A mixed decision method for duration calculus

The Duration Calculus is an interval logic with an additional notion of duration. It became one of the main references of real-time system specification for which it was introduced. From a practical point of view an important challenge is to define automated proof procedures for this calculus. Since the propositional Duration Calculus is undecidable, in this paper we isolate a fragment and we define a mixed decision method combining standard tableau techniques with temporal constraint network resolution algorithms. This method gives a natural procedure to decide whether a given formula is satisfiable. This fragment is strong enough to embed Allen’s Interval Algebra.