What's New at the QR Group

These are recent changes. See the Qualitative Reasoning Research Group home page for a more complete description of our work, in several areas.

Journal version of the consciousness discussion

Benjamin Kuipers. 2008.
Drinking from the firehose of experience.
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine 44: 155-170, 2008.

Parts of this appeared previously in AAAI-05 and in the AAAI 2007 Fall Symposium.

IJRR article on the Hybrid Spatial Semantic Hierarchy

Patrick Beeson, Joseph Modayil, and Benjamin Kuipers. In Press.
Factoring the mapping problem: Mobile robot map-building in the Hybrid Spatial Semantic Hierarchy.
International Journal of Robotics Research.

Patrick Beeson PhD thesis

Patrick Beeson. 2008.
Creating and Utilizing Symbolic Representations of Spatial Knowledge using Mobile Robots.
Doctoral dissertation, Computer Sciences Department, University of Texas at Austin.

Murarka, Sridharan & Kuipers paper at IROS 2008

A. Murarka, M. Sridharan and B. Kuipers. 2008. Detecting obstacles and drop-offs using stereo and motion cues for safe local motion.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS-08).

Stober & Kuipers paper at ICDL 2008

Jeremy Stober and Benjamin Kuipers. 2008.
From pixels to policies: a bootstrapping agent.
IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL-08).

Mugan & Kuipers papers at QR 2008 and EpiRob 2008

Jonathan Mugan and Benjamin Kuipers. 2008.
Towards the application of reinforcement learning to undirected developmental learning..
International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics (Epirob-08).
Jonathan Mugan and Benjamin Kuipers. 2008. Continuous-domain reinforcement learning using a learned qualitative state representation.
International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning (QR-08).

Xu, Lee & Kuipers paper at CRV 2008

Changhai Xu, Yong Jae Lee, and Benjamin Kuipers. 2008.
Ray-based color image segmentation.
Canadian Conference on Computer and Robot Vision, 2008.

Two papers at ICRA 2008

Subramanian Ramamoorthy and Benjamin J. Kuipers. 2008.
Trajectory generation for dynamic bipedal walking through qualitative model based manifold learning.
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA-08).
ICRA Best Paper Award Finalist (Top 4).
Shilpa Gulati and Benjamin Kuipers. 2008.
High Performance Control for Graceful Motion of an Intelligent Wheelchair.
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA-08).

Mugan and Provost papers at EpiRob 2007

Jonathan Mugan and Benjamin Kuipers. 2007.
Learning distinctions and rules in a continuous world through active exploration..
7th International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics (Epirob-07).
Jefferson Provost and Benjamin Kuipers. 2007.
Self-organizing distinctive state abstraction using options..
7th International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics (Epirob-07).

Kuipers, AAAI Fall Symposium Series, 2007

Benjamin Kuipers. 2007.
Sneaking up on the Hard Problem of consciousness.
AI and Consciousness, AAAI Fall Symposium Series, 2007.

Mugan and Kuipers, ICDL, 2007

Jonathan Mugan and Benjamin Kuipers. 2007.
Learning to predict the effects of actions: synergy between rules and landmarks.
IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL-07).

Jefferson Provost PhD thesis

Jefferson Provost. 2007.
Reinforcement Learning in High-Diameter, Continuous Environments
Doctoral dissertation, Computer Sciences Department, University of Texas at Austin.

Joseph Modayil PhD thesis

Joseph Modayil. 2007.
Robot Developmental Learning of an Object Ontology Grounded in Sensorimotor Experience
Doctoral dissertation, Computer Sciences Department, University of Texas at Austin.

Subramanian Ramamoorthy PhD thesis

Subramanian Ramamoorthy. 2007.
Task Encoding, Motion Planning and Intelligent Control with Qualitative Models
Doctoral dissertation, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Texas at Austin.

Matthew MacMahon PhD thesis

Matthew T. MacMahon. 2007.
Following Natural Language Route Instructions
Doctoral dissertation, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Texas at Austin.

Modayil and Kuipers on Learning Objects, in AAAI-07

Joseph Modayil and Benjamin Kuipers.
Autonomous development of a grounded object ontology by a learning robot.
National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-07), 2007.

Action learning paper at AAAI Spring Symposium on Control Mechanisms

Joseph Modayil and Benjamin Kuipers.
Where do actions come from? Autonomous robot learning of objects and actions.
Control Mechanisms for Spatial Knowledge Processing in Cognitive / Intelligent Systems, AAAI Spring Symposium Series, 2007.

KR/HRI paper at AAAI Spring Symposium on Intelligent Assistants

Patrick Beeson, Matt MacMahon, Joseph Modayil, Aniket Murarka, Benjamin Kuipers, and Brian Stankiewicz.
Integrating Multiple Representations of Spatial Knowledge for Mapping, Navigation, and Communication.
Interaction Challenges for Intelligent Assistants, AAAI Spring Symposium Series, 2007.

Essays on Defeating Terrorism

(11-9-06) Several essays originally posted on my web site have been published in a journal.

