an existing ontology (Semantic Sensor Network) and created a specialized representation of the WWTP domain, in order to realize a consistent description of sensors and probes, actuators and data acquisition systems. Using this model, we tried to achieve several results. First, we argue that it provides a better and more declarative way to translate the domain experts’ policies into concrete actions. Second, it allows to express the knowledge in a format that is interoperable and shareable between different plants, decoupling the control policies from the specific details, depending on the particular devices installed on a plant at a given time. Last, the machine-readable representation facilitated the integration with larger service- and agent-oriented control infrastructures, based on environmental decision support systems. The methodology has been applied to a pilot-scale conventional activated sludge (CAS) plant, thus providing a concrete application of the defined semantic model.