Reasoning about discontinuities in the event calculus
Rob Miller, Murray Shanahan · 1996
This paper describes a logic-based formalism which combines techniques for reasoning about actions with standard mathematical techniques for modelling dynamic systems using the differential calculus. The formalism inherits a robust solution to the frame problem which can handle concurrency, non-determinism, domain constraints and narrative. It also incorporates a mechanism for reasoning about the boundary conditions associated with systems of differential equations defined over various intervals. This mechanism overcomes a number of drawbacks of previous systems. 1 INTRODUCTION Solutions to the frame problem now exist which can handle a variety of phenomena, such as narrative, concurrent action and non-deterministic action (see (Shanahan 1997) for a general discussion). However, the topic of continuous change has received relatively little attention in the Reasoning about Action literature. In particular, a satisfactory general framework has yet to be developed which reconciles logic...