Reasoning about actions with CHRs and Finite Domain Constraints

We present a CLP-based approach to reasoning about actions in the presence of incomplete states. Constraints expressing negative and disjunctive state knowledge are processed by a set of special Constraint Handling Rules. In turn, these rules reduce to standard finite domain constraints when handling variable arguments of single state components. Correctness of the approach is proved against the general action theory of the Fluent Calculus. The constraint solver is used as the kernel of a high-level programming language for agents that reason and plan. Systematic experiments have shown that the constraint solver exhibits excellent computational behavior and scales up well