Summary
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This project is intended to provide a basis for the precise specification
of spatial concepts, both as a service for the integration among projects
(cf. the general problem statement in section 1.1.2) and as an exercise in
the application of formal methods to spatial concepts. The definition of a
standard terminology via an integration of ontologies from different projects
is a foremost concern for the interaction between agents (human and/or
artificial) at different levels of abstraction: when talking about space in a
dialog between humans and machines, when communicating various kinds of spatial
representations, or when sharing sensor information. A prerequisite for success
in such an enterprise is to develop a common representation structure for
interaction between agents that covers a wide range of applications and data,
and which allows an abstracted, compact sufficiently detailed representation,
tailored to the application; it should cater for both route and map information.
The previously developed Route Graph model shall be taken as a starting point.
The project will provide the infrastructure for two SFB/TR Working Groups
(Ontology, Route Graph) and a common repository to make (intermediate) results
of the SFB/TR available, both internally and to the general public. The
repository supports semantic relations between its contents and contains a
semantics-driven management of change. Wherever reasonable, the specification
shall be made as precise as possible using formal, mathematically well-founded
methods. This approach not only clarifies the terminology for the user of a
concept, but also helps the defining author to precisely formulate a concept.
Particular domains of spatial concepts shall be given a formal specification
relating to the ontology hierarchy. In this context, the Route Graph plays a
prominent role as it shall serve as a common representation and interchange
structure for several SFB/TR projects. Formal specification allows for
tool-supported reasoning: the various formalizations shall be proven to be
consistent; important properties of a concept shall be characterized as
consequences of the defining axioms both activities aim at increasing the
trust in the formalization. Moreover, the (combination of) spatio-temporal
calculi investigated in projects R4- [LogoSpace] and R3-[Q-Shape] shall be integrated.
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