# Research Infusion 2008

# Tool or Technology Information

**[Contact Information]{.underline}**

Name of Tool/Technology: Reconciler Text Analysis Tool and Aerospace
Ontology (RTATAO)

Name of Technology Provider: Jane T. Malin

Primary Point of Contact (PPC): Jane T. Malin

PPC Phone No.: 281-483-2046

PPC e-mail: <jane.t.malin@nasa.gov>

Alternate Contact Name (APC): David R. Throop

APC Phone No.: 281-483-3596

APC e-mail: <david.r.throop@nasa.gov>

Technology Provider Website:

Technology Provider Address: NASA Johnson Space Center/MC ER2

2101 NASA Parkway

Houston, TX 77058-3696

**[Tool/Technology Details]{.underline}**

Description of Tool/Technology: Reconciler performs natural language
processing of English-language free text, using terminology in the
Aerospace Ontology to classify words and phrases. As the Discrepancy
Report (DR) Analysis Tool, it supports trend analysis of problem reports
(Discrepancy reports, PRACA, Non-Conformances, errors etc). It
recognizes and tags phrases in the report text which refer to functions,
objects and problems. Its parser allows it to recognize variant phrases
(e.g., misaligned, not aligned, fails to align). It uses the Aerospace
Ontology to group together similar concepts (e.g., misaligned, askew,
luxated, splayed). The tool produces a variety of reports for analysts
to browse, graph, sort and trend similar problem reports.

Commercial or Research Technology: Research

Associated Program: SARP

Potential Benefits: Recognition and correction of recurring problems.
Meets requirements for trend analysis to support process improvement and
corrective action. The natural-language text extraction tool can be used
to support modeling of systems, interfaces or software, by extracting
model parts from free text in documents or data fields. The DR analysis
tool can be used to help analysts discover and analyze problem
recurrences and trends in software problem reports and change requests.

Supported Platforms: Written in Perl, currently running under Linux;
portable to Microsoft Windows. web-served displays and links to reports
and underlying data files.

Required Inputs: Error reports in some regular format: tab-delimited
reports from database or spreadsheet are preferred; also HTML, .pdf and
MS Word formatted text.

Outputs Produced: HTML-formatted reports, Excel-readable files

**[Maturity Level]{.underline}**

Applied to Real Problems? Yes No

If Yes, Level of Success Achieved: Text extraction tasks satisfactorily
performed; analysts easily identify similar problems and investigate
them.

Already in Use within NASA? Yes No

If Yes, at what center(s): Johnson Space Center (JSC)

**[Support]{.underline}**

User/Ref. Documentation Available: Training presentation available for
the DR Analysis Tool and how to use its products

Phone Support Available: E-mail with occasional phone support

Is Tool/Technology Developer willing to support infusion effort? Yes No

**[Licensing]{.underline}**

Is Tool/Technology Provider willing to provide Evaluation Copy for
extended period of time? Yes No

At current level of maturity, developer runs the tool on
analyst-supplied data and analyst uses the results.

**[Other Information]{.underline}**

The Reconciler is a suite of tools for parsing and tagging
English-language free text. It has been applied to other aerospace
tasks: matching parts that are referred to by different names in various
documents, finding missing equipment in Shuttle procedures, analyzing
requirements documents. Current research focuses on extracting model
descriptions from early CEV requirements and design documents, for
semi-automatic generation of system or plant models for analysis and
simulation. The DR Analysis Tool is a particular embodiment of this
technology -- the most mature use so far.

References to relevant technical papers and URL for this product or its
parent:

1.  D. Throop, Reconciler: Matching Terse English Phrases, Proceedings
    of 2004 Virtual Iron Bird Workshop, NASA Ames Research Center,
    April, 2004.

2.  J. T. Malin, D. R. Throop, L. Fleming and L. Flores, Transforming
    Functional Requirements and Risk Information into Models for
    Analysis and Simulation, 2005 IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings,
    March 2005.

3.  J. T. Malin and D. R. Throop, Basic Concepts and Distinctions for an
    Aerospace Ontology of Functions, Entities and Problems, 2007 IEEE
    Aerospace Conference Proceedings, March 2007.

Research product objective:

Tool

Method or Technique

Process

Other (Please specify)

Integration with other tools in the Software Safety Analysis tool set

Description of research product objective:

Use Reconciler and the Aerospace Ontology to extract model parts
(subsystems, flows, functions, hazards, sensitivities) for
semi-automated development of system models for analysis and simulation,
to evaluate potential integrated hardware-software system risks.

What **differentiates your research product** from related research and
from commercially-available products?

The tool tags phrases that indicate types of entities, functions and
problems. It is used for classifying and trending discrepancies, errors,
faults and other problems. The tool is unique in several ways:

-   Tagging and classification is based on common aerospace terms
    (organized in extensive aerospace ontology)

-   Full sentence parsing of text

-   Many special-purpose strategies for terms and jargon in aerospace
    text (for acronyms, part-numbers, negated and qualified terms...)

-   NASA owns the source code as a product of R&D

Target application domain type:

Autonomous Systems

AI other than Robotics

Business Automated Data Processing

Collaboration

Command and Control

Communications

Diagnosis

Multi-Agent

Multi-Threaded

Navigation / Guidance

Real-Time

Robotics

Scientific

Security

Software Development Tools (Tools for building tools)

Other (Specify)

Fault trending analysis

Target software engineering areas:

Project Management including tool selection

Measurement of software artifacts

Requirements

Specification

Design

Implementation

Maintenance

Process Management

Configuration Management

QA

Safety

V & V

Other (Specify)

What are the **key characteristics of a target application that
determine the applicability** (or not) of the research?

Works on projects with more than 1000 error reports (e.g. trouble
tickets, discrepancy reports, failure reports), summarized in
English-language text.

What does a **software development project** need to do to make use of
the research product?

The customer assembles the error reports in tab-delimited format (from a
database or Excel spreadsheet). With additional effort, (writing
'scraper' routines) reports have been parsed from MS-Word or Adobe .pdf
files.

What kind of support does a software development project need to make
use of the research?

-   Defining the data sources and the formats in which the data arrive

-   Building customized 'scrapers', if needed, to move data from HTML,
    .pdf or Word (only small effort needed if data is from Excel or a
    database)

-   Executing permissions and non-disclosures on limited data; setting
    up security for web-served reports

-   Training users and analysts

-   Adding any custom analyses that the users require

    -   May involve writing 'glue code' to legacy analysis tools

-   Updating ontology and knowledge bases with project jargon and unique
    terms