Papers on Qualitative Reasoning


Overviews

The following encyclopedia article provides a compact introduction to the current state of qualitative simulation.

The QR book is the definitive presentation of the QSIM approach to qualitative reasoning as of about 1994. Some of the papers below are superceded by the book; others provide more detail; and others treat topics the book could not cover. And of course, some report work that was done since 1994.

These two retrospectives are from a special issue of the AIJ, honoring the 25 most-cited papers in the first 50 issues (including my 1984 and 1986 papers).


Advances Beyond the QR Book

Out of the many papers reflecting the QSIM approach to qualitative reasoning, here is a selection that will provide excellent coverage. There are plenty more ideas in the full list of papers, of course.

Advances in Qualitative and Semi-Quantitative Simulation

Clancy's dissertation provides abstraction, problem-decomposition, and focusing methods reduce the problem of intractable branching to the intrinsic complexity of the model, not limitations of the simulation method. Berleant's work (based on his 1991 dissertation) presents Q3, and Kay's dissertation presents NSIM and SQUID, which do semi-quantitative reasoning on the foundation provided by the qualitative behavior.

Using Qualitative and Semi-Quantitative Simulation

Dvorak's dissertation presents MIMIC, a method for using qualitative and semi-quantitative models for continuous system monitoring. Kuipers \& \Astrom show how to use qualitative simulation to prove properties of complex, non-linear, heterogeneous controllers. Shults \& Kuipers show how to use model-checking of temporal logic statements against the behavior tree generated by QSIM to prove properties of continuous systems.


Qualitative Simulation


The Basic Idea

Each of these papers was among the top 25 most-cited papers in the first 50 volumes of the Artificial Intelligence Journal, hence the two AIJ 1993 retrospectives.


Protocol Analysis


Methods for Tractable Simulation


Trajectory Constraints for QSIM


Time-Scale Abstraction


Qualitative Phase Space


Comparative Analysis


Semi-Quantitative Reasoning


Q2


Q3


NSIM, SQSIM, and SQUID


QSIM and Temporal Logic Model-Checking

This body of work treats the behavior graph output by QSIM as a temporal model, and applies a model-checking algorithm to query the results and prove statements in temporal logic.


The TeQSIM simulation algorithm also uses temporal logic expressions, however, they are applied during the simulation to restrict the simulation to behaviors that model the expressions.


Building Qualitative Models

CC


QPC


MISQ


Model Revision


Applying Qualitative Reasoning


Monitoring Continuous Systems


Diagnosis of Continuous Systems


The Space Shuttle Reaction Control System (RCS)

The following models are steps toward building qualitative models of large-scale, realistic, mechanisms.


Design, Purpose, and Teleological Reasoning


Integrating Spatial and Dynamic Reasoning

Qualitative Spatial Representation


Heterogeneous Control


BJK