n-ary howto: Fw: [protege-discussion] Re: defining n-arityrelations in Protege

[cognizor@cognizor.com]

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 10:43:40 +0100
From: "Bernard Vatant" <bernard.vatant@mondeca.com>
To: <protege-discussion@SMI.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: [protege-discussion] Re: defining n-arity relations in Protege




Hi Fusun

What you are calling for can be represented using a "spatial situation"
class where positions of objects are qualified by properties like
"reference object" (card=1), "downSideObject", "leftSideObject"
"frontSideObject" and so on (as many roles as you want). This comes from
the topic map concept of association. "spatial situation" is an association
where objects can play different roles. The association is represented as a
class, and roles as properties on this class [1]

What you would get in OWL is e.g.

<owl:Class rdf:ID="SpatialSituation">
    <rdfs:subClassOf>
      <owl:Restriction>
        <owl:someValuesFrom>
          <owl:Class rdf:ID="SpaceLikeObject"/>
        </owl:someValuesFrom>
        <owl:onProperty>
          <owl:FunctionalProperty rdf:about="#referenceObject"/>
        </owl:onProperty>
      </owl:Restriction>
    </rdfs:subClassOf>
    <rdfs:subClassOf>
      <owl:Restriction>
        <owl:allValuesFrom rdf:resource="#SpaceLikeObject"/>
        <owl:onProperty>
          <owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID="downSideObject"/>
        </owl:onProperty>
      </owl:Restriction>
    </rdfs:subClassOf>
    <rdfs:subClassOf>
      <owl:Restriction>
        <owl:allValuesFrom rdf:resource="#SpaceLikeObject"/>
        <owl:onProperty>
          <owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID="leftSideObject"/>
        </owl:onProperty>
      </owl:Restriction>
    </rdfs:subClassOf>
    <rdfs:subClassOf>
      <owl:Restriction>
        <owl:onProperty>
          <owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID="frontSideObject"/>
        </owl:onProperty>
        <owl:allValuesFrom rdf:resource="#SpaceLikeObject"/>
      </owl:Restriction>
    </rdfs:subClassOf>
</owl:Class>

The advantage of this representation is that spatial positions are not
properties asserted on objects themselves, but properties of the situation.
The situation may change with time, but not the objects, so you could
attach time properties to the situation, like one beginTime and one
endTime, as following:

  <owl:DatatypeProperty rdf:ID="beginTime">
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="#SpatialSituation"/>
    <rdf:type
rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#FunctionalProperty"/>
  </owl:DatatypeProperty>
  <owl:DatatypeProperty rdf:ID="endTime">
    <rdfs:domain rdf:resource="#SpatialSituation"/>
    <rdf:type
rdf:resource="http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#FunctionalProperty"/>
  </owl:DatatypeProperty>

[1] See http://www.mondeca.com/owl/owltm.htm

Bernard Vatant
Senior Consultant
Knowledge Engineering
Mondeca - www.mondeca.com
bernard.vatant@mondeca.com


> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : protege-discussion-bounce@SMI.Stanford.EDU
> [mailto:protege-discussion-bounce@SMI.Stanford.EDU]De la part de Fusun
> Eryoldas
> Envoyé : mercredi 7 janvier 2004 22:11
> À : protege-discussion@SMI.Stanford.EDU
> Objet : [protege-discussion] defining n-arity relations in Protege
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I was wondering if protege supports defining relations where
> arity is more than 2. For example, let's say we have 3 classes
> A, B, C, and the relation name is "between" : A is between B and
> C. (Chair is between Desk and Wall). I know that I can create
> this relationship by defining multiple-cardinality
> class-instance slot in class A, but it would be a workaround. Is
> there a direct way to define such relationships (3 way or 4 way,
> more than binary relations)? Also is there any plugins suppporting this?
>
> Once I define the relationship, I would also like to display it
> visually as in the picture. Is there any plugin that supports
> this as well?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fusun
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> -- File: 3WayRelationExample.jpg
> -- Desc: 3WayRelationExample.jpg
>
>
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