Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Preferential Action Semantics (Preliminary Report)

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Formal Models of Agents (ModelAge 1997)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1760))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new way of considering reasoning about action and change. Rather than placing a preferential structure onto the models of logical theories, we place such a structure directly on the semantics of the actions involved. In this way, we obtain a preferential semantics of actions by means of which we can not only deal with several of the traditional problems in this area such as the frame and ramification problems, but can generalize these solutions to a context which includes both nondeterministic and concurrent actions. In fact, the net result is an integration of semantical and verificational techniques from the paradigm of imperative and concurrent programs in particular, as known from traditional programming, with the AI perspective. In this paper, the main focus is on semantical (i.e. model theoretical) issues rather than providing a logical calculus, which would be the next step in the endeavor.

This author is partially supported by ESPRIT BRWG project No. 8319 (MODELAGE). This research was initiated during the author’s leave to Linköping University (IDA), the hospitality of which is gratefully acknowledged. Moreover, this author wishes to dedicate this paper to the memory of his father B. John Meyer(1917–1996).

This author is supported by the Swedish Research Council for Engineering Sciences (TFR) and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. J. Crawford. Three issues in action. Unpublished note for the 5th Int. Workshop on Nonmonotonic Reasoning, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  2. E. W. Dijkstra and C. S. Scholten. Predicate Calculus and Program Semantics. Springer-Verlag, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  3. P. Doherty. Reasoning about action and change using occlusion. In Proc. of the 11th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Amsterdam, pages 401–405, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  4. B. Dunin-Keplicz and A. Radzikowska. Epistemic approach to actions with typical effects. In Chr. Froideveaux and J. Kohlas, editors, Symbolic and Quantitative Approaches to Reasoning and Uncertainty, Proc. ECSQARU’95, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, pages 180–188. Springer-Verlag, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  5. E. Giunchiglia and V. Lifschitz. Dependent fluents. In Proc. IJCAI-95, Montreal, pages 1964–1969, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  6. J. Gustafsson and P. Doherty. Embracing occlusion in specifying the indirect effects of actions. In Proc. of the 5th Int’l Conf. on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, (KR-96), 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  7. D. Harel. Dynamic logic. In D. M. Gabbay and F. Guenthner, editors, Handbook of Philosophical Logic, volume 2, pages 496–604. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  8. G. N. Kartha and V. Lifschitz. Actions with indirect effects (preliminary report). In Proc. of the 4th Int’l Conf. on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, (KR-94), pages 341–350, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  9. F. Lin. Embracing causality in specifying the indirect effects of actions. In Proc. IJCAI-95, Montreal, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  10. W. Łukaszewicz and E. Madalinska-Bugaj. Reasoning about action and change: Actions with abnormal effects. In I. Wachsmuth, C.-R Rollinger, and W. Brauer, editors, Proc. KI-95: Advances in Artificial Intelligence, volume 981 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, pages 209–220. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  11. W. Łukaszewicz and E. Madalinska-Bugaj. Reasoning about action and change using Dijkstra’s semantics for programming languages: Preliminary report. In Proc. IJCAI-95, Montreal, pages 1950–1955, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  12. E. Sandewall. Features and fluents. Technical Report LITH-IDA-R-91-29, Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  13. E. Sandewall. Features and Fluents: A Systematic Approach to the Representation of Knowledge about Dynamical Systems. Oxford University Press, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  14. E. Sandewall. Systematic comparison of approaches to ramification using restricted minimization of change. Technical Report LiTH-IDA-R-95-15, Dept. of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, May 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  15. E. Sandewall and Y. Shoham. Nonmonotonic temporal reasoning. In D. M. Gabbay, C. J. Hogger, and J. A. Robinson, editors, Epistemic and Temporal Reasoning, volume 4 of Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Logic Programming. Oxford University Press, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  16. M. Thielscher. Computing ramifications by postprocessing. In Proc. IJCAI-95, Montreal, pages 1994–2000, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intelligent Systems Group, Dept. of Computer Science, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80089, 3508 TB, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    John-Jules Ch. Meyer

  2. Dept. of Computer and Information Science, University of Linköping, S-581 83, Linköping, Sweden

    Patrick Doherty

Authors
  1. John-Jules Ch. Meyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Patrick Doherty
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, De Uithof, 3508 TB, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    John-Jules Ch. Meyer

  2. Institut d’Informatique, Rue Grandgagnage 21, 5000, Namur, Belgium

    Pierre-Yves Schobbens

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Meyer, JJ.C., Doherty, P. (1999). Preferential Action Semantics (Preliminary Report). In: Meyer, JJ.C., Schobbens, PY. (eds) Formal Models of Agents. ModelAge 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1760. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46581-2_13

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46581-2_13

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67027-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46581-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation