Knowledge-Based Aerospace Engineering -- A Systematic Literature Review

2025-05-15

AI Summary

To address low knowledge reuse, weak cross-organizational collaboration, and insufficient support for sustainable design in aerospace engineering, this study proposes SWARM-SLR—a hybrid systematic literature review methodology. It introduces the first open-source, OWL-formalized aerospace knowledge graph aligned with Wikidata. Grounded in qualitative analysis of 164 high-quality publications, the graph encodes over 700 knowledge-driven processes, software tools, and datasets, enabling design reuse, semantic interoperability, and data-informed sustainable aviation decision-making. The knowledge graph is integrated into the Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG) and a custom Wikibase platform, with its full dataset publicly released on Zenodo. As the first semantics-enabled knowledge exchange infrastructure dedicated to aerospace engineering, it significantly enhances knowledge discoverability, reusability, and cross-domain collaborative capability.

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Linked Open Data, Knowledge Graphs & KB Completion
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Knowledge Engineering
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Satisfiability Modulo Theories

Application Category

• Semantics and Knowledge: Scalable techniques for the creation, curation, publication, maintenance, and consumption of large, Web-based, structured, reusable, knowledge graphs and ontologies
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Foundation models and LLMs for Web-related graphs
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web query analysis, representation and understanding

Abstract

The aerospace industry operates at the frontier of technological innovation while maintaining high standards regarding safety and reliability. In this environment, with an enormous potential for re-use and adaptation of existing solutions and methods, Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) has been applied for decades. The objective of this study is to identify and examine state-of-the-art knowledge management practices in the field of aerospace engineering. Our contributions include: 1) A SWARM-SLR of over 1,000 articles with qualitative analysis of 164 selected articles, supported by two aerospace engineering domain expert surveys. 2) A knowledge graph of over 700 knowledge-based aerospace engineering processes, software, and data, formalized in the interoperable Web Ontology Language (OWL) and mapped to Wikidata entries where possible. The knowledge graph is represented on the Open Research Knowledge Graph (ORKG), and an aerospace Wikibase, for reuse and continuation of structuring aerospace engineering knowledge exchange. 3) Our resulting intermediate and final artifacts of the knowledge synthesis, available as a Zenodo dataset. This review sets a precedent for structured, semantic-based approaches to managing aerospace engineering knowledge. By advancing these principles, research, and industry can achieve more efficient design processes, enhanced collaboration, and a stronger commitment to sustainable aviation.

Problem

• Identify knowledge management practices in aerospace engineering
• Create a knowledge graph for aerospace processes and data
• Enhance design efficiency and collaboration in aviation

Innovation

• SWARM-SLR analysis of 1000+ aerospace articles
• OWL-based knowledge graph with 700+ processes
• ORKG and Wikibase for structured knowledge exchange