A Probabilistic Logic Programming Event Calculus

We present a system for recognising human activity given a symbolic representation of video content. The input of our system is a set of time-stamped short-term activities (STA) detected on video frames. The output is a set of recognised long-term activities (LTA), which are pre-defined temporal combinations of STA. The constraints on the STA that, if satisfied, lead to the recognition of a LTA, have been expressed using a dialect of the Event Calculus. In order to handle the uncertainty that naturally occurs in human activity recognition, we adapted this dialect to a state-of-the-art probabilistic logic programming framework. We present a detailed evaluation and comparison of the crisp and probabilistic approaches through experimentation on a benchmark dataset of human surveillance videos.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP) journa

Taming Numbers and Durations in the Model Checking Integrated Planning System

The Model Checking Integrated Planning System (MIPS) is a temporal least commitment heuristic search planner based on a flexible object-oriented workbench architecture. Its design clearly separates explicit and symbolic directed exploration algorithms from the set of on-line and off-line computed estimates and associated data structures. MIPS has shown distinguished performance in the last two international planning competitions. In the last event the description language was extended from pure propositional planning to include numerical state variables, action durations, and plan quality objective functions. Plans were no longer sequences of actions but time-stamped schedules. As a participant of the fully automated track of the competition, MIPS has proven to be a general system; in each track and every benchmark domain it efficiently computed plans of remarkable quality. This article introduces and analyzes the most important algorithmic novelties that were necessary to tackle the new layers of expressiveness in the benchmark problems and to achieve a high level of performance. The extensions include critical path analysis of sequentially generated plans to generate corresponding optimal parallel plans. The linear time algorithm to compute the parallel plan bypasses known NP hardness results for partial ordering by scheduling plans with respect to the set of actions and the imposed precedence relations. The efficiency of this algorithm also allows us to improve the exploration guidance: for each encountered planning state the corresponding approximate sequential plan is scheduled. One major strength of MIPS is its static analysis phase that grounds and simplifies parameterized predicates, functions and operators, that infers knowledge to minimize the state description length, and that detects domain object symmetries. The latter aspect is analyzed in detail. MIPS has been developed to serve as a complete and optimal state space planner, with admissible estimates, exploration engines and branching cuts. In the competition version, however, certain performance compromises had to be made, including floating point arithmetic, weighted heuristic search exploration according to an inadmissible estimate and parameterized optimization

InstAL: An Institutional Action Language

nstAL denotes both a declarative domain-specific language for the specification of collections of interacting normative systems and a framework for a set of associated tools. The computational model is realized by translating the specification language to AnsProlog (Baral 2003), a logic programming language under the answer set semantics (ASP) (Gelfond and Lifschitz 1991), and is underpinned by a set-theoretic formal model and a formalized translation process

infinite states verification in game-theoretic logics

Many practical problems where the environment is not in the system's control such as service orchestration and contingent and multi-agent planning can be modelled in game-theoretic logics. This thesis demonstrates that the verification techniques based on regression and fixpoint approximation introduced in De Giacomo, Lesperance and Pearce [DLP10] do work on several game-theoretic problems. De Giacomo, Lesperance and Pearce [DLP10] emphasize that their study is essentially theoretical and call for complementing their work with experimental studies to understand whether these techniques are effective in practical cases. Several example problems with varying properties have been developed and, although not exhaustive nor complete,, our results nevertheless demonstrate that the techniques work on some problems. Our results show that the methods introduced in [DLP10] work for infinite domains where very few verification methods are available and allow reasoning about a wide range of game problems. Our examples also demonstrate the use of a rich language for specifying temporal properties proposed in [DLP10]. While classical model checking is well known and utilized, it is mostly restricted to finite-state models. A important aspect of the work is the demonstration of the use and effectiveness of characteristic graphs (ClaBen and Lakemeyer [CL08]) in verifying properties of games in infinite domains. A special-purpose programming language GameGolog proposed in De Giacomo, Lesperance and Pearce [DLP10] allows such game-theoretic systems to be specified procedurally at a high-level of abstraction. We show its practicality to model game structures in a convenient way that combines declarative and procedural elements. We provided examples to show the verification of GameGolog specifications using characteristic graphs. This thesis also proposes a refinement to the formalism in [DLP10] to incorporate action constraints as a mechanism to incorporate user strategies and for the modeller to supply heuristic guidance in temporal property verification. It also presents an implementation of evaluation-based fixpoint verifier that handles Situation Calculus game structures, as well as GameGolog specifications, for temporal property verification in the initial or a given situation. The verifier supports player action constraints

Using SWISH to realise interactive web based tutorials for logic based languages

Programming environments have evolved from purely text based to using graphical user interfaces, and now we see a move towards web based interfaces, such as Jupyter. Web based interfaces allow for the creation of interactive documents that consist of text and programs, as well as their output. The output can be rendered using web technology as, e.g., text, tables, charts or graphs. This approach is particularly suitable for capturing data analysis workflows and creating interactive educational material. This article describes SWISH, a web front-end for Prolog that consists of a web server implemented in SWI-Prolog and a client web application written in JavaScript. SWISH provides a web server where multiple users can manipulate and run the same material, and it can be adapted to support Prolog extensions. In this paper we describe the architecture of SWISH, and describe two case studies of extensions of Prolog, namely Probabilistic Logic Programming (PLP) and Logic Production System (LPS), which have used SWISH to provide tutorial sites

