Combining RCC5 Relations with Betweenness Information

Abstract

RCC5 is an important and well-known calculus for representing and reasoning about mereological relations. Among many other applications, it is pivotal in the formalization of commonsense reasoning about natural categories. In particular, it allows for a qualitative representation of conceptual spaces in the sense of Gardenfors. To further the role of RCC5 as a vehicle for conceptual reasoning, in this paper we combine RCC5 relations with information about betweenness of regions. The resulting calculus allows us to express, for instance, that some part (but not all) of region B is between regions A and C. We show how consistency can be decided in polynomial time for atomic networks, even when regions are required to be convex. From an application perspective, the ability to express betweenness information allows us to use RCC5 as a basis for interpolative reasoning, while the restriction to convex regions ensures that all consistent networks can be faithfully represented as a conceptual space.