Knowledge-Based Aerospace Engineering -- A Systematic Literature Review

TL;DR

This paper systematically reviews knowledge management practices in aerospace engineering, presenting a comprehensive knowledge graph and semantic tools to improve design, collaboration, and sustainability in the industry.

Contribution

It introduces a large-scale systematic literature review, a formalized aerospace knowledge graph, and open datasets to advance structured knowledge exchange in aerospace engineering.

Findings

Identified key knowledge management practices in aerospace engineering

Developed a formalized knowledge graph with 700+ processes and data

Provided open datasets and semantic tools for industry and research use

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.