Overview
Bringing IEEE 2874-2025 to the geospatial standards community — with a focus on HSML, HSTP, Spatial Web agents, and alignment with OGC Connected Systems.
The Spatial Web provides a shared world model for AI agents, robots, and people to have a common understanding of the universe. As software increasingly integrates with robotic and IoT systems to form Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), and as AI is combined with CPS to produce Autonomous Intelligent Systems (AIS), the need for an open, interoperable spatial foundation has never been more urgent.
This presentation, delivered at the 133rd OGC Member Meeting in Boulder, Colorado, introduces IEEE 2874-2025 to the geospatial community — covering its conceptual model (HSML), distributed computing protocol (HSTP), agent architecture, and how it compares and aligns with OGC Connected Systems standards.
George Percivall, IEEE Spatial Web Chair and former CTO of the Open Geospatial Consortium, makes the case for a unified design pattern: an ecosystem of agents that utilize connected systems — grounding AI intelligence in the physical, geographic world.
Event Context
Location
Boulder, Colorado, USA
General Theme
Design an ecosystem of Agents that utilize Connected Systems — bridging AI agency with geospatial infrastructure
Significance
First introduction of IEEE 2874-2025 Spatial Web to the OGC membership, identifying concrete alignment opportunities with OGC Connected Systems
George Percivall's Role
IEEE Spatial Web Chair; formerly Chief Technology Officer & Chief Engineer at the Open Geospatial Consortium
Industry Recognition
Gartner October 2025 Radar cites HSML, HSTP (Spatial Web Protocols), and UDG (Spatial Web Systems) — recommending organizations experiment with HSML now
Recording
Full video recording of the OGC Member Meeting presentation.
Presentation Topics
Six interconnected themes explored across the OGC Member Meeting talk.
Foundation
The Spatial Web builds on the WWW by extending from hypermedia documents to cyber-physical entities. Software + Robotic & IoT systems = Cyber-Physical Systems. AI + CPS = Autonomous Intelligent Systems. A common world model is the essential foundation for all of these to operate together safely.
Standard
The Spatial Web Protocol, Architecture & Governance specification was approved as IEEE 2874-2025 in May 2025 — a public imperative developed through the IEEE SA / Spatial Web Foundation partnership. Gartner's October 2025 Radar analysis is based on this standard, recommending organizations experiment with HSML now.
Conceptual Model
HSML encodes entities and properties of the Spatial Web Ontology, organized into six domain types: Geographic, Concept, Organization, Agent, Person, and Thing. Spatial embedding — the technology behind LLMs — is extended from Word2Vec to World2Vec, enabling analogy calculations in geographic space within the Universal Domain Graph.
Protocol
HSTP is a secure, verifiable protocol for communicating HSML, ensuring seamless interoperability between diverse AI and Digital Twin systems. It incorporates W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) for identity, operates on the Actor Paradigm, and includes a Spatial Web Domain Registry and Registration Authority.
Agent Architecture
The Spatial Web defines a hierarchy of agent sophistication: Goal-Based, Goal-Directed, Intentional, Rational, and Social agents — each with cumulative capabilities. Active Inference-based agents operate on world models or digital twins, understand causal relationships, and enable continuous learning, explainability, and autonomic equilibrium within ecosystems.
Standards Alignment
Comparing OGC Connected Systems with IEEE 2874-2025 reveals clear alignment: common sensor/actuator patterns, shared semantic standards, and common domain scenarios (supply chain logistics, UAS/UAV, Energy & Utilities, Smart City). An OGC Feature maps to a Spatial Web Domain; OGC datastreams and control streams feed Spatial Web Agents.
Core Components
The two foundational components of IEEE 2874-2025 that enable interoperability across AI, robotics, and geospatial systems.
IEEE 2874-2025 · Conceptual Model
HSML — Hyperspace Modeling Language
Spatial Web Ontology · Universal Domain Graph · HyperGeography
HSML is a common data model that enables adaptive intelligence at scale. It articulates the types of relationships that can exist between any base elements and their purpose — providing cross-platform interoperability between environments like Unity and Unreal, and enabling real-time physics modeling and collaborative digital twin workflows.
