Towards the integration of functions, relations and types in an AI programming language

This paper describes the design and implementation of the programming language PC-Life. This language integrates the functional and the Logic-oriented programming style and feature types supporting inheritance. This combination yields a language particularly suited to knowledge representation, especially for application in computational linguistics

The Multi-Agent Transportation Problem

We introduce the multi-agent transportation (MAT) problem, where agents have to transport containers from their starting positions to their designated goal positions. Movement takes place in a common environment where collisions between agents and between containers must be avoided. In contrast to other frameworks such as multi-agent pathfinding (MAPF) or multi-agent pickup and delivery (MAPD), the agents are allowed to separate from the containers at any time, which can reduce the makespan and also allows for plans in scenarios that are unsolvable otherwise. We present a complexity analysis establishing the problem's NP-completeness and show how the problem can be reduced to a sequence of SAT problems when optimizing for makespan. A MAT solver is empirically evaluated with regard to varying input characteristics and movement constraints and compared to a MAPD solver that utilizes conflict-based search (CBS)

Foundational Belief Change

: This paper is concerned with the construction of a base contraction (revision) operation such that the theory contraction (revision) operation generated by it will be fully AGM-rational. It is shown that the theory contraction operation generated by Fuhrmann's minimal base contraction operation, even under quite strong restrictions, fails to satisfy the "supplementary postulates" of belief contraction. Finally Fuhrmann's construction is appropriately modified so as to yield the desired properties. The new construction may be described as involving a modification of safe (base) contraction so as to make it maxichoice. Descriptors: belief, change, contraction, revision, base, theory. We often change our beliefs. We learn new things, occasionally things that conflict with our current beliefs. On such occasions new beliefs replace the old ones. It is as if this process is completed in two steps: (1) first we identify and throw out the beliefs that conflict with the new information and t..