The applied goal—on the computing side—involves developing high-level control systems of automata for navigating and understanding time and space.
For example, the spatiotemporal constraint calculus (STCC) by Gerevini and Nebel combines Allen's interval algebra with RCC-8.
Methodologically, qualitative constraint calculi restrict the vocabulary of rich mathematical theories dealing with temporal or spatial entities such that specific aspects of these theories can be treated within decidable fragments with simple qualitative (non-metric) languages.
For example, some of these calculi may be implemented for handling spatial GIS queries efficiently and some may be used for navigating, and communicating with, a mobile robot.
Most of these calculi can be formalized as abstract relation algebras, such that reasoning can be carried out at a symbolic level.