Benjamin Kuipers. 2006.
Essays on Terrorism.
Law Enforcement Executive Forum 6(5): 189-198, 2006.

Skeletonization code available

(10-18-06) The source code for EVG-Thin, Patrick Beeson's C++ implementation of a thinning approximation to his Extended Voronoi Graph.

Software download page

Matt MacMahon's AAAI-06 paper

(5-3-06) Congratulations to Matt MacMahon and Brian Stankiewicz for a new paper on Matt's thesis research in AAAI-06.

Matt MacMahon, Brian Stankiewicz, and Benjamin Kuipers. 2006.
Walk the talk: Connecting language, knowledge, and action in route instructions.
National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-06).

Aniket Murarka's CRV-06 paper

(5-3-06) Congratulations to Aniket Murarka and Joseph Modayil for their new paper in CRV-06.

Aniket Murarka, Joseph Modayil, and Benjamin Kuipers. 2006.
Building local safety maps for a wheelchair robot using vision and lasers.
Canadian Conference on Computer and Robot Vision (CRV-06).

(6-8-06) Best Student Paper Award at CRV-06!

CQ source code available

(3-9-06) The source code for CQ, Dan Dvorak's C++ implementation of the core constraint filtering algorithm in QSIM, is now available on the web.

QR Software download page

ICRA-06 papers

(1-27-06) Congratulations to the authors of the two papers from our group accepted to ICRA-06.

Patrick Beeson, Aniket Murarka, and Benjamin Kuipers. 2006.
Adapting proposal distributions for accurate, efficient mobile robot localization.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automaton (ICRA-06).
Joseph Modayil and Benjamin Kuipers. 2006.
Autonomous shape model learning for object localization and recognition.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automaton (ICRA-06).

Connection Science special issue on Developmental Robotics

(1-27-06) We have two papers in this special issue!

Benjamin Kuipers, Patrick Beeson, Joseph Modayil, and Jefferson Provost. 2006.
Bootstrap learning of foundational representations.
Connection Science, 18(2), 2006.
Jefferson Provost, Benjamin J. Kuipers and Risto Miikkulainen. 2006.
Developing navigation behavior through self-organizing distinctive state abstraction.
Connection Science 18(2), 2006.

SSH Intellectual History chapter

(9-1-05) This is a draft of a book chapter describing the intellectual history of the Spatial Semantic Hierarchy.

Benjamin Kuipers. 2008.
An intellectual history of the Spatial Semantic Hierarchy.
In Margaret Jefferies and Albert (Wai-Kiang) Yeap (Eds.),
Robot and Cognitive Approaches to Spatial Mapping.
To appear, Springer Verlag, 2008.

Consciousness paper at AAAI-05

Benjamin Kuipers. 2005.
Consciousness: Drinking from the Firehose of Experience.
National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-05).

Recently (8-19-05) updated with a revised and expanded version.

Francesco Savelli's PhD thesis

Francesco Savelli. 2005.
Topological Mapping of Ambiguous Space:
Combining Qualitative Biases and Metrical Information.
Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Computer and Systems Science,
University of Rome "La Sapienza", 2005.

Harold Chaput's PhD thesis

Harold H. Chaput. 2004.
The Constructivist Learning Architecture:
A Model of Cognitive Development for Robust Autonomous Robots.
Ph.D. thesis, Computer Science Department, University of Texas at Austin.
Technical Report TR-04-34, August 2004.

Bootstrap learning overview at AAAI Spring Symposium on Developmental Robotics

Benjamin Kuipers, Patrick Beeson, Joseph Modayil and Jefferson Provost.
Bootstrap Learning of Foundational Representations.
Developmental Robotics, AAAI Spring Symposium Series, 2005.

Zmail anti-spam paper accepted to ASDN-2005

Benjamin J. Kuipers, Alex X. Liu, Aashin Gautam, and Mohamed G. Gouda. 2005.
Zmail: Zero-sum free market control of spam.
4th International Workshop on Assurance in Distributed Systems and Networks (ASDN 2005). Columbus, Ohio, June 6, 2005.

Papers accepted to ICRA-2005

Patrick Beeson, Nicholas K. Jong, and Benjamin Kuipers. 2005.
Towards Autonomous Topological Place Detection Using the Extended Voronoi Graph.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA-05).

Papers accepted to IROS-04 and QR-04

(6-3-04) We have three papers accepted to IROS-04 and one to QR-04..

Joseph Modayil, Patrick Beeson and Benjamin Kuipers. 2004.
Using the topological skeleton for scalable global metrical map-building.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS-04).
Joseph Modayil and Benjamin Kuipers. 2004.
Bootstrap learning for object discovery.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS-04).
Francesco Savelli and Benjamin Kuipers. 2004.
Loop-closing and planarity in topological map-building.
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS-04).
S. Ramamoorthy and B. Kuipers. 2004.
Controller synthesis using qualitative models and simulation.
In J. de Kleer and K. Forbus (Eds.), International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning (QR-2004).

Kuipers, Modayil, Beeson, MacMahon and Savelli paper in ICRA-04.

