Overview
ISO/TR 23845:2020 - "Biomimetics - Ontology-Enhanced Thesaurus (OET) for biomimetics" describes prototype tools and the design philosophy behind an Ontology-Enhanced Thesaurus (OET) and its user interface, Keyword Explorer. Rather than issuing normative requirements, this technical report explains the value, structure and operation of OET as a knowledge-infrastructure component that helps map engineering/technical terms to biological concepts for bio-inspired design (BID). A public demo of the Keyword Explorer is available (see http://biomimetics.hozo.jp/OET/demo.html).
Key topics
- Purpose and scope
- Descriptive report on prototypes of OET and Keyword Explorer; focuses on how they work and their practical value rather than prescriptive requirements.
- No normative references (Clause 2).
- Core components
- Ontology: formal, structured description of biomimetics concepts (functions, taxa, properties, environments).
- Ontology-Enhanced Thesaurus (OET): combines ontology semantics with thesaurus-style term grouping to improve cross-domain keyword mapping.
- Keyword Explorer: interactive interface that supports divergent and convergent keyword exploration and translation between engineering and biological vocabularies.
- Technical topics covered
- Ontology of function (detailed in Annex A)
- Taxonomy of organisms, properties, living environments
- Characteristics of biomimetics databases and retrieval design
- Keyword translation strategies and search workflows (divergent vs convergent thinking)
- Prototype implementation and preliminary evaluation (demo and prototype versions)
- Definitions and terminology
- Clauses include formal definitions for ontology, taxonomy, thesaurus, database, metadata and related concepts.
Applications
- Bio-inspired design (BID): Supports the Analogy/Abstraction phases by translating technical problems into biological search queries.
- Information retrieval: Improves discovery of biological models in literature and databases by mapping engineering function terms to biological functions (example cited: antifouling).
- Research & development: Assists designers, engineers, and innovation teams in exploring biological analogues and extracting design principles.
- Knowledge infrastructure: Acts as an interoperability layer between engineering vocabularies and biological databases.
Who will use it
- Designers and engineers engaged in BID
- Knowledge managers and ontology developers
- Information retrieval specialists and database curators
- Researchers in biomimetics, product innovation and bio-inspired engineering
Related standards and resources
- ISO 18457, ISO 18458, ISO 18459 (contextual biomimetics process standards)
- Related tools and approaches referenced: E2B (Engineering-to-Biology thesaurus), SAPPhIRE, DANE, AskNature, BioTRIZ
- Prepared by ISO/TC 266 (Biomimetics)
Keywords: ISO/TR 23845:2020, biomimetics, Ontology-Enhanced Thesaurus, OET, Keyword Explorer, ontology of function, bio-inspired design, information retrieval.
