Decision Support Tool for the Agri-Food Sector Using Data Annotated by Ontology and Bayesian Network: A Proof of Concept Applied to Milk Microfiltration

The scientific literature is a valuable source of information for developing predictive models to design decision support systems. However, scientific data are heterogeneously structured expressed using different vocabularies. This study developed a generic workflow that combines ontology, databases and computer calculation tools based on the theory of belief functions and Bayesian networks. The ontology paradigm is used to help integrate data from heterogeneous sources. Bayesian network is estimated using the integrated data taking into account their reliability. The proposed method is unique in the sense that it proposes an annotation and reasoning tool dedicated to systematic analysis of the literature, which takes into account expert knowledge of the domain at several levels: ontology definition, reliability criteria and dependence relations between variables in the BN. The workflow is assessed successfully by applying it to a complex food engineering process: skimmed milk microfiltration. It represents an original contribution to the state of the art in this application domain.