(3-1-04) This is an extensive revision of the RUR-03 paper, and describes the hybrid SSH using small-scale metrical maps and large-scale topological maps.

Benjamin Kuipers, Joseph Modayil, Patrick Beeson, Matt MacMahon, and Francesco Savelli. 2004.
Local metrical and global topological maps in the hybrid Spatial Semantic Hierarchy.
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA-04).

Beeson, MacMahon, Modayil, Provost, Savelli and Kuipers paper in RUR-03

(5-23-03) This paper describes our new hybrid between small-scale and large-scale space representations.

Patrick Beeson, Matt MacMahon, Joseph Modayil, Jefferson Provost, Francesco Savelli and Benjamin Kuipers. 2003.
Exploiting local perceptual models for topological map-building.
IJCAI-2003 Workshop on Reasoning with Uncertainty in Robotics (RUR-03).

Remolina and Kuipers paper published in AIJ

(1-6-04) The paper has actually appeared on the Elsevier web site. The printed version should arrive soon.

(5-21-03) The journal version of Emilio Remolina's PhD thesis has been accepted to the Artificial Intelligence Journal. This is the current definitive description of the causal and topological map representations in the SSH.

Emilio Remolina and Benjamin Kuipers. 2004. Towards a general theory of topological maps.
Artificial Intelligence 152: 47-104, 2004.

More Oldies But Goodies

(3-3-03) Thanks to our new copier that will email .pdf files, we now have online copies of some older papers that weren't available before, but are still well worth reading.

B. J. Kuipers. 1984. Commonsense reasoning about causality: deriving behavior from structure. Artificial Intelligence 24: 169-203.
B. J. Kuipers & D. Berleant. 1988. Using incomplete quantitative information in qualitative reasoning. In Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-88). Los Altos, CA: Morgan Kaufman, 1988.

B. J. Kuipers & Y.-T. Byun. 1988. A robust qualitative method for spatial learning in unknown environments.
In Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-88). Los Altos, CA: Morgan Kaufman, 1988.
B. J. Kuipers and T. Levitt. 1988. Navigation and mapping in large scale space. AI Magazine 9(2): 25-43, Summer 1988.
David W. Franke. 1991. Deriving and using descriptions of purpose. IEEE Expert, April 1991, pp. 41-47.

Pierre Fouche & Benjamin Kuipers. 1992. Reasoning about energy in qualitative simulation. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 22(1): 47-63.

W. W. Lee & B. Kuipers. 1993. A qualitative method to construct phase portraits. Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-93), AAAI/MIT Press, 1993.

[.pdf]

Algernon in Java

(2-3-03) There is a new implementation of Algernon: Algernon in Java.

It was created by Mike Hewett in the Bioinformatics group in the Stanford Genetics Department.

Ramamoorthy and Kuipers, HSCC-03

(1-19-03) This paper, following on Kuipers & Ramamoorthy, HSCC-02, demonstrates Qualitative Heterogeneous Control (QHC) on a higher order system through the detailed example of the cart-pole system.

S. Ramamoorthy and B. Kuipers. 2003. Qualitative heterogeneous control of higher order systems.
In O. Maler and A. Pnueli (Eds.), Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer Verlag, 2003.

The Skeleton in the Cognitive Map

(11-15-02) This paper, which is both a step towards cognitive models higher-level knowledge and the result of a nice collaboration between AI and Psychology researchers, is now in press in the journal Environment and Behavior.

B. Kuipers, D. Tecuci, and B. Stankiewicz. 2003.
The skeleton in the cognitive map: a computational and empirical exploration.
Environment and Behavior 35(1): 80--106, in press.

Kay and Ungar (2000) now available

(11-1-02) The following two papers now have .pdf files available of their published journal versions. The Kay and Ungar (2000) paper was previously not available online at all.

Herbert Kay and Lyle H. Ungar. 2000. Estimating monotonic functions and their bounds. American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE) Journal 46(12): 2426-2434.
Herbert Kay. 1998. SQSIM: a simulator for imprecise ODE models. Computers and Chemical Engineering 23(1): 27-46, November 1998. [manuscript .pdf (546K)] [reprint .pdf (3825K)]

Kuipers and Beeson, AAAI-2002

(4-8-02) This shows how to learn to recognize places, given sensory images, in the SSH framework, with very weak knowledge of the nature of the sensors.

Benjamin Kuipers and Patrick Beeson. 2002. Bootstrap learning for place recognition.
Proceedings of the Eighteenth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-02).

Logical Theory of the SSH Causal and Topological Maps

(4-6-02) This paper is the journal-sized version of Emilio's PhD thesis. It is the reference definition of the logic-based portions of the Spatial Semantic Hierarchy.

Emilio Remolina and Benjamin Kuipers. 2002. Towards a general theory of topological maps.
University of Texas at Austin Artificial Intelligence Lab TR-02-293.

Heterogeneous Control of the Pendulum

(1-15-02) This paper demonstrates how to create a global controller for pumping up and balancing a pendulum, by composing a set of simple, qualitatively described local controllers. The result can be proved correct using QSIM and temporal logic.

