Re: RDF(S) in Railway Applications ? reasonable? feasible?

hi Roman,

It's only partially related, but we're going to do some work on
route-planning:

http://ilrt.org/discovery/2003/01/public-transport/overview.html
http://ilrt.org/discovery/2003/01/student-projects/route-planning.html

based on a straightforward algorithm Damian Steer
implemented for foaf codepiction and foaf-corp:

http://rdfweb.org/people/damian/2002/02/foafnation/
http://rdfweb.org/foaf/corp/intro.html
http://rdfweb.org/2002/01/photo/

and highly influenced by work by William Loughborough on Talking Signs:

http://rdfweb.org/rweb/wiki/wiki?AccessiblePlanet

and geographical foaf work, e.g Jo Walsh's schemas.

We are planning on starting gently, and seeing how far we can get.

cheers

Libby



On Fri, 7 Feb 2003, Roman Bischoff wrote:

>
>
>
> Hi
>
> My question is about using RDF(S),DAML, OIL, in railway infrastructure control and planning applications.
>
> The context:
>
> A european national railway company needs to renew some of their IT systems.
> They need to share data ((resource, operation, scheduling) and functionality across divisions and companies. There are many interdependencies between different kinds of resources and rules.
>
> Resource  examples: locomotives, wagons, railtrack segments, signals, people, points,...
> Agent     examples: signal, control systems, engineer, switches, displays, ...
> statement examples: commandments, instructions, commands, rules,
>
> Schedules:
>
> 1.The basic clock of the railway-backbone main lines is 60 minutes.
> 2.We define the biggest railway station, (Vertex with highest degree, highest throughput)  (e.g. hub-1 in City-A) as starting point to distribute the basic clock.
> 3.Intercity trains in direction of city-B leave hub-1 every full hour (6:00, 7:00)
> 4.Intercity trains in direction of city-B leave hub-1 on departure platform No. 8.
> 5.etc....
>
> My observation is:
> The various kinds of timetables and schedules are results of (different types of) statements made by planners.
>
> Conditions/Conflicts:
>
> There is a multitude complex conflicts / conditions:
> 1. fleet and train personnel circulation conflicts
> 2. train connection conflicts (e.g.
>    train X, has to assure the connection with train Y, in city-Z,
>    If train Y, is more than 15min late but train X is not late,
>    the connection needs to be broken up)
> 3. sequence conflicts (train X has to enter into the station before train W)
> 4. train service conflicts (trains must not cross on single tracks)
>    etc.
>
> This are again statements.
>
> FYI:
> Some railway specialists (e.g. a mathematician) are convinced that many conflicts cannot be solved based on algoritms). Another important aspects is that the time to make a conflict-resolution decision is very short.
>
> There are lot's of different kinds of statements which build the basis for the schedules and operational decisions.
> So I thought, maybe one could use RDF triples to formulate such statements.
> Then have a kind of version controlling, and maybe inference engine on them.
> The schedules then could be created based on the statements.
>
> Now I wonder whether and to what extend an approach based on URI, RDF(S), DAML, OIL could help to handle the complexity and interdepencies.
> My initial intention was that a "resource- and statement-centric" approach for resource-allocation (reservation and usage) could be based on SemanticWeb techniques.
>
> After browsing through "www-rdf-interest" I got the impression that the SemanticWeb concepts and constructs where general enough for being used in such situations.
> But after reading some discussions (threads like  "XML Schema vs DAML/RDF/RDFS") I have the impression that in practice it's (today) better not to bet on these technologies for use outside Internet/SemanticWeb.
>
> What is your opinion?
>
> b) Is it worth to consider DAML/OIL/RDF/RDFS in more detail for applications of this kind?
>
> c) What issues could be addressed with which technology (RDF(S), DAML, OIL)?
>
> d) What is your experience with using URIs for real world physical objects like railway track segments (edges in a graph) or locomotives ?
>
> Any opinions are welcome.
>
> Regards,
> Roman
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> The NEW Netscape 7.0 browser is now available. Upgrade now! http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp
>
> Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/
>
>
>

Received on Friday, 7 February 2003 19:05:49 UTC