2026-09-02
Abstract
MobilityDB is an extension to the PostgreSQL database system and its spatial extension PostGIS. It allows temporal and spatio-temporal objects to be stored in the database, that is, objects whose attribute values and/or location evolves in time. MobilityDB includes functions for analysis and processing of temporal and spatio-temporal objects and provides support for GiST and SP-GiST indexes. MobilityDB is open source and its code is available on Github. A binding for the Python programming language is also available on Github.
MobilityDB is developed by the Computer & Decision Engineering Department of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) under the direction of Prof. Esteban Zimányi. ULB is an OGC Associate Member and member of the OGC Moving Feature Standard Working Group (MF-SWG).
The MobilityDB Manual is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License 3. Feel free to use this material any way you like, but we ask that you attribute credit to the MobilityDB Project and wherever possible, a link back to MobilityDB.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Set and Span Types
- 3. Bounding Box Types
- 4. Temporal Types (Part 1)
- 5. Temporal Types (Part 2)
- 6. Temporal Alphanumeric Types
- 7. Temporal Geometry Types (Part 1)
- 8. Temporal Geometry Types (Part 2)
- 9. Temporal Types: Analytics Operations
- 10. Temporal Types: Aggregation and Indexing
- 11. Temporal Network Points
- Static Network Types
- Temporal Network Points
- Validity of Temporal Network Points
- Constructors
- Conversions
- MF-JSON Input and Output
- Accessors
- Transformations
- Modifications
- Restrictions
- Spatial Operations
- Bounding Box Operations
- Distance Operations
- Ever and Always Relationships
- Spatiotemporal Relationships
- Comparisons
- Aggregations
- Indexing
- Aggregation
- 12. Temporal Circular Buffers
- Static Circular Buffers
- Temporal Circular Buffers
- Validity of Temporal Circular Buffers
- Input and Output
- Constructors
- Conversions
- Accessors
- Transformations
- Modifications
- Restrictions
- Spatial Operations
- Bounding Box Operations
- Distance Operations
- Ever and Always Relationships
- Spatiotemporal Relationships
- Comparisons
- Aggregations
- Simplification
- Indexing
- 13. Temporal Poses and Pose Chains
- Notation
- Static Poses and Pose Chains
- Pose Chain Composition
- Temporal Poses and Pose Chains
- Validity of Temporal Poses and Pose Chains
- Input and Output
- Constructors
- Conversions
- Accessors
- Transformations
- Modifications
- Restrictions
- Spatial Reference System
- Bounding Box Operations
- Distance Operations
- Ever and Always Relationships
- Spatiotemporal Relationships
- Comparisons
- Aggregations
- Spatial Operations
- Simplification
- Indexing
- OGC GeoPose v1.0 Support
- 14. Temporal Rigid Geometries
- 15. JSON Types in MobilityDB
- 16. Temporal Cell Index Types
- Notation
- Input and Output
- Constructors
- Conversions
- Accessors
- Transformations
- Modifications
- Restrictions
- Static Geometry Coverage
- Inspection
- Hierarchy
- Latitude and Longitude Conversions
- Bounding Box Operations
- Metric Functions
- Set-Returning Functions
- Ever and Always Relationships
- Spatiotemporal Relationships
- Comparisons
- Aggregations
- Indexing
- H3-Specific Operations
- QUADBIN-Specific Operations
- S2-Specific Operations
- 17. Temporal Point Clouds
- 18. Raster Sampling
- A. MobilityDB Reference
- MobilityDB Types
- Set and Span Types
- Box Types
- Temporal Types
- Temporal Alphanumeric Types
- Temporal Geometry Types
- Operations for Temporal Types: Analytics Operations
- Temporal Poses and Pose Chains
- Temporal Network Points
- Temporal Circular Buffers
- Temporal Rigid Geometries
- Temporal JSON
- Temporal Cell Index Types
- Input and Output
- Constructors
- Conversions
- Accessors
- Transformations
- Modifications
- Restrictions
- Static Geometry Coverage
- Inspection
- Hierarchy
- Latitude and Longitude Conversions
- Bounding Box Operations
- Metric Functions
- Set-Returning Functions
- Ever and Always Relationships
- Spatiotemporal Relationships
- Comparisons
- Aggregations
- H3-Specific Operations
- QUADBIN-Specific Operations
- S2-Specific Operations
- Temporal Point Clouds
- Raster Sampling
- 19. Portable Named-Function Dialect
- B. Synthetic Data Generator
- Index
List of Figures
- 3.1. Multiresolution grid on Brussels data obtained using the BerlinMOD generator. Each cell contains at most 10,000 (left) and 1,000 (right) instants across the entire simulation period (four days in this case). On the left, we can see the high density of the traffic in the ring around Brussels, while on the right we can see other main axes in the city.
- 4.1. Hierarchy of temporal types in MobilityDB.
- 5.1. Insert operation for temporal values.
- 5.2. Update and delete operation for temporal values.
- 5.3. Modification operations for temporal tables in SQL
- 7.1. Hierarchy of spatiotemporal types in MobilityDB.
- 7.2. Illustration of the use of the
tgeompoint(top) and thetgeometry(bottom) types for modelling the trajectory and the wind swath of tropical storms in 2024. - 7.3. Visualizing the speed of a moving object using a color ramp in QGIS.
- 9.1. Difference between the spatial and the synchronous distance.
- 9.2. Sampling of temporal floats with discrete, step, and linear interpolation.
- 9.3. Changing the precision of temporal floats with discrete, step, and linear interpolation.
- 9.4. Multidimensional tiling for temporal floats.
- 12.1. Illustration of the use of the
tcbuffertype for modelling the circular buffer around the wind swath of tropical storms in 2024. - 16.1. An AIS vessel track leaving Frederikshavn on the three grids, with the cells the track passes through shaded and a marine protected area in green. The upper row states the whole track at the resolutions whose cells are closest in area and outlines in black the excerpt the lower row states, one resolution finer in each grid. Vessel track and protected areas from the Danish AIS data; basemap © OpenStreetMap contributors.