B. Kuipers and S. Ramamoorthy. 2002. Qualitative modeling and heterogeneous control of global system behavior.
In C. J. Tomlin and M. R. Greenstreet (Eds.), Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer Verlag, 2002.

AAAI Spring Symposium Papers

(10-1-01) A little late (sorry), but here are the papers that were presented at the AAAI Spring Symposium Series.

B. J. Kuipers, P. Beeson, J. Modayil and J. Provost. 2001. Learning from uninterpreted experience in the SSH. In AAAI Spring Symposium Series, Learning Grounded Representations, Stanford, CA.
Jefferson Provost, Patrick Beeson and Benjamin J. Kuipers. 2001. Toward learning the causal layer of the Spatial Semantic Hierarchy using SOMs. In AAAI Spring Symposium Series, Learning Grounded Representations, Stanford, CA.
Harold Henry Chaput. 2001. Post-Piagetian constructivism for grounded knowledge acquisition. In AAAI Spring Symposium Series, Learning Grounded Representations, Stanford, CA.

Kuipers & Beeson, Fall Symposium Series

(8-22-01) Benjamin Kuipers and Patrick Beeson. 2001. Toward bootstrap learning for place recognition.
In AAAI Fall Symposium Series, Anchoring Symbols to Sensory Data in Single and Multiple Robot Systems, North Falmouth, MA.

Remolina & Kuipers, IJCAI-01

(8-18-01) This is the core of Emilio's dissertation.

Emilio Remolina and Benjamin Kuipers. 2001. A logical account of causal and topological maps.
In Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-01), San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, pages 5-11.

Encyclopedia article on Qualitative Simulation

(6-1-2001) The following encyclopedia article provides a compact introduction to the current state of qualitative simulation.

Benjamin Kuipers. 2001. Qualitative simulation.
In R. A. Meyers (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, Third Edition, NY: Academic Press.

The Skeleton in the Cognitive Map

(3-2-2001) A paper proposing a computational hypothesis for an abstraction mechanism observed in humans.

Benjamin Kuipers. 2001. The skeleton in the cognitive map: a computational hypothesis.
In J. Peponis, J. Wineman and S. Bafna (Eds.), Space Syntax: Proceedings of the Third International Symposium, Ann Arbor: A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan, pages 10.1--10.7.

Bert Kay's paper on MSQUID appears

(1-30-2001) This is the definitive journal article describing MSQUID, and is the third of three journal articles from Bert's dissertation. Unfortunately, there is no online version yet.

Herbert Kay and Lyle H. Ungar. 2000. Estimating monotonic functions and their bounds. American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE) Journal 46(12): 2426-2434.

Changed from .ps.Z to .ps.gz

(6-20-2000) To allow faster and more reliable retrieval, file compression of PostScript files has been changed from Unix compress (.ps.Z) to Gnu gzip (.ps.gz).

Let me know (kuipers@cs.utexas.edu) if there's a problem.

The Spatial Semantic Hierarchy in AIJ

(3-12-2000) A full-length description of the SSH representation for knowledge of large-scale space.

B. Kuipers. 2000. The Spatial Semantic Hierarchy. Artificial Intelligence Journal 119: 191-233.

SQUID paper in AIJ

This is one of three journal articles coming out of Bert's dissertation.

(3-12-2000) Bert Kay, Bernhard Rinner and Benjamin Kuipers. 2000. Semi-quantitative system identification. Artificial Intelligence Journal 119: 103-140.

The Spatial Semantic Hierarchy

A full-length description of the SSH representation for knowledge of large-scale space. (Extensively updated from the 3-30-99 version.)

(12-3-99) B. Kuipers. 1999. The Spatial Semantic Hierarchy. University of Texas at Austin Artificial Intelligence Lab TR AI99-281A.

[Superceded by AIJ, 2000 publication.]

QSIM-papers updated

(9-30-99) The qsim-papers.ps document has been brought up to date.

A complete bibliography of QSIM papers. (as of 9-99)

Even now, papers-QR.html is a better source.

New Technical Reports on Semi-Quantitative Reasoning

(4-15-99)

Bert Kay, Bernhard Rinner and Benjamin Kuipers. 1999. Semi-Quantitative System Identification. University of Texas Artificial Intelligence Laboratory TR AI99-279.
[Superceded by AIJ, 2000 publication.]
Bert Kay and Lyle Ungar. 1999. Estimating Monotonic Functions and Their Bounds. University of Texas Artificial Intelligence Laboratory TR AI99-280, 1999.

Rinner and Kuipers IJCAI-99 paper

(4-5-99) Bernhard Rinner and Benjamin Kuipers. 1999. Monitoring Piecewise Continuous Behaviors by Refining Semi-Quantitative Trackers. In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-99), Stockholm, Sweden.

The Intelligent Wheelchair

(12-7-98) W. S. Gribble, R. L. Browning, M. Hewett, E. Remolina and B. J. Kuipers. 1998. Integrating vision and spatial reasoning for assistive navigation. In V. Mittal, H. Yanco, J. Aronis and R. Simpson (Eds.), Assistive Technology and Artificial Intelligence, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer Verlag, New York, 1998.

