Skip Navigation

Journal of Logic and Computation 1994 4(5):531-579; doi:10.1093/logcom/4.5.531
© 1994 by Oxford University Press
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by ALLEN, J. F.
Right arrow Articles by FERGUSON, G.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Original Articles

Actions and Events in Interval Temporal Logic

JAMES F. ALLEN and GEORGE FERGUSON

University of Rochester Rochester, NY, 14627, USA E-mail: jamesferguson{at}cs.rochester.edu

We present a representation of events and action based on interval temporal logic that is significantly more expressive and more natural than most previous AI approaches. The representation is motivated by work in natural language semantics and discourse, temporal logic, and AI planning and plan recognition. The formal basis of the representation is presented in detail, from the axiomatization of time periods to the relationship between actions and events and their effects. The power of the representation is illustrated by applying it to the axiomatization and solution of several standard problems from the AI literature on action and change. An approach to the frame problem based on explanation closure is shown to be both powerful and natural when combined with our representational framework. We also discuss features of the logic that are beyond the scope of many traditional representations, and describe our approach to difficult problems such as external event! and simultaneous actions.

Keywords: Knowledge representation,; temporal reasoning,; causal reasoning.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.