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International Conference on Spatial Cognition

Spatial Cognition 2004: Spatial Cognition IV. Reasoning, Action, Interaction pp 323–343Cite as

Branching Allen

Reasoning with Intervals in Branching Time

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3343))

Abstract

Allen’s interval calculus is one of the most prominent formalisms in the domain of qualitative spatial and temporal reasoning. Applications of this calculus, however, are restricted to domains that deal with linear flows of time. But how the fundamental ideas of Allen’s calculus can be extended to other, weaker structures than linear orders has gained only little attention in the literature. In this paper we will investigate intervals in branching flows of time, which are of special interest for temporal reasoning, since they allow for representing indeterministic aspects of systems, scenarios, planning tasks, etc. As well, branching time models, i.e., treelike non-linear structures, do have interesting applications in the field of spatial reasoning, for example, for modeling traffic networks. In a first step we discuss interval relations for branching time, thereby comprising various sources from the literature. Then, in a second step, we present some new complexity results concerning constraint satisfaction problems of interval relations in branching time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Informatik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Georges-Köhler-Allee, 79110, Freiburg, Germany

    Marco Ragni & Stefan Wölfl

Authors
  1. Marco Ragni
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  2. Stefan Wölfl
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. SFB/TR 8 Spatial Cognition, Universität Bremen, Bibliothekstr. 1, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Christian Freksa

  2. Center for Cognitive Science, Friedrichstraße 50, 79098, Freiburg, Germany

    Markus Knauff

  3. Universität Bremen and DFKI-Lab Bremen, P.O. Box, Germany

    Bernd Krieg-Brückner

  4. Institut für Informatik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Bernhard Nebel

  5. SFB/TR 8 Spatial Cognition, Universität Bremen, Germany

    Thomas Barkowsky

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ragni, M., Wölfl, S. (2005). Branching Allen. In: Freksa, C., Knauff, M., Krieg-Brückner, B., Nebel, B., Barkowsky, T. (eds) Spatial Cognition IV. Reasoning, Action, Interaction. Spatial Cognition 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3343. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32255-9_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32255-9_19

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-25048-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32255-9

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