Reasoning over Spatial Orientation Relations Using Rules

Representation of spatial information for the Semantic Web often involves qualitative defined information (i.e., information described using natural language terms such as “Left”), since precise arithmetic descriptions using coordinates and angles are not always available. A basic aspect of spatial information is directional relations, thus embedding directional spatial relations into ontologies along with their semantics and reasoning rules is an important practical issue. This work proposes a new representation for directional spatial information in ontologies by means of OWL properties and reasoning rules in SWRL embedded into the ontology. The proposed representation is based on the combination of object orientations (e.g., same direction or opposite) and cone shaped directional relations of positions using an egocentric reference (e.g., left or right of an object). The proposed representation is to the best of our knowledge a novel one, and in this work, the proposed representation is analysed, implemented and evaluated.