Qualitative Reasoning about Fluids and Mechanics
Abstract
Understanding people's commonsense knowledge about the physical world is a fundamental problem in building intelligent systems. If this knowledge can be represented and used by computers, they can duplicate people's ability to understand and interact with the world. Qualitative physics is the attempt to capture and formalize this knowledge. An important aspect of qualitative reasoning is the ability to derive the possible behaviors of a given physical system from the structure of the system, using minimal initial information. This thesis investigates qualitative domain theories and reasoning techniques that will enable computers to analyze the qualitative behaviors of physical systems, including both mechanical mechanisms and fluids such as internal combustion engines and hydraulic lift pumps. The author has developed a domain theory that integrates richer models of mechanics, fluids, and geometry than previous research in qualitative physics. These theories and inference techniques are embodied in QSA, a program that produces possible behaviors of physical systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA466215
Entities
People
- Hyeonkyeong Kim
Organizations
- Northwestern University