Spatial experience based route finding using ontologies

Abstract

Spatial experiences in route finding, such as the ability of finding low-traffic routes, exert a significant influence on travel time in big cities; therefore, the spatial experiences of seasoned individuals such as taxi drivers in route finding can be useful for improving route-finding algorithms and preventing using routes having considerable traffic. In this regard, a spatial experience-based route-finding algorithm is introduced through ontology in this paper. To this end, different methods of modeling experiences are investigated. Then, a modeling method is chosen for modeling the experiences of drivers for route finding depending on the advantages of ontology, and an ontology based on the taxi drivers’ experiences is proposed. This ontology is employed to create an ontology-based route-finding algorithm. The results are compared with those of Google maps in terms of route length and travel time at peak traffic time. According to the results, although the route lengths of route-finding method based on the ontology of drivers’ experiences in three cases (from nine cases) are greater than that based on Google maps, the travel times are shorter in most cases, and in some routes, the difference in travel time reaches only 10 minutes.