MEANS FOR REPRESENTING TIME INFORMATION IN KNOWLEDGE BASES - EVENT SEQUENCES

This paper examines a formal model of time (T-model) that generalizes and significantly expands the means for representing information about time that are proposed. The T-model is a formal system described in a form that is convenient for porting the entire model or some fragment of it on structures of knowledge bases of an intelligent system. The model includes a system of concepts (objects, functions, relationships), and a collection of axioms and inference rules. Concrete copies of T-model concepts form, by participating in the description of a situation, its temporal component, while the T-model supports the inference process connected with this component. The frame is the basic means for describing model concepts. A direct line with fixed direction is considered to be the analog of time in constructing the model. The concept system is formed around four base objects: POint, INterval (the GENeralized-INTerval and RAY are based on it), QUAntity, and CHain.