Remolina and Kuipers AAAI Fall Symposium paper

(11-23-98) Emilio Remolina and Benjamin Kuipers. 1998. Boundary region relations. In Cognitive Robotics, Papers from the 1998 AAAI Fall Symposium, Technical report FS-98-02, AAAI Press, Menlo Park, CA, pages 117-124. [.pdf]

Ben Kuipers' PhD Thesis Available (again)

(11-2-98) After 21 years, I have made my PhD thesis (MIT-AI TR-418) available again. I have resisted all temptation to correct or update the content while converting to LaTeX. Believe it or not, there is still a lot of good stuff here that has not been published elsewhere. There has also been subsequent progress, of course. Enjoy!

B. J. Kuipers. 1977. Representing Knowledge of Large-Scale Space. Doctoral dissertation, Mathematics Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 1977. Published as Technical Report 418, M.I.T. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, 1977. [.pdf]

Bert Kay's Journal Article on SQSIM

(7-22-98) Bert Kay's journal article has just been accepted by Computers and Chemical Engineering.

Herbert Kay. 1998. SQSIM: A Simulator for Imprecise ODE Models. Computers and Chemical Engineering 23(1): 27-46, November 1998. [.pdf]

This is the definitive journal article describing SQSIM.

QSIM-papers updated

(6-12-98) The qsim-papers.ps document has been brought up to date.

A complete bibliography of QSIM papers. (as of 6-98)

Even now, papers-QR.html is a better source.

AAAI-98 papers: QR and Robotics

(6-9-98)

Daniel J. Clancy and Benjamin J. Kuipers. 1998. Qualitative simulation as a temporally-extended constraint satisfaction problem. Proceedings of the 15th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-98), AAAI/MIT Press, 1998. [.pdf]
Sebastian Thrun, Steffen Gutmann, Dieter Fox, Wolfram Burgard, and Benjamin J. Kuipers. 1998. Integrating topological and metric maps for mobile robot navigation: A statistical approach. Proceedings of the 15th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-98), AAAI/MIT Press, 1998.

Logical Semantics of the SSH

(12-11-97) Emilio Remolina will be presenting our paper at the Common Sense 98 symposium in London.

Emilio Remolina and Benjamin Kuipers. 1998. Towards a formalization of the spatial semantic hierarchy. Fourth Symposium on Logical Formalizations of Commonsense Reasoning (Common Sense 98). London, England, 7-9 January 1998. [.pdf]

Dan Clancy Passes His Final Dissertation Defense

(11-25-97) I am very happy to announce that soon-to-be-Dr. Daniel Clancy has passed his dissertation defense, and should receive his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in December 1997.

(1-8-98)

Daniel J. Clancy. 1997. Solving Complexity and Ambiguity Problems within Qualitative Simulation. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, December 1997. [.pdf]

Fruitful Problems in Qualitative Reasoning

(11-25-97) I have added a new page of research problems.

These are problems in qualitative reasoning that I consider to be particularly fruitful right now, in the sense of being both accessible and important. A good solution to any of these problems will not only be valuable in its own right, but will enable substantial further work by the researcher and by others.

I encourage anyone in the QR community to take these on. I will be happy to give email advice when I can.

Ben Kuipers

Berleant and Kuipers on Q3 in AIJ

(8-14-97; 11-25-97) Daniel Berleant and Benjamin Kuipers. 1998. Qualitative and quantitative simulation: bridging the gap. Artificial Intelligence 95(2): 215-255.
[Abstract]

This important paper, based on Berleant's 1991 doctoral dissertation, shows that semi-quantitative simulation converges to numerically precise behaviors as uncertainty decreases and more effort is applied.

New Journal Article: Rickel and Porter, AIJ, 1997.

(7-14-97) Jeff Rickel and Bruce Porter. 1997. Automated modeling of complex systems to answer prediction questions. Artificial Intelligence 93: 201-260.

This is an outstanding demonstration of how to use and control compositional modeling (QPC) and qualitative simulation (QSIM) to answer questions from a large domain-specific knowledge base.

More detail under the Multi-Function Knowledge Base Research Group home page.

Tragic Loss

Bert Kay was mugged and killed in Palo Alto on Thursday, June 12, 1997.
He was 38 years old, and leaves his wife Meg and two-year-old twin daughters, Sonia and Nina.
There was a memorial service on Tuesday, June 17, at Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, California. Several Austin-area memorials were held the following week.
Bert's web page will be extended with further information about his life and work.

New Conference Papers: AAAI-97 and QR-97

(4-4-97) D. J. Clancy and B. J. Kuipers, 1997. Model Decomposition and Simulation: A component based qualitative simulation algorithm. Proceedings from the 14th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-97), August 1997.

[Abstract]

(4-4-97) D. J. Clancy and B. J. Kuipers, 1997. Static and dynamic abstraction solves the problem of chatter in qualitative simulation. Proceedings from the 14th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-97), August 1997.

