Advancing IndoorGML: Development of Software Tools and Seamless Indoor-Outdoor Navigation
The increasing demand for 3D indoor models has led to the development of standards that support location-based services (LBS) and navigation. Among these, IndoorGML, an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard since 2015, provides a structured way to describe indoor spaces using geometric, topological, and semantic components. However, despite its strong conceptual foundation, IndoorGML lacks sufficient practical tools, limiting its adoption beyond academic research.
To address this, two research initiatives have been launched, focusing on software tool development and improving the integration of indoor and outdoor navigation networks. Together, these projects contribute to the broader goal of advancing IndoorGML from a theoretical framework to a widely implemented standard. By improving software support and expanding its capabilities for seamless indoor-outdoor navigation, these efforts will strengthen the IndoorGML ecosystem and promote its adoption in both research and industry applications.
Pushing forward the development of software tools for IndoorGML
PI: A.A. Diakite, 鶹madou Sydney, Australia
CoIs: L. Díaz-Vilariño (University of Vigo, Spain), F. Biljecki (National University of Singapore, Singapore), S. Zlatanova (鶹madou Sydney, Australia), K. Li (Pusan National University, South Korea), Ü. Işıkdağ (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Turkey), B. Lathouwer (OGCE iVZW, Belgium)
In recent years, the interest in 3D indoor models is increasing. Often made available as BIM models (IFC), they are generally complex and detailed, raising thereby privacy concerns. IndoorGML is a standard for describing 3D indoor space to support Location Based Services (LBS). It contains a relatively simple geometry (space-based) and semantic and provides mechanism for aggregation, allowing to protect sensitive property information. IndoorGML relies on solid scientific concepts and offers a high flexibility with extension mechanisms. It provides a geometric, topological, and semantic description of the indoor, which facilitates specifically applications like indoor navigation or facility management. Accepted as an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard since January 2015, it is actively developed and extended by several universities. A new version, IndoorGML 2.0 is currently under development to enhance and comply with user requirements. However, despite its solid conceptual basis, IndoorGML is suffering from a lack of practical tools and remains largely an academic development. The goal of this project is to bring together all the actors of the IndoorGML ecosystem around the development of a basic and strong software tool for supporting IndoorGML production. The intended tool will focus on producing IndoorGML models from common 3D building standards such as IFC. This will heavily leverage currently existing developments. We expect more 3D IndoorGML models to be created and made freely available for research and development within the ISPRS community but also as examples to industry developers and end users.
Final Report »
Integrating IndoorGML with outdoors: Automatic routing graph generation for indoor‐outdoor transitional space for seamless navigation
PI: Z. Wang, South China University of Technology, China
CoIs: M. Mostafavi (Université Laval, Canada), K. Khoshelham (University of Melbourne, Australia), L. Vilariño (Universidade de Vigo, Spain), S. Zlatanova, (鶹madou, Australia), K.-J. Li (Pusan National University, Korea)
With the fast expansion of modern cities, the complexity of urban environments has significantly increased, creating a need for assistance for seamless indoor‐outdoor navigation. To meet this need, a number of standards and methods have emerged. Among them, IndoorGML is a well‐developed standard with the focus on indoor location‐based services. This standard has already been accepted by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and is now under active development. Although some mechanisms in IndoorGML have been defined to enable integration of indoor and outdoor networks, there are still no concrete guidelines for determination of indoor‐outdoor connections. It also lacks solid scientific foundations and efficient tools to extract the connecting nodes and edges that link indoor and outdoor spaces. To address this gap, in this scientific initiative we focus on connection of indoor and outdoor spaces and aim to provide a tool to automatically construct navigation graphs of the indoor‐outdoor transitional space to support seamless integration of indoor‐outdoor navigation. We expect that the developments from this project will benefit the IndoorGML ecosystem and greatly advance the capability of IndoorGML in representing navigable space and in supporting location-based services.
Final Report »
ifc2indoorgml tool
People involved
A.A. Diakite (鶹madou Sydney, Australia)
L. Díaz-Vilariño (University of Vigo, Spain)
F. Biljecki (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Ü. Işıkdağ (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Turkey)
K. Khoshelham (University of Melbourne, Australia)
B. Lathouwer (OGCE iVZW, Belgium)
K-J. Li (Pusan National University, South Korea)
M. Mostafavi (Université Laval, Canada)
L. Vilariño (Universidade de Vigo, Spain)
Z. Wang (South China University of Technology, China)
S. Zlatanova (鶹madou, Australia)
Contact person
Prof. Dr. Sisi Zlatanova (s.zlatanova@unsw.edu.au)