@techreport{R-90-27, TITLE = {A Logic for Propagation Based Characterisation of Process Behaviour}, AUTHOR = {Ralph R{\"o}nnquist}, YEAR = {1990}, NUMBER = {R-90-27}, INSTITUTION = ida, ADDRESS = idaaddr, ABSTRACTURL = {/publications/cgi-bin/tr-fetch.pl?r-90-27+abstr}, ABSTRACT = {We present the co5ceptual basis for the formal temporal framework implemented in the LINCKS system. In comparison to current techniques in artificial intelligence, this framework has the distinct feature that "change in time" is explicitly attributed to objects rather than relations. Objects appear in a structure as sets of (time-bound) instances, and relations and functions are (time-lessly) defined over instances. "Time" is introduced as a collection of one instance of each object, and the language of first-order predicate logic is extended to allow bindings relative to explicitly given collections. We further introduce progressive invariance as a temporal operator that expresses the behaviour of constraint propagation systems, and also allows us to characterise some forms of causal dependencies.}, IDANR = {LiTH-IDA-R-90-27}, NOTE = {Also in Proc. of the International Symposium on Methodologies for Intelligent Systems (ISMIS), October 24.27, 1990}