Explanations and Recommendations for Temporal Inconsistencies

This paper presents an approach to automatically providing explanations and recommendations for temporal inconsistencies within the context of constraint-based, mixed-initiative planning. In this style of planning, a user operation can cause the planner’s temporal constraint network to become inconsistent. For example, if a partial plan has been built and the user is trying to add another activity into the plan, an inconsistency will arise if the activity’s associated constraints conflict with the current plan’s constraints. In such cases, it is helpful if the system can explain to the user why the user’s operation led to the inconsistency, and it is even better if the system can give the user recommendations on how to fix the inconsistency. Our approach to explanation and recommendation is generally applicable to constraint-based reasoning systems; however, the motivation and validation of our approach derive from a deployed planning system for planetary rover missions.