Ontologies in Motion: A BFO-Based Approach to Knowledge Graph Construction for Motor Performance Research Data in Sports Science

Ondraszek, Sarah Rebecca; Waitelonis, Jörg; Keller, Katja; Niessner, Claudia; Jacyszyn, Anna M.; Sack, Harald

doi:10.5281/zenodo.17509906

Ontologies in Motion: A BFO-Based Approach to Knowledge Graph Construction for Motor Performance Research Data in Sports Science

Ondraszek, Sarah Rebecca; Waitelonis, Jörg; Keller, Katja; Niessner, Claudia; Jacyszyn, Anna M.; Sack, Harald

Publisher: Zenodo
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17509906
Repository: zenodo.org
Language: en

Abstract

An essential component for evaluating and comparing physical and cognitive capabilities between populations is the testing of various factors related to human performance. As a core part of sports science research, testing motor performance enables the analysis of the physical health of different demographic groups and makes them comparable. The Motor Research (MO|RE) data repository, developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, is an infrastructure for publishing and archiving research data in sports science, particularly in the field of motor performance research. In this paper, we present our vision for creating a knowledge graph from MO|RE data. With an ontology rooted in the Basic Formal Ontology, our approach centers on formally representing the interrelation of plan specifications, specific processes, and related measurements. Our goal is to transform how motor performance data are modeled and shared across studies, making it standardized and machineunderstandable. The idea presented here is developed within the Leibniz Science Campus “Digital Transformation of Research” (DiTraRe)

Full text

Sarah Ondraszek et al., Ontologies in Motion, Sci-K 2025 @ ISWC 2025, November 2, 2025 November 2, 2025 – Sci-K 2025 @ ISWC 2025, Nara, Japan Ontologies in Motion: A BFO-Based Approach to Knowledge Graph Construction for Motor Performance Research Data in Sports Science Sarah Rebecca Ondraszek (1, 2), Jörg Waitelonis (1), Katja Keller (3), Claudia Niessner (3), Anna M. Jacyszyn (1), Harald Sack (1, 2) 1) FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure, Germany 2) Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (AIFB) of KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany 3) Institute of Sports and Sports Science (IfSS) of KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany Sarah Ondraszek et al., Ontologies in Motion, Sci-K 2025 @ ISWC 2025, November 2, 2025 2 ●DiTraRe = Leibniz Science Campus Digital Transformation of Research. ●Focus areas of this DiTraRe use case: ○Ontology-based modelling of research processes. ○FAIR data publication and reuse. ○Provenance, privacy, and knowledge graph generation. ●The MO|RE ontology and knowledge graph demonstrate these principles. The DiTraRe project Sarah Ondraszek et al., Ontologies in Motion, Sci-K 2025 @ ISWC 2025, November 2, 2025 3 ●MO|RE (Motor Research) Data Repository at KIT IfSS. ●Discipline-speciﬁc repository for human motor performance data. ●Stores test items, participant metadata, and measurement results. ●Offers editorial review, DOI assignment, and long-term archiving. ●Provides a testbed for DiTraRe’s aims. Use case: Motor research data Sarah Ondraszek et al., Ontologies in Motion, Sci-K 2025 @ ISWC 2025, November 2, 2025 4 ●Sports-science research is increasingly data-intensive. ●Motor performance tests are central for assessing human movement capabilities. ●Data are stored in diverse formats, structures, and spreadsheets → data silos. ●Diﬃcult to compare results or reuse datasets across studies. Motivation Sarah Ondraszek et al., Ontologies in Motion, Sci-K 2025 @ ISWC 2025, November 2, 2025 5 ●Existing ontologies for sports or health data often lack: ○a connection between plan speciﬁcations, executions, and results. ○temporal and contextual reasoning. ○semantic representation of privacy/anonymization. ●Consequence: limited machine understanding, interoperability. ●The solution? A Basic Formal Ontology (BFO)-grounded ontology capturing both static and dynamic aspects of the data. Research gap(s) Sarah Ondraszek et al., Ontologies in Motion, Sci-K 2025 @ ISWC 2025, November 2, 2025 6 ●Develop a BFO-based ontology for motor performance data. ●This ontology represents: ○Plan speciﬁcations (studies, test items). ○Processes (executions of tests). ○Results (measurement data, outcomes). ○Dispositions of participants. ●The ontology is the semantic backbone of a knowledge graph (in development). Proposed solution Sarah Ondraszek et al., Ontologies in Motion, Sci-K 2025 @ ISWC 2025, November 2, 2025 7 Key aspects of the MO|RE ontology ●Upper level: BFO ○Continuants vs. occurrents. ○Qualities → formal representations of measurable features of participants, such as their height, weight, or results in ﬁtness evaluations. ●Reuse: ○OBI (Ontology for Biomedical Investigations). ○IAO (Information Artifact Ontology). ●Privacy aspects currently in development: sensitive attributes & role-based access modelled in the ontology. Sarah Ondraszek et al., Ontologies in Motion, Sci-K 2025 @ ISWC 2025, November 2, 2025 8 Key aspects of the MO|RE ontology ●Diverse key concepts, e.g., ○Study → plan speciﬁcation ○Test Item → plan for motor test ○Test Process → realization of plan, … ○Participant → bearer of qualities/dispositions ○Measurement Datum → output of test process. Sarah Ondraszek et al., Ontologies in Motion, Sci-K 2025 @ ISWC 2025, November 2, 2025 9 The Handgrip motor test ●A handgrip test is a standard motor performance test used in sports science to measure maximal voluntary grip strength. ●Formal representation should enable answering competency questions about a hand grip, such as: ○“Which plan speciﬁcation does this execution follow?”, ○“How much stronger are children in the age groups 6-10 when comparing locations?”.