[Abstract]

(4-4-97) D. J. Clancy and B. J. Kuipers, 1997. Dynamic Chatter Abstraction: A scalable technique for avoiding irrelevant distinctions during qualitative simulation. Proceedings from the 11th International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Systems (QR-97) , June 1997.

[Abstract]

(4-18-97) Daniel J. Clancy, Giorgio Brajnik and Herbert Kay. 1997. Model Revision: Techniques and tools for analyzing simulation results and revising qualitative models . Working notes from the 11th International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Systems (QR-97) , June 1997.

[Abstract]

(4-18-97) Giorgio Brajnik and Daniel J. Clancy. 1997. Control of Hybrid Systems using Qualitative Simulation. Working notes from the 11th International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Systems (QR-97) , June 1997.

[Abstract]

Old (But Good) Papers Added to Web Page.

(6-27-97) B. J. Kuipers. 1983. Modeling human knowledge of routes: partial knowledge and individual variation. In Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-83), Morgan Kaufmann, 1983.
(6-27-97) B. J. Kuipers. 1979. Commonsense knowledge of space: learning from experience. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-79). Morgan Kaufmann, 1979.
Reprinted in Advances in Spatial Reasoning, Volume 2, Su-shing Chen (Ed.), Norwood NJ: Ablex Publishing, 1990.
(1-29-97) B. J. Kuipers. 1982. The `Map in the Head' metaphor. Environment and Behavior 14: 202-220, 1982.

New reviews of the QR Book.

See the QR book page for other reviews.

(6-25-97) Jayant Sharma, Journal of Classification 14: 177-179, 1997.
Overall the book is extremely well written. The book assumes, and requires, a fairly strong knowledge of AI; one beyond that provided by a typical introductory undergraduate course. For those with the relevant background, or strong motivation, the book will be an excellent resource. It has been written as a textbook with thought-provoking practice and research problems at the end of each chapter. The organization of chapters is excellent, starting with a gentle introduction and then increasing in detail and complexity, while building on the material of earlier chapters. Given the significant advances and successes in the field of qualitative reasoning this book is a very timely one and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in AI, in general, and modeling and simulation, in particular.
(12-3-96) Andrew Frank, Int. J. of Geographic Information Systems 10(2), March 1996, pages 242-243.
This book may become a very important book for Geographic Systems and for geography in general, despite the fact, that it does not discuss anything geographical or spatial in its 400 pages. ... It must be hoped that many geographers use the methods to model geographical processes and to explore the dynamic behavior of systems in physical and human geography. Many M.Sc. or Ph.D. thesis could benefit from the rigor of the method and the application of the software. Modeling of dynamic systems - a la Forrester's Urban Dynamics - become feasible, even in the absence of detailed quantitative knowledge.

Bert Kay doctoral dissertation on SQSIM and SQUID

(11-18-96) Bert Kay has completed an outstanding doctoral dissertation on semi-quantitative simulation (SQSIM) and semi-quantitative system identification (SQUID).

Herbert Kay. 1996. Refining Imprecise Models and Their Behaviors. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, December 1996.
[Abstract]

Shults & Kuipers paper in AIJ

(11-7-96) The AIJ will soon publish a paper describing our work on proving statements in temporal logic by model-checking against the behavior graph predicted by QSIM.

Benjamin Shults and Benjamin Kuipers. 1997. Proving properties of continuous systems: qualitative simulation and temporal logic. Artificial Intelligence Journal 92: 91-129, 1997. [.pdf]
[Abstract]

This paper has now appeared in print.

Pierce & Kuipers paper in AIJ

(11-7-96) The AIJ will soon publish a paper describing David Pierce's dissertation research on how a robot starting with uninterpreted sensors and effectors can learn to understand both its own sensorimotor capabilities and its environment.

David Pierce and Benjamin Kuipers. 1997. Map learning with uninterpreted sensors and effectors. Artificial Intelligence Journal 92: 169-229, 1997.
[Abstract]

This paper has now appeared in print.

Spatial Semantic Hierarchy for a Physical Mobile Robot

(10-17-96) Wan Yik Lee has finished his long-awaited dissertation on implementing the SSH on a physical robot, our RWI B12, named Spot.

Wan Yik Lee. 1996. Spatial Semantic Hierarchy for a Physical Mobile Robot. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, December 1996.
[Abstract]

