Utilization of the MVL system in qualitative reasoning about the physical world

Abstract

An experimental progra.m, QRM, has been implemented using the inference mechanism of the Multivalued Logics (MVL) Theorem Proving System of Matthew Ginsberg. QRM has suitable facilities to reason about dynamical systems in qualitative terms. It uses Kenneth Forbus’s Qualitative Process Theory (QPT) to describe a physical system and constructs the envisionment tree for a given initial situation. In this thesis, we concentrate on knowledge representation issues, and basic qualitative reasoning tasks based on QPT. We offer some insights about what MVL can provide for writing Qualitative Physics programs.