Towards Temporal Constraint Logic Programming

Eddie Schwalb2 and Llu s Vila3 Abstract. We aim at developing a logic-based representation language which supports an explicit representation of time and temporal constraints such as \the task t takes from 3 to 4 hours", \the resource r is available from 8:00 to 11:00 and from 13:00 to 14:00" and \task ti cannot overlap task tj". In this paper we discuss the issues to address and we propose TCLP, an extension of CLP which is obtained by: (i) de ning the temporal constraints domain, and (ii) embedding a temporal quali cation method together with general temporal axioms into the language. The resulting temporal language exhibits the expressiveness and notational advantages of CLP, enjoys a properly de ned semantics and can exploit the computational e ciency of temporal constraint processing techniques to compete with ad hoc approaches.