There is a problem[McCarthy, J. and Hayes, P. J., Some Philosophical Problems from the Standpoint of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Intelligence 4, American Elsevier, 1969. Note that the frame problem has nothing to do with frames.] for a predicate calculus planning system: how to keep a world model consistent as some things in the world change.

There are two aspects:

• the frame problem: how to propagate information to the next situation when an action is taken. For example, if a box is at position p and the light is turned off, the box is still at p.

• the ramification problem: indirect effects of actions. For example, if a book is on the table and we move the table, the position of the book must also be changed.

Most facts in the world will be unchanged for any given action. The frame problem is a serious practical problem, since many solutions to it require vast amounts of storage and/or computation.

Contents    Page-10    Prev    Next    Page+10    Index