Enhancing qualitative spatial reasoning — Combining orientation and distance

Abstract

In recent years several qualitative reasoning approaches have been developed in the spatial domain. Although means exists to cope with orientation, position, and topological relations, few of them use the concept of distance. In this paper a new approach is presented that allows to use and to combine knowledge about distances and positions in a qualitative way. It is based on perceptual and cognitive considerations about the capabilities of humans navigating within their environments. The basic spatial reference system, the formalism in which the distance relations are represented, and an implementation that uses multiple domain experts communicating via a black board structure will be described.