Martín Diéguez

Arvid Becker, Pedro Cabalar, Martín Diéguez et al.

In temporal extensions of Answer Set Programming (ASP) based on linear-time, the behavior of dynamic systems is captured by sequences of states. While this representation reflects their relative order, it abstracts away the specific times associated with each state. However, timing constraints are important in many applications like, for instance, when planning and scheduling go hand in hand. We address this by developing a metric extension of linear-time temporal equilibrium logic, in which temporal operators are constrained by intervals over natural numbers. The resulting Metric Equilibrium Logic provides the foundation of an ASP-based approach for specifying qualitative and quantitative dynamic constraints. To this end, we define a translation of metric formulas into monadic first-order formulas and give a correspondence between their models in Metric Equilibrium Logic and Monadic Quantified Equilibrium Logic, respectively. Interestingly, our translation provides a blue print for implementation in terms of ASP modulo difference constraints.

Pedro Cabalar, Martín Diéguez, François Laferrière et al.

Extensions of Answer Set Programming with language constructs from temporal logics, such as temporal equilibrium logic over finite traces (TELf), provide an expressive computational framework for modeling dynamic applications. In this paper, we study the so-called past-present syntactic subclass, which consists of a set of logic programming rules whose body references to the past and head to the present. Such restriction ensures that the past remains independent of the future, which is the case in most dynamic domains. We extend the definitions of completion and loop formulas to the case of past-present formulas, which allows capturing the temporal stable models of a set of past-present temporal programs by means of an LTLf expression.

Juan Pablo Aguilera, Martín Diéguez, David Fernández-Duque et al.

We investigate a version of linear temporal logic whose propositional fragment is Gödel-Dummett logic (which is well known both as a superintuitionistic logic and a t-norm fuzzy logic). We define the logic using two natural semantics: first a real-valued semantics, where statements have a degree of truth in the real unit interval and second a `bi-relational' semantics. We then show that these two semantics indeed define one and the same logic: the statements that are valid for the real-valued semantics are the same as those that are valid for the bi-relational semantics. This Gödel temporal logic does not have any form of the finite model property for these two semantics: there are non-valid statements that can only be falsified on an infinite model. However, by using the technical notion of a quasimodel, we show that every falsifiable statement is falsifiable on a finite quasimodel, yielding an algorithm for deciding if a statement is valid or not. Later, we strengthen this decidability result by giving an algorithm that uses only a polynomial amount of memory, proving that Gödel temporal logic is PSPACE-complete. We also provide a deductive calculus for Gödel temporal logic, and show this calculus to be sound and complete for the above-mentioned semantics, so that all (and only) the valid statements can be proved with this calculus.

Pedro Cabalar, Martín Diéguez, François Olivier et al.

Reasoning about dynamic systems with a fine-grained temporal and numeric resolution presents significant challenges for logic-based approaches like Answer Set Programming (ASP). To address this, we introduce and elaborate upon a novel temporal and constraint-based extension of the logic of Here-and-There and its nonmonotonic equilibrium extension, representing, to the best of our knowledge, the first approach to nonmonotonic temporal reasoning with constraints specifically tailored for ASP. This expressive system is achieved by a synergistic combination of two foundational ASP extensions: the linear-time logic of Here-and-There, providing robust nonmonotonic temporal reasoning capabilities, and the logic of Here-and-There with constraints, enabling the direct integration and manipulation of numeric constraints, among others. This work establishes the foundational logical framework for tackling complex dynamic systems with high resolution within the ASP paradigm.

Arvid Becker, Pedro Cabalar, Martin Diéguez et al.

We develop a computational approach to Metric Answer Set Programming (ASP) to allow for expressing quantitative temporal constrains, like durations and deadlines. A central challenge is to maintain scalability when dealing with fine-grained timing constraints, which can significantly exacerbate ASP's grounding bottleneck. To address this issue, we leverage extensions of ASP with difference constraints, a simplified form of linear constraints, to handle time-related aspects externally. Our approach effectively decouples metric ASP from the granularity of time, resulting in a solution that is unaffected by time precision.

Arvid Becker, Pedro Cabalar, Martín Diéguez et al.

In temporal extensions of Answer Set Programming (ASP) based on linear-time, the behavior of dynamic systems is captured by sequences of states. While this representation reflects their relative order, it abstracts away the specific times associated with each state. In many applications, however, timing constraints are important like, for instance, when planning and scheduling go hand in hand. We address this by developing a metric extension of linear-time Dynamic Equilibrium Logic, in which dynamic operators are constrained by intervals over integers. The resulting Metric Dynamic Equilibrium Logic provides the foundation of an ASP-based approach for specifying qualitative and quantitative dynamic constraints. As such, it constitutes the most general among a whole spectrum of temporal extensions of Equilibrium Logic. In detail, we show that it encompasses Temporal, Dynamic, Metric, and regular Equilibrium Logic, as well as its classic counterparts once the law of the excluded middle is added.

