Time-Dependent Simple Temporal Networks: Properties and Algorithms

Simple Temporal Networks (STNs) allow minimum and maximum distance constraints between time-points to be represented. They are often used when tackling planning and scheduling problems that involve temporal aspects. This paper is a summary of the journal article "Time-dependent Simple Temporal Networks: Properties and Algorithms" published in RAIRO - Operations Research. This journal article introduces an extension of STN called Time-dependent STN (TSTN), which covers temporal constraints for which the temporal distance required between two time-points is not necessarily constant. Such constraints are useful to model time-dependent scheduling problems, in which the duration of an activity may depend on its starting time. The paper introduces the TSTN framework, its properties, resolution techniques, as well as examples of applications.