Generalizing problem reduction: a logical analysis

  • Authors:
  • Drew McDermott

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Computer Science, Yale University

  • Venue:
  • IJCAI'83 Proceedings of the Eighth international joint conference on Artificial intelligence - Volume 1
  • Year:
  • 1983

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Abstract

Froblcm reduction is the name given to the problem-solving paradigm in which the problem solver manages a network of "tasks" representing its intentions, repeatedly reducing tasks to subtasks and coordinating their execution. This idea needs a lot of generalization for it to be able to handle a realistic range of problems. Even after the model of time is made more realistic (to handle continuity and branching), issues remain regarding what it means to have a task or a subtask, how a task can succeed or fail, whether a task is feasible. A profitable way to study these issues is to attempt to add axioms about tasks to a first-order temporal logic. The result sheds light on what sorts of generalizations of task networks are needed.