Pedro Cabalar, Martín Diéguez, Susana Hahn et al.

We explore different ways of implementing temporal constraints expressed in an extension of Answer Set Programming (ASP) with language constructs from dynamic logic. Foremost, we investigate how automata can be used for enforcing such constraints. The idea is to transform a dynamic constraint into an automaton expressed in terms of a logic program that enforces the satisfaction of the original constraint. What makes this approach attractive is its independence of time stamps and the potential to detect unsatisfiability. On the one hand, we elaborate upon a transformation of dynamic formulas into alternating automata that relies on meta-programming in ASP. This is the first application of reification applied to theory expressions in gringo. On the other hand, we propose two transformations of dynamic formulas into monadic second-order formulas. These can then be used by off-the-shelf tools to construct the corresponding automata. We contrast both approaches empirically with the one of the temporal ASP solver telingo that directly maps dynamic constraints to logic programs. Since this preliminary study is restricted to dynamic formulas in integrity constraints, its implementations and (empirical) results readily apply to conventional linear dynamic logic, too.

Felicidad Aguado, Pedro Cabalar, Martin Dieguez et al.

We present an overview on Temporal Logic Programming under the perspective of its application for Knowledge Representation and declarative problem solving. Such programs are the result of combining usual rules with temporal modal operators, as in Linear-time Temporal Logic (LTL). We focus on recent results of the non-monotonic formalism called Temporal Equilibrium Logic (TEL) that is defined for the full syntax of LTL, but performs a model selection criterion based on Equilibrium Logic, a well known logical characterization of Answer Set Programming (ASP). We obtain a proper extension of the stable models semantics for the general case of arbitrary temporal formulas. We recall the basic definitions for TEL and its monotonic basis, the temporal logic of Here-and-There (THT), and study the differences between infinite and finite traces. We also provide other useful results, such as the translation into other formalisms like Quantified Equilibrium Logic or Second-order LTL, and some techniques for computing temporal stable models based on automata. In a second part, we focus on practical aspects, defining a syntactic fragment called temporal logic programs closer to ASP, and explain how this has been exploited in the construction of the solver TELINGO.

Pedro Cabalar, Martín Diéguez, Torsten Schaub et al.

We introduce an implementation of an extension of Answer Set Programming (ASP) with language constructs from dynamic (and temporal) logic that provides an expressive computational framework for modeling dynamic applications. Starting from logical foundations, provided by dynamic and temporal equilibrium logics over finite linear traces, we develop a translation of dynamic formulas into temporal logic programs. This provides us with a normal form result establishing the strong equivalence of formulas in different logics. Our translation relies on the introduction of auxiliary atoms to guarantee polynomial space complexity and to provide an embedding that is doomed to be impossible over the same language. Finally, the reduction of dynamic formulas to temporal logic programs allows us to extend ASP with both approaches in a uniform way and to implement both extensions via temporal ASP solvers such as telingo

Philippe Balbiani, Joseph Boudou, Martín Diéguez et al.

We consider intuitionistic variants of linear temporal logic with `next', `until' and `release' based on expanding posets: partial orders equipped with an order-preserving transition function. This class of structures gives rise to a logic which we denote $\iltl$, and by imposing additional constraints we obtain the logics $\itlb$ of persistent posets and $\itlht$ of here-and-there temporal logic, both of which have been considered in the literature. We prove that $\iltl$ has the effective finite model property and hence is decidable, while $\itlb$ does not have the finite model property. We also introduce notions of bounded bisimulations for these logics and use them to show that the `until' and `release' operators are not definable in terms of each other, even over the class of persistent posets.

Felicidad Aguado, Pedro Cabalar, Martín Diéguez et al.

In this note we consider the problem of introducing variables in temporal logic programs under the formalism of "Temporal Equilibrium Logic" (TEL), an extension of Answer Set Programming (ASP) for dealing with linear-time modal operators. To this aim, we provide a definition of a first-order version of TEL that shares the syntax of first-order Linear-time Temporal Logic (LTL) but has a different semantics, selecting some LTL models we call "temporal stable models". Then, we consider a subclass of theories (called "splittable temporal logic programs") that are close to usual logic programs but allowing a restricted use of temporal operators. In this setting, we provide a syntactic definition of "safe variables" that suffices to show the property of "domain independence" -- that is, addition of arbitrary elements in the universe does not vary the set of temporal stable models. Finally, we present a method for computing the derivable facts by constructing a non-temporal logic program with variables that is fed to a standard ASP grounder. The information provided by the grounder is then used to generate a subset of ground temporal rules which is equivalent to (and generally smaller than) the full program instantiation.