Cromatcher: An Ontology Matching System Based on Automated Weighted Aggregation and Iterative Final Alignment

Abstract

In order to perform ontology matching with high accuracy, while at the same time retaining applicability to most diverse input ontologies, the matching process generally incorporates multiple methods. Each of these methods is aimed at a particular ontology component, such as annotations, structure, properties or instances. Adequately combining these methods is one of the greatest challenges in designing an ontology matching system. In a parallel composition of basic matchers, the ability to dynamically set the weights of the basic matchers in the final output, thus making the weights optimal for the given input, is the key breakthrough for obtaining first-rate matching performance. In this paper we present CroMatcher, an ontology matching system, introducing several novelties to the automated weight calculation process. We apply substitute values for matchers that are inapplicable for the particular case and use thresholds to eliminate low-probability alignment candidates. We compare the alignments produced by the matchers and give less weight to the matchers producing mutually similar alignments, whereas more weight is given to those matchers whose alignment is distinct and rather unique. We also present a new, iterative method for producing one-to-one final alignment of ontology structures, which is a significant enhancement of similar non-iterative methods proposed in the literature. CroMatcher has been evaluated against other state-of-the-art matching systems at the OAEI evaluation contest. In a large number of test cases it achieved the highest score, which puts it among the state-of-the-art leaders.