SASW%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU.UUCP (12/21/86)
Date: 25 Nov 1986 09:59-EST
From: Brad Goodman <BGOODMAN at BBNG.ARPA>
BBN Laboratories
Science Development Program
AI/Education Seminar
Speaker: Professor Kenneth D. Forbus
Qualitative Reasoning Group
University of Illinois
(forbus@a.cs.uiuc.edu)
Title: The Qualitative Process Engine
Date: 10:30a.m., Monday, December 1st
Location: 2nd floor large conference room,
BBN Laboratories Inc., 10 Moulton St., Cambridge
This talk describes how to use an assumption-based truth maintenance
system (ATMS) to build efficient qualitative physics systems. In
particular, I will describe the Qualitative Process Engine (QPE), a new
implementation of Qualitative Process theory that is signficantly simpler
and faster (by a factor of roughly 95) than the previous implementation.
After a short review of Qualitative Process theory, several organizing
abstractions for using an ATMS in problem solving will be identified. How
these abstractions can be applied to algorithms for qualitative physics
will then be described in detail. The performance of QPE is then compared
with a previous implementation, and the advantages and drawbacks of
ATMS technology will be discussed.