We present an approach to qualitative spatial reasoning which is based on directional orientation information as available through perceptual processes. Qualitative orientations in 2-dimensional space are given by the relation between a point and a vector. The paper presents our basic iconic notation for spatial orientation relations which exploits the spatial structure of the domain and explor...

Qualitative knowledge about relative distance and orientation can be expressed in form of ternary point relations. Results by Scivos and Nebel showed that Freksa’s Double Cross calculus is NP -hard. However the question whether ternary point configuration calculi are useful for polynomial but incomplete reasoning is still open. In our paper we give first results on a scenario with a simple simu...

Knowledge representation and reasoning in real-world applications often require to integrate multiple aspects of space. In this paper, we focus our attention on the so-called Rectangular Cardinal Direction calculus for qualitative spatial reasoning on cardinal relations between rectangles whose sides are aligned to the axes of the plane. We first show how to extend a tractable fragment of such ...

In this paper it is shown that Heyting and Co-Heyting mereological systems provide a convenient conceptual framework for spatial reasoning, in which spatial concepts such as connectedness, interior parts, (exterior) contact, and boundary can be defined in a natural and intuitively appealing way. This fact refutes the wide-spread contention that mereology cannot deal with the more advanced aspec...

We describe an approach that uses causal reasoning and geometric reasoning to construct explanations for the purposes of the geometric features on the parts of a mechanical device. To identify the purpose of a feature, the device is simulated with and without the feature. The simulations are then translated into a “causal-process” representation, which allows qualitatively important differences...

Qualitative representing and reasoning for road network moving objects is an important problem in spatio-temporal reasoning, but it is till open. We propose a new spatial algebra for road network moving objects based on Interval Algebra Theory. Renz has developed an algebra DIA to represent one dimensional moving objects by giving time interval a spatial interpretation. We extend DIA to road ne...