Abstract
In recent years, several constraint‐based temporal reasoning frameworks have been proposed. They consider temporal points or intervals as domain elements linked by temporal constraints. Temporal reasoning in these systems is based on constraint propagation. In this paper, we argue that a language based on constraint propagation can be a suitable tool for expressing and reasoning about temporal problems. We concentrate on Constraint Logic Programming (CLP) which is a powerful programming paradigm combining the advantages of Logic Programming and the efficiency of constraint solving. However, CLP presents some limitations in dealing with temporal reasoning. First, it uses an “arc consistency” propagation algorithm which is embedded in the inference engine, cannot be changed by the user, and is too weak in many temporal frameworks. Second, CLP is not able to deal with qualitative temporal constraints. We present a general meta CLP architecture which maintains the advantages of CLP, but overcomes these two main limitations. Each architectural level is a finite domain constraint solver(CLP(FD)) that reasons about constraints of the underlying level. Based on this conceptual architecture, we extend the CLP(FD)language and we specialize the extension proposed on Vilain and Kautz’sPoint Algebra, on Allen’s Interval Algebra and on the STP framework by Dechter, Meiri and Pearl. In particular, we show that we can cope effectively with disjunctive constraints even in an interval‐based framework.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
L. Aiello, C. Cecchi and D. Sartini, Representation and use of metaknowledge, Proc. IEEE 74(10) (1986) 1304–;1321.
J.F. Allen, Maintaining knowledge about temporal intervals, Communications of the ACM 26 (1983) 832–;843.
J.F. Allen and P.J. Hayes, A common-sense theory of action and time, in: Proc. IJCAI ’85(1985) pp. 528–;531.
F. Benhamon, D. McAllester and P. Van Hentenryck, CLP(Intervals) revisited, Technical Report CS-94-18, Computer Science Department, Brown University (1994).
K.A. Bowen and R.A. Kowalski, Amalgamating language and metalanguage in logic programming, in: Logic Programming, eds. K. Clark and S. Tarnlund (Academic Press, NY, 1982) pp. 153–;173.
S. Buzzi, E. Lamma, P. Mello and M. Milano, Consistent orderings for constraint satisfaction scheduling, Technical Report DEIS-LIA-97-001, University of Bologna (1997).
P. Codognet and G. Nardiello, Path consistency in CLP(FD), in: Proc. First Internat. Conf. Constraints in Computational Logics CCL ’94(1994) pp. 201–;216.
A. Dalfiume, E. Lamma, P. Mello and M. Milano, A constraint logic programming application to a distributed train scheduling problem, in: Proc. Conf. Practical Application of Prolog(1995) pp. 163–;182.
T.L. Dean and D.W. McDermott, Temporal data base management, Artificial Intelligence 32 (1987) 1–;55.
R. Dechter, I. Meiri and J. Pearl, Temporal constraint networks, Artificial Intelligence 49 (1991) 61–;95.
M. Dincbas, P. Van Hentenryck and M. Simonis, Solving large combinatorial problems in logic programming, in: EURO-TIMS Joint Internat. Conf. Operational Research and Management Science (1988).
M. Dincbas, P. Van Hentenryck and M. Simonis, Solving the car sequencing problems in constraint logic programming, in: ECAI ’88 European Conf. Artificial Intelligence(1988).
M. Dincbas, P. Van Hentenryck and M. Simonis, Solving large combinatorial problems in logic programming, Journal of Logic Programming 8(1–;2) (1990) 75–;93.
M. Dincbas, P. Van Hentenryck, M. Simonis, A. Aggoun, T. Graf and F. Berthier, The constraint logic programming language CHIP, in: Proc. Internat. Conf. Fifth Generation Computer System (FGCS ’88)(1988) pp. 693–;702.
ECLiPSe User Manual Release 3.3(ECRC, 1992).
E.C. Freuder, Synthesizing constraint expressions, Communications of the ACM 21(11) (1978) 958–;966.
T. Frühwirth, Temporal reasoning with constraint handling rules, Technical Report ECRC-94-05, ECRC (1994).
J. Jaffar and J.L. Lassez, Constraint logic programming, in: Proc. Conf. Principles of Programming Languages(1987).
J. Jaffar and M.J. Maher, Constraint logic programming: a survey, Journal of Logic Programming 19/20. Special Issue on 10 years of Logic Programming(1994) 503–;582.
H.A. Kautz and P.B. Ladkin, Integrating metric and qualitative temporal reasoning, in: Proc. AAAI ’91(1991) pp. 241–;246.
E. Lamma, P. Mello and M. Milano, Combining solvers in a meta constraint logic programming architecture, in: Proc. First Internat. Workshop on Frontiers of Combining Systems, eds. F. Baader and K.U. Schulz, Kluwer’s Applied Logic Series (APLS) (1996) pp. 267–;284.
E. Lamma, P. Mello and M. Milano, A multi-level CLP architecture for consistency techniques, in: Proc. Internat. Workshop on Constraint-Based Reasoning, Constraint ’96(1996) pp. 75–;83.
E. Lamma, P. Mello and M. Milano, Reasoning on constraints in constraint logic programming, Technical Report DEIS-LIA-96-006, University of Bologna (1996).
J. Lever, B. Richards and R. Hirsh, Temporal reasoning and constraint solving, Deliverable CHIC, ESPRIT Project EP5291, IC-Park (1992).
J.W. Lloyd, Foundation of Logic Programming, Second Extended Edition (Springer, 1987).
A.K. Mackworth, Consistency in networks of relations, Artificial Intelligence 8 (1977) 99–;118.
I. Meiri, Combining qualitative and quantitative constraints in temporal reasoning, in: Proc. AAAI ’91(1991) pp. 260–;267.
R. Mohr and T.C. Henderson, Arc and path consistency revisited, Artificial Intelligence 28 (1986) 225–;233.
V.A. Saraswat, Concurrent constraint logic programming, Ph.D. thesis, Carnegie-Mellon University (1989).
S.F. Smith and C. Cheng, Slack-based heuristics for constraint satisfaction scheduling, in: Proc. AAAI ’93(1993).
E.P.K. Tsang, The consistent labeling problem in temporal reasoning, Proc. AAAI ’87(1987) pp. 251–;255.
P. VanBeek, Reasoning about qualitative temporal information, Artificial Intelligence 58 (1992) 297–;326.
P. VanBeek and R. Cohen, Exact and approximate reasoning about temporal relations, Computational Intelligence 6 (1990) 132–;144.
P. Van Hentenryck, Constraint Satisfaction in Logic Programming(MIT Press, 1989).
P. Van Hentenryck and Y. Deville, The cardinality operator: a new logical connective for constraint logic programming, in: Constraint Logic Programming: Selected Research, eds. F. Benhamou and A. Colmerauer (MIT Press, 1993).
P. Van Hentenryck, Y. Deville and C. Teng, A generic arc-consistency algorithm and its specializations, Artificial Intelligence 57 (1992) 291–;321.
P. Van Hentenryck, V. Saraswat and Y. Deville, Design, implementation and evaluation of the constraint language cc(FD), Technical Report CS-93-02, Brown University (1993).
P. Van Hentenryck, H. Simonis and M. Dincbas, Constraint satisfaction using constraint logic programming, Artificial Intelligence 58(1–;2) (1992) 113–;159.
M.B. Vilain and H. Kautz, Constraint propagation algorithms for temporal reasoning, in: Proc. AAAI ’89(1989) pp. 377–;382.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lamma, E., Milano, M. & Mello, P. Extending constraint logic programming for temporal reasoning. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence 22, 139–158 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018946309329
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018946309329