Allen's Interval Algebra Makes the Difference
  Allen's Interval Algebra constitutes a framework for reasoning about temporal
information in a qualitative manner. In particular, it uses intervals, i.e.,
pairs of endpoints, on the timeline to represent entities corresponding to
actions, events, or tasks, and binary relations such as precedes and overlaps
to encode the possible configurations between those entities. Allen's calculus
has found its way in many academic and industrial applications that involve,
most commonly, planning and scheduling, temporal databases, and healthcare. In
this paper, we present a novel encoding of Interval Algebra using answer-set
programming (ASP) extended by difference constraints, i.e., the fragment
abbreviated as ASP(DL), and demonstrate its performance via a preliminary
experimental evaluation. Although our ASP encoding is presented in the case of
Allen's calculus for the sake of clarity, we suggest that analogous encodings
can be devised for other point-based calculi, too.
