Contents

• Abstract
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Introduction
  • Problem Statement
  • Motivation
  • Terminology
    • Task-Oriented System - TOS
    • TOS Domain
    • Domain Objects
    • TOS Tasks
    • TOS Readings
    • TOS Commands
    • Names
    • Universal Interfacing Agent - UIA
    • UIA Actions
    • User Instructions
  • Desiderata for a UIA
    • User Perspective
    • Designer Perspective
  • Approach
  • Outline
  
  
• Theories of Time and Action
  • Introduction
  • Issues in Representing and Reasoning about Time
    • Time Passage
    • Temporal Elements
    • Time Structure
    • Temporal Information
    • Property Inheritance
    • Representation Methodology
  • Issues in Representing and Reasoning about Actions and Effects
    • Unchanged Properties
    • Action Conditions
    • Indirect Effects
    • Effect Time
    • Effect Duration
    • External Changes
    • Action Durations
    • Overlapping Actions
    • Concurrent Actions
    • Natural Actions
    • In-Deterministic Effects
    • Relations Between Actions
  • Survey of Formalisms
    • Situation Calculus
    • Event Calculus
    • McDermott's Point-based Temporal Logic
    • Allen's Interval Based Temporal Logic
    • Features and Fluents
    • Semantic Network Processing System--SNePS
  • Discussion
  
  
• Theories of Agency
  • Introduction
  • Mental Attitudes for Agency
    • Beliefs, Desires and Intentions
    • Obligations
    • Expectations
    • Observations
    • Achievements
  • Issues in Representing and Reasoning about Mental Attitudes
    • Dealing with Conflicts
    • Intention Reconsideration
    • Side Effects
  • Survey of Formalisms
    • Theory of Intention
    • BDI-Architectures
    • Logic of Rational Agents
    • Situation Calculus Based Intention Theory
  • Discussion
  
  
• Active Logic
  • Introduction
  • Features of Active logic
    • Step-wise Reasoning
    • Addition of New Formulas
    • Inheritance of Formulas
    • Time Sensitivity
    • Contradiction Tolerance
    • Representation of Defaults
    • Non-monotonicity
    • Introspection
    • History Tracking
    • Quotation
    • Integration with non-logical processing
  • Alma/Carne--An Active Logic Reasoner
    • Alma
    • Carne
    • Implementation
    • Convention
  
  
• Formal Theory of Alma/Carne Reasoning--
  • Primitive language--
  • -Language of
    • Symbols of
    • Well-formed Formulas in
  • Axioms of
    • Connective Symbols , and
    • Operator Symbols
    • Function Symbols
    • Predicate Symbols
    • Core Axioms for Reasoning
  • Structures for
  • Properties of
    • Relationships between and
  • No Direct Contradictions
  • Contradiction Detection
  • Persistence
  • Nonmonotonicity
  • Discussion
  
  
• Active Logic for Agents - ALFA
  • Introduction
  • ALFA Components
    • Marking Desires as Achievable/Unachievable
    • Creating New Intentions
    • Marking Intentions as Achievable/Unachievable
    • Finding Interfering Intentions
    • Finding Contradictory Effects and Results
    • Marking Achieved Intentions
    • Dealing with Contradictory Mental Attitudes
    • Dealing with Unknown Effects
    • Dropping Achieved/Futile Intentions
    • Dropping Desires
    • Transforming Intentions into Actions
    • Creating Expectations
    • Creating Desires from Expectations
    • Marking Expectations as Achieved/Unachieved
    • Maintaining Observations
  • Discussion
    • Representing and Reasoning about Actions and Effects
    • Representing and Reasoning about Mental Attitudes
    • Intention Reconsideration Policy
    • Dealing with Conflicts
    • Implementing User Instructions
  
  
• Agent Architectures
  • Introduction
  • Deliberative Architectures
    • BDI-Architecture:Rao/Georgeff
    • Transaction Oriented Multi-Agent System
    • Resource-Bounded Agent Architecture
  • Reactive Architectures
    • Subsumption Architecture
  • Hybrid Architectures
    • Procedural Reasoning System : PRS
  • Discussion
  
  
• A Meta-Cognitive Architecture
  • Introduction
  • Domain-Independent Reason-Enhanced Controller for Task-ORiented Systems (DIRECTOR)
    • Knowledge Base--KB
    • General Parser
    • Utterance Generator
    • Domain Observer
    • Domain Controller
    • Reaction Handler
    • Contradiction Handler
    • Status Generator
    • Function Detector
    • Utterance Interpreter
    • Reference Disambiguator
    • Context-based Parser
    • Concept Space Maintainer
    • Expectation Processor
    • Intention Maintainer
  • Discussion
  
  
• Implementation
  • Introduction
  • Examples
  • Capabilities
  • Discussion
  
  
• Conclusion
  • Contributions
  • Future Work
  
  
• Sample Task-Oriented Systems
  • Toy Train Domain
    • Concept Space
    • Dialog
  • Simulated Pool
    • Concept Space
    • Dialog
  
  
• Bibliography
• About this document ...