A model-theoretic view on qualitative constraint reasoning

Abstract

Qualitative reasoning formalisms are an active research topic in artificial intelligence. In this survey we present a model-theoretic perspective on qualitative constraint reasoning and explain some of the basic concepts and results in an accessible way. In particular, we discuss the significance of ω-categoricity for qualitative reasoning, of primitive positive interpretations for complexity analysis, and of Datalog as a unifying language for describing local consistency algorithms.