Expressing and processing complex preferences in route planning queries: Towards a fuzzy-set-based approach

In this paper, we propose a contribution for a new generation of route planners able to deal with complex and sophisticated preferences. Fuzzy set theory is advocated as a framework for modelling preferences. First, a typology of user preferences that make sense in the context of unimodal route planning is investigated. The bipolar nature of such preferences is discussed as well. The foundations of both a formal language and an SQL-like language dedicated to bipolar route planning queries are then presented and illustrated with different examples. The basic components of the architecture of the system proposed are described and deep details about query evaluation are provided. Finally, the approach is evaluated by means of a set of experiments.