New Conference Papers: QR-96, TIME-96, and AAAI-96

(7-15-96) Siddarth Subramanian and Raymond J. Mooney. 1996. Qualitative multiple-fault diagnosis of continuous dynamic systems using behavioral modes. In Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-96), AAAI/MIT Press, 1996.
(4-12-96) Giorgio Brajnik and Daniel J. Clancy. 1996. Temporal constraints on trajectories in qualitative simulation. In Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-96), AAAI/MIT Press, 1996.
[Abstract]
(4-9-96) Giorgio Brajnik and Daniel J. Clancy. 1996. Temporal constraints on trajectories in qualitative simulation. In Working Papers of the Tenth International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning (QR-96), Fallen Leaf Lake, California.
[Abstract]
(4-9-96) Richard S. Mallory, Bruce W. Porter, and Benjamin J. Kuipers. 1996. Comprehending complex behavior graphs through abstraction. In Working Papers of the Tenth International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning (QR-96), Fallen Leaf Lake, California.
(4-8-96) B. Kuipers. 1996. A hierarchy of qualitative representations for space. In Working Papers of the Tenth International Workshop on Qualitative Reasoning (QR-96), Fallen Leaf Lake, California.
[Abstract]
(4-2-96) Giorgio Brajnik and Daniel J. Clancy. Guiding and refining simulation using temporal logic. Third International Workshop on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (TIME'96), 1996.
[Abstract]
(4-2-96) Lance Tokuda. 1996. Managing occurrence branching in qualitative simulation. In Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-96), AAAI/MIT Press, 1996.

Old (But Good) Papers Added to Web Page.

(9-11-96) Wan Yik Lee. 1995. A Guide to Programming Spot, a Mobile Robot of the University of Texas at Austin. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin, AI Laboratory Technical Report AI95-235, June 1995.
(9-11-96) Wan Yik Lee. 1995. Programming Spot in Lisp with SpotLisp Package. Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin, AI Laboratory Technical Report AI95-240, June 1995.
(9-3-96) Benjamin Kuipers. 1985. The Map-Learning Critter. University of Texas at Austin, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory AI TR 85-17, December 1985.
(8-27-96) B. J. Kuipers. 1983. The cognitive map: Could it have been any other way? In H. L. Pick, Jr. and L. P. Acredolo (Eds.), Spatial Orientation: Theory, Research, and Application. New York: Plenum Press, 1983, pages 345-359.
(8-21-96) J. M. Crawford and B. J. Kuipers. 1989. Toward a theory of access-limited logic for knowledge representation. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR'89). Los Altos, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.
(8-19-96) B. J. Kuipers. 1979. On representing common sense knowledge. In N. V. Findler (Ed.), Associative Networks: The Representation and Use of Knowledge by Computers. New York: Academic Press, 1979, pages 393--408.
(7-29-96) Akira Hayashi and Benjamin Kuipers. 1992. A continuous approach to robot motion planning with many degrees of freedom. In Proceedings of the 1992 IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS'92).
(7-12-96) B. J. Kuipers & Y.-T. Byun. 1991. A robot exploration and mapping strategy based on a semantic hierarchy of spatial representations. Journal of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 8: 47-63.
Reprinted in Walter Van de Velde (ed.), Towards Learning Robots, Bradford/MIT Press, 1993.
(7-16-95) B. J. Kuipers. 1978. Modeling spatial knowledge. Cognitive Science, 2: 129-153, 1978. [.pdf]
Reprinted in Advances in Spatial Reasoning, Volume 2, Su-shing Chen (Ed.), Norwood NJ: Ablex Publishing, 1990.

SQsim: Major Progress in Semi-Quantitative Reasoning

(3-22-96) Herbert Kay. 1996. SQsim: a simulator for imprecise ODE models. University of Texas Artificial Intelligence Laboratory TR AI96-247, March 1996.
[Abstract]

Robot Learning with Uninterpreted Sensors and Effectors

(3-22-96) David Pierce and Benjamin Kuipers. 1996. Map learning with uninterpreted sensors and effectors. University of Texas Artificial Intelligence Laboratory TR AI96-246, January 1996.
[Abstract]

See our Post-Doctoral Fellow Ad!

(3-1-96) We are advertising for a post-doctoral fellow to work with the Algernon knowledge representation system.
(7-1-96) Sorry, the position is closed.

Temporal Logic, and Related QSIM Formalization

(2-8-96) Benjamin Shults and Benjamin Kuipers. 1996. Qualitative simulation and temporal logic: proving properties of continuous systems. University of Texas Artificial Intelligence Laboratory TR AI96-244, January 1996.
(2-8-96) Benjamin Shults. 1996. Toward a reformalization of QSIM. University of Texas Artificial Intelligence Laboratory TR AI96-245, January 1996.

Reviews of the QR Book

(1-26-96) The QR Book page is updated to include three known book reviews: IEEE Expert, ACM Computing Reviews, and AI Magazine.

QSIM in Parallel Hardware

(1-11-96) Added to Qsim Users page.
A significant barrier to application of QSIM to large-scale problems is the efficiency of qualitative simulation. Recently, a group at T.U. Graz in Austria have designed and implemented a special-purpose parallel hardware architecture for qualitative simulation. See their Web page and published papers.
Reinhold Weiss, Marco Platzner, Bernhard Rinner, T.U. Graz, Austria.

Old (But Good) Papers Added to Web Page.

