Methodologies for Qualitative Spatial and Temporal Reasoning Application Design

Abstract

Although a wide range of sophisticated Qualitative Spatial and Temporal Reasoning (QSTR) formalisms have now been developed, there are relatively few applications that apply these commonsense methods. To address this problem, the authors of this chapter developed methodologies that support QSTR application design. They established a theoretical foundation for QSTR applications that includes the roles of application designers and users. The authors adapted formal software requirements that allow a designer to specify the customer’s operational requirements and the functional requirements of a QSTR application. The chapter presents design patterns for organising the components of QSTR applications, and a methodology for defining high-level neighbourhoods that are derived from the system structure. Finally, the authors develop a methodology for QSTR application validation by defining a complexity metric called H-complexity that is used in test coverage analysis for assessing the quality of unit and integration test sets.