A study on the Probabilistic Interval-based Event Calculus

Η Αναγνώριση Σύνθετων Γεγονότων είναι το πεδίο εκείνο της Τεχνητής Νοημοσύνης το οποίο αποσκοπεί στο σχεδιασμό και την κατασκευή συστημάτων τα οποία επεξεργάζονται γρήγορα μεγάλες και πιθανώς ετερογενείς ροές δεδομένων και τα οποία είναι σε θέση να αναγνωρίζουν εγκαίρως μη τετριμμένα και ενδιαφέροντα συμβάντα, βάσει κατάλληλων ορισμών που προέρχονται από ειδικούς. Σκοπός ενός τέτοιου συστήματος είναι η αυτοματοποιημένη εποπτεία πολύπλοκων και απαιτητικών καταστάσεων και η υποβοήθηση της λήψης αποφάσεων από τον άνθρωπο. Η αβεβαιότητα και ο θόρυβος είναι έννοιες που υπεισέρχονται φυσικά σε τέτοιες ροές δεδομένων και συνεπώς, καθίσταται απαραίτητη η χρήση της Θεωρίας Πιθανοτήτων για την αντιμετώπισή τους. Η πιθανοτική Αναγνώριση Σύνθετων Γεγονότων μπορεί να πραγματοποιηθεί σε επίπεδο χρονικής στιγμής ή σε επίπεδο χρονικού διαστήματος. Η παρούσα εργασία εστιάζει στον PIEC, έναν σύγχρονο αλγόριθμο για την Αναγνώριση Σύνθετων Γεγονότων με τη χρήση πιθανοτικών, μέγιστων διαστημάτων. Αρχικά παρουσιάζουμε τον αλγόριθμο και τον ερευνούμε ενδελεχώς. Μελετούμε την ορθότητά του μέσα από μια σειρά μαθηματικών αποδείξεων περί της ευρωστίας (soundness) και της πληρότητάς του (completeness). Κατόπιν, παραθέτουμε εκτενή πειραματική αποτίμηση του υπό μελέτη αλγορίθμου και σύγκρισή του με συστήματα πιθανοτικής Αναγνώρισης Γεγονότων σε επίπεδο χρονικών σημείων. Τα αποτελέσματά μας δείχνουν ότι ο PIEC επιδεικνύει σταθερά καλύτερη Ανάκληση (Recall), παρουσιάζοντας, ωστόσο κάποιες απώλειες σε Ακρίβεια (Precision) σε ορισμένες περιπτώσεις. Για τον λόγο αυτόν, εμβαθύνουμε και εξετάζουμε συγκεκριμένες περιπτώσεις στις οποίες ο PIEC αποδίδει καλύτερα, καθώς και άλλες στις οποίες παράγει αποτελέσματα υποδεέστερα των παραδοσιακών μεθόδων σημειακής αναγνώρισης, σε μια προσπάθεια να εντοπίσουμε και να διατυπώσουμε τις δυνατότητες αλλά και τις αδυναμίες του αλγορίθμου. Τέλος, θέτουμε τις γενικές κατευθυντήριες γραμμές για περαιτέρω έρευνα στο εν λόγω ζήτημα, τμήματα της οποίας βρίσκονται ήδη σε εξέλιξη.Complex Event Recognition is the subdivision of Artificial Intelligence that aims to design and construct systems that quickly process large and often heterogeneous streams of data and timely deduce – based on definitions set by domain experts – the occurrence of non-trivial and interesting incidents. The purpose of such systems is to provide useful insights into involved and demanding situations that would otherwise be difficult to monitor, and to assist decision making. Uncertainty and noise are inherent in such data streams and therefore, Probability Theory becomes necessary in order to deal with them. The probabilistic recognition of Complex Events can be done in a timepoint-based or an interval-based manner. This thesis focuses on PIEC, a state-of-the-art probabilistic, interval-based Complex Event Recognition algorithm. We present the algorithm and examine it in detail. We study its correctness through a series of mathematical proofs of its soundness and completeness. Afterwards, we provide thorough experimental evaluation and comparison to point-based probabilistic Event Recognition methods. Our evaluation shows that PIEC consistently displays better Recall measures, often at the expense of a generally worse Precision. We then focus on cases where PIEC performs significantly better and cases where it falls short, in an effort to detect and state its main strengths and weaknesses. We also set the general directions for further research on the topic, parts of which are already in progress

Proceedings of the First NASA Formal Methods Symposium

Topics covered include: Model Checking - My 27-Year Quest to Overcome the State Explosion Problem; Applying Formal Methods to NASA Projects: Transition from Research to Practice; TLA+: Whence, Wherefore, and Whither; Formal Methods Applications in Air Transportation; Theorem Proving in Intel Hardware Design; Building a Formal Model of a Human-Interactive System: Insights into the Integration of Formal Methods and Human Factors Engineering; Model Checking for Autonomic Systems Specified with ASSL; A Game-Theoretic Approach to Branching Time Abstract-Check-Refine Process; Software Model Checking Without Source Code; Generalized Abstract Symbolic Summaries; A Comparative Study of Randomized Constraint Solvers for Random-Symbolic Testing; Component-Oriented Behavior Extraction for Autonomic System Design; Automated Verification of Design Patterns with LePUS3; A Module Language for Typing by Contracts; From Goal-Oriented Requirements to Event-B Specifications; Introduction of Virtualization Technology to Multi-Process Model Checking; Comparing Techniques for Certified Static Analysis; Towards a Framework for Generating Tests to Satisfy Complex Code Coverage in Java Pathfinder; jFuzz: A Concolic Whitebox Fuzzer for Java; Machine-Checkable Timed CSP; Stochastic Formal Correctness of Numerical Algorithms; Deductive Verification of Cryptographic Software; Coloured Petri Net Refinement Specification and Correctness Proof with Coq; Modeling Guidelines for Code Generation in the Railway Signaling Context; Tactical Synthesis Of Efficient Global Search Algorithms; Towards Co-Engineering Communicating Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems; and Formal Methods for Automated Diagnosis of Autosub 6000