3,934 research outputs found
Spike: Artificial intelligence scheduling for Hubble space telescope
Efficient utilization of spacecraft resources is essential, but the accompanying scheduling problems are often computationally intractable and are difficult to approximate because of the presence of numerous interacting constraints. Artificial intelligence techniques were applied to the scheduling of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This presents a particularly challenging problem since a yearlong observing program can contain some tens of thousands of exposures which are subject to a large number of scientific, operational, spacecraft, and environmental constraints. New techniques were developed for machine reasoning about scheduling constraints and goals, especially in cases where uncertainty is an important scheduling consideration and where resolving conflicts among conflicting preferences is essential. These technique were utilized in a set of workstation based scheduling tools (Spike) for HST. Graphical displays of activities, constraints, and schedules are an important feature of the system. High level scheduling strategies using both rule based and neural network approaches were developed. While the specific constraints implemented are those most relevant to HST, the framework developed is far more general and could easily handle other kinds of scheduling problems. The concept and implementation of the Spike system are described along with some experiments in adapting Spike to other spacecraft scheduling domains
Classical Logical versus Quantum Conceptual Thought: Examples in Economics, Decision theory and Concept Theory
Inspired by a quantum mechanical formalism to model concepts and their
disjunctions and conjunctions, we put forward in this paper a specific
hypothesis. Namely that within human thought two superposed layers can be
distinguished: (i) a layer given form by an underlying classical deterministic
process, incorporating essentially logical thought and its indeterministic
version modeled by classical probability theory; (ii) a layer given form under
influence of the totality of the surrounding conceptual landscape, where the
different concepts figure as individual entities rather than (logical)
combinations of others, with measurable quantities such as 'typicality',
'membership', 'representativeness', 'similarity', 'applicability', 'preference'
or 'utility' carrying the influences. We call the process in this second layer
'quantum conceptual thought', which is indeterministic in essence, and contains
holistic aspects, but is equally well, although very differently, organized
than logical thought. A substantial part of the 'quantum conceptual thought
process' can be modeled by quantum mechanical probabilistic and mathematical
structures. We consider examples of three specific domains of research where
the effects of the presence of quantum conceptual thought and its deviations
from classical logical thought have been noticed and studied, i.e. economics,
decision theory, and concept theories and which provide experimental evidence
for our hypothesis.Comment: 14 page
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The Rhetorical Structure of Modus Tollens: An Exploration in Logic-Mining
A general method for mining discourse for occurrences of the rules of inference would be useful in a variety of natural language processing applications. The method described here has its roots in Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). An RST analysis of a rule of inference can be used as an exemplar to produce a relational complex in the form of a nested relational proposition. This relational complex can be transformed into a logical expression using the logic of relational propositions. The expression can then be generalized as a logical signature for use in logic-mining discourse for instances of the rule. Generalized logical signatures reached in this manner appear to be grounded in identifiable logical relationships with their respective rules of inference. Thus, from a text, it is possible to identify a rhetorical structure, and from the structure, a relational proposition, and from the relational proposition, a generalized logical signature, and from the signature, the rule of inference residing within the text. The focus in this paper is on modus tollens and its variants, but the method is extensible to other rules as well
Forty Years of Linking Variable Star Research with Education
In this review, I reflect on four decades of my experience in linking
astronomy research and education by supervising variable-star research projects
by undergraduates, and by outstanding senior high school students. I describe
the evolution of my experience, the students I have supervised, the nature of
their projects, the educational contexts of the projects, the need for "best
practices", the journals in which we publish, and the special role of the
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). I then describe our
recent research on pulsating red giants and related objects, including three
astrophysical mysteries that we have uncovered. Finally, I suggest how my
projects might be scaled up or extended by others who supervise student
research.Comment: Submitted to the proceedings of the conference "Remote Telescopes,
Student Research, and Education
The SP theory of intelligence: benefits and applications
This article describes existing and expected benefits of the "SP theory of
intelligence", and some potential applications. The theory aims to simplify and
integrate ideas across artificial intelligence, mainstream computing, and human
perception and cognition, with information compression as a unifying theme. It
combines conceptual simplicity with descriptive and explanatory power across
several areas of computing and cognition. In the "SP machine" -- an expression
of the SP theory which is currently realized in the form of a computer model --
there is potential for an overall simplification of computing systems,
including software. The SP theory promises deeper insights and better solutions
in several areas of application including, most notably, unsupervised learning,
natural language processing, autonomous robots, computer vision, intelligent
databases, software engineering, information compression, medical diagnosis and
big data. There is also potential in areas such as the semantic web,
bioinformatics, structuring of documents, the detection of computer viruses,
data fusion, new kinds of computer, and the development of scientific theories.
The theory promises seamless integration of structures and functions within and
between different areas of application. The potential value, worldwide, of
these benefits and applications is at least $190 billion each year. Further
development would be facilitated by the creation of a high-parallel,
open-source version of the SP machine, available to researchers everywhere.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1212.022
The APT/ERE planning and scheduling manifesto
The Entropy Reduction Engine, ERE project, is focusing on the construction of integrated planning and scheduling systems. Specifically, the project is studying the problem of integrating planning and scheduling in the context of the closed loop plan use. The results of this research are particularly relevant when there is some element of dynamism in the environment, and thus some chance that a previously formed plan will fail. After a preliminary study of the APT management and control problem, it was felt that it presents an excellent opportunity to show some of the ERE Project's technical results. Of course, the alignment between technology and problem is not perfect, so planning and scheduling for APTs presents some new and difficult challenges as well
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