Knight, Brian, Ma, Jixin and Peng, Taoxin (1997) A discrete formalism for reasoning about action and change. In: WIT Transactions on Information and Communication Technologies. Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Engineering XII, 19 . WIT Press, pp. 31-34. ISBN 978-1-85312-471-6 ISSN 1743-3517

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Abstract

This paper presents a discrete formalism for temporal reasoning about actions and change, which enjoys an explicit representation of time and action/event occurrences. The formalism allows the expression of truth values for given fluents over various times including nondecomposable points/moments and decomposable intervals. Two major problems which beset most existing interval-based theories of action and change, i.e., the so-called dividing instant problem and the intermingling problem, are absent from this new formalism. The dividing instant problem is overcome by excluding the concepts of ending points of intervals, and the intermingling problem is bypassed by means of characterising the fundamental time structure as a well-ordered discrete set of non-decomposable times (points and moments), from which decomposable intervals are constructed. A comprehensive characterisation about the relationship between the negation of fluents and the negation of involved sentences is formally provided. The formalism provides a flexible expression of temporal relationships between effects and their causal events, including delayed effects of events which remains a problematic question in most existing theories about action and change.

Item Type:	Conference Proceedings
Title of Proceedings:	WIT Transactions on Information and Communication Technologies
Additional Information:	© WIT Press All Rights Reserved.
Pre-2014 Departments:	School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences
Last Modified:	14 Oct 2016 08:59
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/243

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