The Knowledge Engine is a tool that improves the interoperability between systems (i.e. devices, platforms, apps, databases, interfaces, sensors) by exchanging data based on their semantics which are described using ontologies.

It combines several features that we have found to be essential in practice namely:

• Supports distributed networks
• Data is stored at the source, no central data storage server
• Everyone has control over which data to share
• Supports ways to interact with the network, either through querying, or through publish-subscribe interactions
• Supports both query federation and data inference allowing users to intelligently combine data to get new insights
• Supports dynamic networks where users/knowledge bases may change over time

One of my favourite use cases so far has been at the Electricity Campus. Here we are connecting all kinds of energy-related services to reduce peak energy consumption and increase grid resilience on the park. This includes all devices and services like smart meters, solar panels, EV chargers, Energy Management Systems, dashboards and anomaly detection. You can read more about this use case in our SEMANTiCS ‘26 paper: “Distributed Knowledge-Driven Data Exchange and Validation Framework for Networked Smart Buildings”.

Useful links

• Paper including use case at the Electricity Campus: Xander Wilcke, Barry Nouwt, Sophie Lathouwers and Ronald Siebes. 2026. Distributed Knowledge-Driven Data Exchange and Validation Framework for Networked Smart Buildings. Bridging the Gap Between Curated and Induced Semantics: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Semantic Systems, 15-17 September 2026, Ghent, Belgium. https://doi.org/10.3233/SSW260021
• Repository: https://github.com/tno/knowledge-engine
• Website: https://knowledge-engine.eu/
• Documentation: https://docs.knowledge-engine.eu/