2,102 research outputs found
Cooperating intelligent systems
Some of the issues connected to the development of a bureaucratic system are discussed. Emphasis is on a layer multiagent approach to distributed artificial intelligence (DAI). The division of labor in a bureaucracy is considered. The bureaucratic model seems to be a fertile model for further examination since it allows for the growth and change of system components and system protocols and rules. The first part of implementing the system would be the construction of a frame based reasoner and the appropriate B-agents and E-agents. The agents themselves should act as objects and the E-objects in particular should have the capability of taking on a different role. No effort was made to address the problems of automated failure recovery, problem decomposition, or implementation. Instead what has been achieved is a framework that can be developed in several distinct ways, and which provides a core set of metaphors and issues for further research
Mathematical practice, crowdsourcing, and social machines
The highest level of mathematics has traditionally been seen as a solitary
endeavour, to produce a proof for review and acceptance by research peers.
Mathematics is now at a remarkable inflexion point, with new technology
radically extending the power and limits of individuals. Crowdsourcing pulls
together diverse experts to solve problems; symbolic computation tackles huge
routine calculations; and computers check proofs too long and complicated for
humans to comprehend.
Mathematical practice is an emerging interdisciplinary field which draws on
philosophy and social science to understand how mathematics is produced. Online
mathematical activity provides a novel and rich source of data for empirical
investigation of mathematical practice - for example the community question
answering system {\it mathoverflow} contains around 40,000 mathematical
conversations, and {\it polymath} collaborations provide transcripts of the
process of discovering proofs. Our preliminary investigations have demonstrated
the importance of "soft" aspects such as analogy and creativity, alongside
deduction and proof, in the production of mathematics, and have given us new
ways to think about the roles of people and machines in creating new
mathematical knowledge. We discuss further investigation of these resources and
what it might reveal.
Crowdsourced mathematical activity is an example of a "social machine", a new
paradigm, identified by Berners-Lee, for viewing a combination of people and
computers as a single problem-solving entity, and the subject of major
international research endeavours. We outline a future research agenda for
mathematics social machines, a combination of people, computers, and
mathematical archives to create and apply mathematics, with the potential to
change the way people do mathematics, and to transform the reach, pace, and
impact of mathematics research.Comment: To appear, Springer LNCS, Proceedings of Conferences on Intelligent
Computer Mathematics, CICM 2013, July 2013 Bath, U
Synthesis of Attributed Feature Models From Product Descriptions: Foundations
Feature modeling is a widely used formalism to characterize a set of products
(also called configurations). As a manual elaboration is a long and arduous
task, numerous techniques have been proposed to reverse engineer feature models
from various kinds of artefacts. But none of them synthesize feature attributes
(or constraints over attributes) despite the practical relevance of attributes
for documenting the different values across a range of products. In this
report, we develop an algorithm for synthesizing attributed feature models
given a set of product descriptions. We present sound, complete, and
parametrizable techniques for computing all possible hierarchies, feature
groups, placements of feature attributes, domain values, and constraints. We
perform a complexity analysis w.r.t. number of features, attributes,
configurations, and domain size. We also evaluate the scalability of our
synthesis procedure using randomized configuration matrices. This report is a
first step that aims to describe the foundations for synthesizing attributed
feature models
Trusting Computations: a Mechanized Proof from Partial Differential Equations to Actual Program
Computer programs may go wrong due to exceptional behaviors, out-of-bound
array accesses, or simply coding errors. Thus, they cannot be blindly trusted.
Scientific computing programs make no exception in that respect, and even bring
specific accuracy issues due to their massive use of floating-point
computations. Yet, it is uncommon to guarantee their correctness. Indeed, we
had to extend existing methods and tools for proving the correct behavior of
programs to verify an existing numerical analysis program. This C program
implements the second-order centered finite difference explicit scheme for
solving the 1D wave equation. In fact, we have gone much further as we have
mechanically verified the convergence of the numerical scheme in order to get a
complete formal proof covering all aspects from partial differential equations
to actual numerical results. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
time such a comprehensive proof is achieved.Comment: N° RR-8197 (2012). arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1112.179
A Paraconsistent Higher Order Logic
Classical logic predicts that everything (thus nothing useful at all) follows
from inconsistency. A paraconsistent logic is a logic where an inconsistency
does not lead to such an explosion, and since in practice consistency is
difficult to achieve there are many potential applications of paraconsistent
logics in knowledge-based systems, logical semantics of natural language, etc.
Higher order logics have the advantages of being expressive and with several
automated theorem provers available. Also the type system can be helpful. We
present a concise description of a paraconsistent higher order logic with
countable infinite indeterminacy, where each basic formula can get its own
indeterminate truth value (or as we prefer: truth code). The meaning of the
logical operators is new and rather different from traditional many-valued
logics as well as from logics based on bilattices. The adequacy of the logic is
examined by a case study in the domain of medicine. Thus we try to build a
bridge between the HOL and MVL communities. A sequent calculus is proposed
based on recent work by Muskens.Comment: Originally in the proceedings of PCL 2002, editors Hendrik Decker,
Joergen Villadsen, Toshiharu Waragai (http://floc02.diku.dk/PCL/). Correcte
Unification modulo a 2-sorted Equational theory for Cipher-Decipher Block Chaining
We investigate unification problems related to the Cipher Block Chaining
(CBC) mode of encryption. We first model chaining in terms of a simple,
convergent, rewrite system over a signature with two disjoint sorts: list and
element. By interpreting a particular symbol of this signature suitably, the
rewrite system can model several practical situations of interest. An inference
procedure is presented for deciding the unification problem modulo this rewrite
system. The procedure is modular in the following sense: any given problem is
handled by a system of `list-inferences', and the set of equations thus derived
between the element-terms of the problem is then handed over to any
(`black-box') procedure which is complete for solving these element-equations.
An example of application of this unification procedure is given, as attack
detection on a Needham-Schroeder like protocol, employing the CBC encryption
mode based on the associative-commutative (AC) operator XOR. The 2-sorted
convergent rewrite system is then extended into one that fully captures a block
chaining encryption-decryption mode at an abstract level, using no AC-symbols;
and unification modulo this extended system is also shown to be decidable.Comment: 26 page
Architecture of autonomous systems
Automation of Space Station functions and activities, particularly those involving robotic capabilities with interactive or supervisory human control, is a complex, multi-disciplinary systems design problem. A wide variety of applications using autonomous control can be found in the literature, but none of them seem to address the problem in general. All of them are designed with a specific application in mind. In this report, an abstract model is described which unifies the key concepts underlying the design of automated systems such as those studied by the aerospace contractors. The model has been kept as general as possible. The attempt is to capture all the key components of autonomous systems. With a little effort, it should be possible to map the functions of any specific autonomous system application to the model presented here
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