Constraint-Based Qualitative Simulation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a constraint-based approach to qualitative simulation using temporal logic and constraint satisfaction, enabling effective simulation generation and query answering.

Contribution

It presents a novel method that captures qualitative relations with constraints, facilitating implementation and analysis of simulations.

Findings

Constraint-based framework effectively models qualitative relations.

Temporal logic constraints relate past and future states.

Implementation enables simulation generation and querying.

Abstract

We consider qualitative simulation involving a finite set of qualitative relations in presence of complete knowledge about their interrelationship. We show how it can be naturally captured by means of constraints expressed in temporal logic and constraint satisfaction problems. The constraints relate at each stage the 'past' of a simulation with its 'future'. The benefit of this approach is that it readily leads to an implementation based on constraint technology that can be used to generate simulations and to answer queries about them.