Distant causation in \(\mathcal C+\). (English) Zbl 1079.03018

Craven, Robert; Sergot, Marek

Stud. Log. 79, No. 1, 73-96 (2005).

Summary: The action language \(\mathcal C+\) of Giunchiglia, Lee, Lifschitz, McCain and Turner is a high-level, logical formalism for the representation of domains involving action and change. However, one cannot directly express relationships which hold between states more than one time-step distant, or even say that one action determines another at the next time. We present \(\mathcal C+_{\text{timed}}\), a generalization of \(\mathcal C+\) which removes these limitations. As for \(\mathcal C+\), translations to the language of causal theories are given. We also define a new kind of transition system called a ‘run system’ to provide a graphical semantics. Finally, we show how domains involving prohibition and permission can be modelled, by incorporating the ideas of another extension of \(\mathcal C +\).

MSC:

03B70	Logic in computer science
68T27	Logic in artificial intelligence
03B44	Temporal logic

Keywords:

Action languages; temporal reasoning; causation

Software:

CCalc

References:

[1]	BELZER, M., ’Legal reasoning in 3-D’, in Proceedings of the First International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law, ACM Press, 1987, pp. 155–163.
[2]	GIUNCHIGLIA, E., J. LEE, V. LIFSCHITZ, N. MCCAIN, and H. TURNER, ’Nonmonotonic causal theories’, Artificial Intelligence, 153:49–104, 2004. · Zbl 1085.68161 · doi:10.1016/j.artint.2002.12.001
[3]	JONES, A., and M. SERGOT, ’A formal characterisation of institutional power’, Journal of the IGPL, 4(3):429–445, 1996.
[4]	SERGOT, M., ’The language (C/C+)++’, in J. Pitt, (ed.), The Open Agent Society. Wiley, 2004. To appear.