RESPONSE PAPER Ontological characterization of functions: Perspectives for capturing functions and modeling guidelines

The authors have been involved in ontological modeling of function for over 15 years. As an instance of the revisionary ap-proach discussed in Vermaas’s position paper, we have proposed an ontological definition of function and a modeling frame-work based on it, which has been deployed in industry. In addition, as an instance of the overarching approach, we have pro-posed a reference ontology of function that explains some kinds, definitions, and practical expressions of functions. In this paper, we explain our methodology in an overarching approach based on perspectives for capturing functions. When one cap-tures a function of an artifact, one focuses on a specific aspect of the artifact from a specific perspective. In this paper, we conceptualize such perspectives behind the reference ontology. In addition, based on our experiences in deployment in an in-dustrial setting, we report some solutions, such as ontological modeling guidelines, for overcoming some of the difficulties faced in the practical functional modeling approach described in Eckert’s position paper. Our findings suggest that such solu-tions will help engineers to describe consistent functional models compliant with a single definition of function