The Issue of Perspectivality in Formal Theories of Spatial Representation Author Supervisors Studies/Stag e Affiliation

The aim of my research is to develop a formal theory of spatial representation able to account for perspective-dependent spatial concepts. In my current project I develop a formal ontological theory for reasoning about perspective-dependent locations and I show how perspective-dependent spatial concepts relate to the framework of detached locational concepts. Thus, my aim is to investigate both the philosophical nature of perspectivedependent locational concepts and the way in which they fit into formal ontological theories of spatial representation. While interested in a computationally efficient theory, my main focus is on the conceptual adequacy of the framework I shall propose. Justification for the Research Topic Ever since Hayes ’ Naïve Physics Manifesto [4], Qualitative Spatial Reasoning has been a flourishing branch of a common-sense approach to modelling human behaviour in autonomous machines. The question of perspectivality in spatial orientation and of perspective-dependent spatial relations has again and again been in the focus of qualitative calculi of spatial representation (see e.g., [5]). Moreover, perspective-dependent locational concepts are widespread in human discourse and appear in the language practices of