Abstract:
We present a formal model for qualitative spatial reasoning with cardinal
directions and study the problem of checking the consistency of a set of
cardinal direction constraints. We present the first algorithm for this
problem, prove its correctness and analyze its computational complexity.
Utilizing the above algorithm we prove that the consistency checking of a
set of basic cardinal direction constraints can be performed in O(n^5) time
while the consistency checking of an unrestricted set of cardinal direction
constraints is NP-complete. Finally, we briefly discuss some extensions to
the basic model.
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