Generalized Region Connection Calculus

The Region Connection Calculus (RCC) is one of the most widely referenced system of high-level (qualitative) spatial reasoning. RCC assumes a continuous representation of space. This contrasts sharply with the fact that spatial information obtained from physical recording devices is nowadays invariably digital in form and therefore implicitly uses a discrete representation of space. Recently, Galton developed a theory of discrete space that parallels RCC, but question still lies in that can we have a theory of qualitative spatial reasoning admitting models of discrete spaces as well as continuous spaces? In this paper we aim at establishing a formal theory which accommodates both discrete and continuous spatial information, and a generalization of Region Connection Calculus is introduced. GRCC, the new theory, takes two primitives: the mereological notion of part and the topological notion of connection. RCC and Galton’s theory for discrete space are both extensions of GRCC. The relation between continuous models and discrete ones is also clarified by introducing some operations on models of GRCC. In particular, we propose a general approach for constructing countable RCC models as direct limits of collections of finite models. Compared with standard RCC models given rise from ∗Artificial Intelligence, 160(1-2), 2004, 1-34. †This work was partly supported by the National Foundation of Natural Science of China (60305005, 60496321, 60321002). ‡Email: [email protected] §Email: [email protected]