Geographic space is embedded in hyperspace through HyperGeography — building on Hyperdimensional Computing (Kanerva, 2009) and extending Word2Vec to World2Vec (LeCunn). This enables spatial analogy calculations (Russia:Moscow::USA:?) and aligns with the Universal Geometry of Embeddings (Jha, 2025). HSML Spatial Embedding provides a first law of hypergeography for situating entities in both geographic and conceptual space.
The Universal Domain Graph (UDG) organizes all Spatial Web entities across six domain types: Geographic (location-associated), Concept (abstract ideas), Organization (membership entities), Agent (active entities with agency), Person (self-sovereign agents), and Thing (bounded items without agency).
IEEE 2874-2025 · Distributed Computing Protocol
HSTP — Hyperspace Transaction Protocol
W3C DID Identity · Actor Paradigm · Multi-dimensional Range Query
HSTP is a multi-dimensional range query and contracting protocol that governs interactions between parties to ensure privacy and security. It enables seamless interoperability between diverse AI and Digital Twin systems through a secure, verifiable communication layer for HSML.
HSTP operations are based on the Actor Paradigm and incorporate W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) for identity — ensuring that every entity in the Spatial Web has a verifiable, decentralized identity. A Spatial Web Domain Registry and Registration Authority governs how domains are discovered and validated across the global Spatial Web.
A concrete demonstration: JPL & SWF collaborated on Lunar Cross Platform Interoperable Digital Twins, where Dr. Ed Chow's team demonstrated real-time joint testing of a lander model at CSUN and a rover digital twin at JPL, on distributed NVIDIA Omniverse platforms — communicating via standard HSML & HSTP protocols. Cross-platform collaboration between Omniverse and Unity was demonstrated, with IP protection via remote execution of a Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) model at JPL.
Agent Architecture
The Spatial Web defines a cumulative hierarchy of agent capabilities — from basic sensing to full social coordination — with Active Inference enabling truly autonomic behavior.
| Agent Type | Key Capabilities |
|---|---|
| Social Agent | Joint goals with other agents; joint planning and coordinating roles; awareness of rational and moral norms; mediation between agents; shared world models; care |
| Rational Agent | Causal models for future goal planning; assesses value of additional information prior to decisions; reflective executive tier and controller selection; attributes mental states to other agents |
| Intentional Agent | Models beliefs, goals, and intentions; utility-based planning and decision-making; curiosity and vicarious trial-and-error (OODA loop); monitors uncertainty with inhibition and cognitive flexibility |
| Goal-Directed Agent | Senses and actuates the environment with memory; creates and updates models; goal recognition; feedback control based on model and goals; awareness of environment including other agents |
| Goal-Based Agent | Foundational sensing, actuation, and goal-orientation; the base tier upon which all higher agent types build their cumulative capabilities |
Active Inference-based agents span all tiers — they operate on world models or digital twins, understand causal relationships, and enable continuous learning, adaptation, explainability, and transparency, becoming truly autonomic and seeking equilibrium within ecosystems.
"The Spatial Web is a shared world model for AI agents, robots and people to have a common understanding of the universe."
— George Percivall, OGC Member Meeting, October 2025
This presentation marks a pivotal moment in the convergence of the Spatial Web and the open geospatial standards community. By presenting IEEE 2874-2025 directly to OGC members, George Percivall drew concrete connections between the Spatial Web's agent-centric architecture and OGC's existing Connected Systems standards portfolio.
The alignment is natural: an OGC Feature becomes a Spatial Web Domain; OGC datastreams and control streams feed Spatial Web Agents. Common patterns of sensors and actuators, shared semantic standards, and common domain scenarios all point toward a unified ecosystem where geospatial infrastructure underpins intelligent, autonomous systems.
The JPL & SWF Lunar Digital Twin demonstration made this tangible — showing real cross-platform, distributed spatial intelligence in action, grounded in open standards.
Resources
Watch the full presentation or browse the slide deck.
Video Recording · YouTube
Spatial Web to OGC — October 2025
Slide Deck · Google Slides
Introduction to Spatial Web as Relevant to OGC
Interested in how IEEE 2874-2025 aligns with OGC standards, or in building Spatial Web agents on connected geospatial systems? Get in touch.
✉️ percivall@ieee.org