Indoor Spatial Awareness Initiative and Standard for Indoor Spatial Data

With the rapid progress of spatial information services and ubiquitous computing technologies, the space that we are dealing with is no longer limited to outdoor space but being extended to indoor space. Indoor space differs from outdoor space, which makes it difficult to realize spatial information services for indoor space. In order to extend the scope of spatial information services to indoor space, and provide integrated and seamless services, it is required to establish new theories, data models, database management systems for indoor spatial data, and applications for indoor space. For this reason, a multi-national research initiative has been launched in 2007 to provide a theoretical background of indoor spatial theory and develop data models, indoor spatial database systems, and application services. In this paper, we present an overview of the research initiative. In particular, we focus on an international standardization activity for indoor spatial data, called IndoorGML and application of this standard to robotics.