Interpreting Observations of Physical Systems

Kenneth D. Forbus*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

An unsolved problem in creating diagnostic expert systems is generating a qualitative understanding of how the system is behaving from raw data, especially numerical data taken across rime. Yet automating this critical step is necessary for building the next generation of expert systems. The theory described provides a means of interpreting observations made of a physical system across time in terms of qualitative theories. Importantly, the theory is ontology-independent as well as domain-independent in that it only requires a qualitative description of the domain capable of supporting envisioning and domain-specific techniques for providing an initial qualitative description of numerical measurements. The theory is illustrated step by step with two extended examples, one involving qualitative process theory and the other involving a qualitative state vector representation of morion. The performance of an implementation of the theory is also illustrated.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationReadings in Qualitative Reasoning About Physical Systems
PublisherElsevier Inc
Pages441-450
Number of pages10
ISBN (Print)1558600957, 9781483214474
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 17 2013

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Computer Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Interpreting Observations of Physical Systems'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this