(2-28-96) B. J. Kuipers. 1987. Abstraction by time-scale in qualitative simulation. In Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-87). Los Altos, CA: Morgan Kaufman.
(The ftp copy is missing two figures.)
Reprinted in D. S. Weld & J. de Kleer (Eds.), Readings in Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Systems, Los Altos, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 1990.
[Superceded by QR book, chapter 12.]
(2-22-96) Richard Froom. 1991. Acquiring effective knowledge of environment geometry for minimum-time control of a mobile robot. In Proceedings of the 1991 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, pages 501-506, Arlington, VA, August 13-15 1991.
(1-31-96) D. Berleant & B. Kuipers. 1992. Qualitative-numeric simulation with Q3. In Boi Faltings and Peter Struss (Eds.), Recent Advances in Qualitative Physics, MIT Press, 1992.
(The ftp file is missing several figures.)
(1-30-96) B. J. Kuipers. 1986. Qualitative Simulation. Artificial Intelligence 29: 289 - 338, 1986.
(The ftp copy is missing five figures.)
(1-18-96) B. J. Kuipers, C. Chiu, D. T. Dalle Molle & D. R. Throop. 1991. Higher-order derivative constraints in qualitative simulation. Artificial Intelligence 51: 343-379.
(1-18-96) W. W. Lee & B. J. Kuipers. 1988. Non-intersection of trajectories in qualitative phase space: a global constraint for qualitative simulation. In Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-88). Los Altos, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 1988.
(1-16-96) Hwee Tou Ng. 1991. Model-based, multiple fault diagnosis of time-varying, continuous physical devices. IEEE Expert 6(6): 38-43, December 1991.
(1-4-96) D. Dvorak & B. J. Kuipers. 1989. Model-based monitoring of dynamic systems. In Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-89). Los Altos, CA: Morgan Kaufman.
(1-3-96) J. M. Crawford & B. J. Kuipers. 1991. ALL: formalizing access-limited reasoning. In John Sowa (Ed.), Principles of Semantic Networks, pp. 299-330. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.
(1-3-96) Daniel Dvorak & Benjamin Kuipers. 1991. Process monitoring and diagnosis: a model-based approach. IEEE EXPERT 6(3): 67-74, June 1991.
(1-3-96) B. J. Kuipers and J. P. Kassirer. 1984. Causal reasoning in medicine: analysis of a protocol. Cognitive Science 8: 363-385.
(1-2-96) C. Chiu & B. J. Kuipers. 1992. Comparative analysis and qualitative integral representations. In Boi Faltings and Peter Struss (Eds.), Recent Advances in Qualitative Physics, MIT Press, 1992.
(12-29-95) B. J. Kuipers, A. J. Moskowitz, and J. P. Kassirer. 1988. Critical Decisions Under Uncertainty: Representation and Structure. Cognitive Science 12: 177-210, 1988.
Reprinted in G. Shafer and J. Pearl (Eds.), Readings in Uncertain Reasoning, San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1990.

R++, based on Algernon, developed by AT+T Bell Labs.

(8-29-95) AT+T Bell Labs has created R++, a rule-based extension to C++, based on the ideas of access-limited logic developed in Algernon. It is available to university researchers.

Five New and Old PhD Dissertations Now Available

(11-20-95) Raman Rajagopalan. 1995. Qualitative reasoning about dynamic change in the spatial properties of a physical system. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin. [Get PS file]
(5-26-95) Richard Froom. 1995. High-Speed Navigation with Approximate Maps. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin. [Get it.]
(5-26-95) David M. Pierce. 1995. Map Learning with Uninterpreted Sensors and Effectors. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin. [Get it.]
(5-30-95) Jeff W. Rickel. 1995. Automated modeling of complex systems to answer prediction questions. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Computer Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin. [Get it.]
(6-13-95) J. Daniel Berleant. 1991. The use of partial quantitative knowledge with qualitative reasoning. University of Texas at Austin, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Technical Report AI 91-163. (Doctoral dissertation, Department of Computer Sciences.) [Get it.]

The QR Book!

The QR book is available, and is the best reference (sometimes the only reference) for many things related to QSIM. See:

The details.
(12-6-94) Added copies of known book reviews.

New WWW Pages and Files

(3-20-95) Dan Dvorak's 1987 literature review is now available.
Daniel L. Dvorak. 1987. Expert systems for monitoring and control. University of Texas at Austin, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Technical Report AI 87-55.
(2-14-95) David Franke's PhD thesis is now available.
David W. Franke. 1992. A theory of teleology. Doctoral dissertation, Computer Science Department, University of Texas at Austin, May 1992. (Available as TR AI93-201.)
(12-13-94) The QSIM Users page gives an overview of other published work building on ours.
(11-16-94) Akira Hayashi's PhD thesis is now available on the Web.
Akira Hayashi, Geometrical Motion Planning for Highly Redundant Manipulators Using a Continuous Manipulator Model. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas. May 1991. (Available as TR AI91-156.)
(8-31-94) New, expanded Yellow Pages added under QR home. Replaces Other Groups.
(6-23-94) Crawford + Kuipers AAAI91 and SIGART91 papers on Algernon added.
(6-21-94) Swan's Neck page added under Robotics.
(6-17-94) What's New and Other Groups pages (please send additions).

Recent Papers (1994)

[QR home]

BJK