An Algebra of Granular Temporal Relations for Qualitative Reasoning

International audienceIn this paper, we propose a qualitative formalism for representing and reasoning about time at different scales. It extends the algebra of Euzenat and overcomes its major limitations, allowing one to reason about relations between points and intervals. Our approach is more expressive than the other algebras of temporal relations: for instance, some relations are more relaxed than those in Allen's algebra, while others are stricter. In particular, it enables the modeling of imprecise, gradual, or intuitive relations, such as "just before" or "almost meet." In addition, we give several results about how a relation changes when considered at different granularities. Finally, we provide an algorithm to compute the algebraic closure of a temporal constraint network in our formalism, which can be used to check its consistency