An Action Language Based on Causal Explanation: Preliminary Report

Action languages serve for describing changes that are caused by performing actions. We define a new action language C, based on the theory of causal explanation proposed recently by McCain and Turner, and illustrate its expressive power by applying it to a number of examples. The mathematical results presented in the paper relate C to the Baral-Gelfond theory of concurrent actions.

[1]  Michael Gelfond,et al.  Representing Action and Change by Logic Programs , 1993, J. Log. Program..

[2]  R. Reiter,et al.  Nonmonotonic reasoning in the framework of situation calculus , 1992 .

[3]  Edwin P. D. Pednault,et al.  FORMULATING MULTIAGENT, DYNAMIC-WORLD PROBLEMS IN THE CLASSICAL PLANNING FRAMEWORK , 1987 .

[4]  Chitta Baral,et al.  Reasoning About Effects of Concurrent Actions , 1997, J. Log. Program..

[5]  Hector Geffner,et al.  Causal Theories for Nonmonotonic Reasoning , 1990, AAAI.

[6]  Michael Gelfond,et al.  What are the Limitations of the Situation Calculus? , 1991, Automated Reasoning: Essays in Honor of Woody Bledsoe.

[7]  Hudson Turner,et al.  A Causal Theory of Ramifications and Qualifications , 1995, IJCAI.

[8]  M. Shanahan Solving the frame problem , 1997 .

[9]  Keith L. Clark,et al.  Negation as Failure , 1987, Logic and Data Bases.

[10]  Fangzhen Lin,et al.  Embracing Causality in Specifying the Indirect Effects of Actions , 1995, IJCAI.

[11]  Hudson Turner,et al.  Causal Theories of Action and Change , 1997, AAAI/IAAI.

[12]  Grigoris Antoniou,et al.  Nonmonotonic reasoning , 1997 .

[13]  Vladimir Lifschitz,et al.  On the Logic of Causal Explanation (Research Note) , 1997, Artif. Intell..

[14]  Chitta Baral,et al.  Reasoning about Eeects of Concurrent Actions , 1996 .

[15]  Drew McDermott,et al.  Nonmonotonic Logic and Temporal Projection , 1987, Artif. Intell..

[16]  Robert S. Boyer,et al.  Automated Reasoning: Essays in Honor of Woody Bledsoe , 1991, Automated Reasoning.

[17]  Murray Shanahan Solving the frame problem - a mathematical investigation of the common sense law of inertia , 1997 .

[18]  Hudson Turner,et al.  Splitting a Default Theory , 1996, AAAI/IAAI, Vol. 1.

[19]  Robert Boyd Skipper,et al.  A CAUSAL THEORY OF 'ABOUT' , 1987 .