SPATIAL KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION

Abstract

The use of spatial knowledge is necessary in a variety of artificial intelligence and expert systems applications. The need is not only in tasks with spatial goals such as image interpretation and robot motion, but also in tasks not involving spatial goals, e.g. diagnosis and language understanding. The paper discusses methods of representing spatial knowledge, with particular focus on the broad categories known as analogical and propositional representations. The problem of neurological localization is considered in some detail as an example of intelligent problem-solving that requires the use of spatial knowledge. Several solutions for the problem are presented: the first uses an analogical representation only, the second uses a propositional representation and the third uses an integrated representation. Conclusions about the different representations for building intelligent systems are drawn.