Qualitative Spatial Representation and Reasoning with the Region Connection Calculus

Abstract

This paper surveys the work of the qualitative spatial reasoning group at the University of Leeds. The group has developed a number of logical calculi for representing and reasoning with qualitative spatial relations over regions. We motivate the use of regions as the primary spatial entity and show how a rich language can be built up from surprisingly few primitives. This language can distinguish between convex and a variety of concave shapes and there is also an extension which handles regions with uncertain boundaries. We also present a variety of reasoning techniques, both for static and dynamic situations. A number of possible application areas are briefly mentioned.