Remanufacturing Strategy Suggestion System Ontology (R3SO): development and application

Remanufacturing, as a key pillar of the circular economy, requires structured methods to handle the variability and complexity of end-of-life cores. Ontologies provide a powerful mean for knowledge representation, enabling advanced inference and reasoning capabilities. This paper introduces their application in the field of remanufacturing, with the goal of supporting decision-making for end-of-life cores. The proposed approach has taken place within the development of a platform for the European research project RemaNet, which aims at implementing knowledge-based recommendations of suitable remanufacturing strategies. The paper presents the design of a dedicated ontology (R3SO) and demonstrates its application through a case study on an asynchronous electric motor. Specifically, it shows how ontology, combined with a set of rules, enables the automated inference and assignment of feasible remanufacturing strategies, highlighting the potential of this approach in the management of complex industrial remanufacturing scenarios.