This paper proposes a formalization of ability that is motivated in part by linguistic considerations and by the philosophical literature in action theory and the logic of ability, but that is also meant to match well with planning formalisms, and so to provide an account of the role of ability in practical reasoning. Some of the philosophical literature concerning ability, and in particular [A...

1. The Master Argument I will discuss the so-called “Master Argument” attributed to Diodorus Cronos in the light of some contemporary speculations on indexicals. In one version, this argument goes as follows: Premise 1. The past, relative to any time t, is necessary. Premise 2. The impossible cannot follow from the possible. Therefore, Conclusion. The possible is that which either is or will be...

We investigate extending the notion of a proof of knowledge to a proof of the ability to perform some computational task. We provide some definitions and protocols for this purpose.

This paper presents IWA, a platform to aid children when learning how to write. The proposed system offers both tutor and child a certain degree of autonomy. IWA provides tutor and child with different interfaces. The features available to the tutor allow the definition and configuration of repetition exercises comprising letters, numerals and freeform gestures. The child interface supports the...

This is part of a larger project that is motivated in part by linguistic considerations and by the philosophical literature in action theory and the logic of ability, but that is also meant to suggest ways in which planning formalisms could be modified to provide an account of the role of ability in planning and practical reasoning. In this version for the CSR workshop, I have suppressed most o...

The ultimate goal of our research is to develop techniques for model checking knowledge properties of multi-agent systems. ATEL, an extension of the Alternating-time Temporal Logic of Alur et al, is a logic for specifying epistemic and strategic properties of such systems. We present a technique for reducing the ATEL model checking problem to one of model checking in ATL, whereby epistemic rela...

Three- to 7-year-olds' ability to calculate with whole-number, fraction, and mixed-number amounts was tested using a nonverbal task in which an amount was displayed and then hidden (J. Huttenlocher, N. C. Jordan, & S. C. Levine, 1994). Next, an amount was added to or subtracted from the hidden amount. The child's task was to determine the hidden amount that resulted from the transformation. Alt...

We develop a formal model of planning based on satis ability rather than deduction The satis ability approach not only provides a more ex ible framework for stating di erent kinds of constraints on plans but also more accurately re ects the theory behind modern constraint based plan ning systems Finally we consider the computational characteristics of the resulting formulas by solving them with...

In this chapter we relate epistemic logics with logics for strategic ability developed and studied in computer science, artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems. We discuss approaches from philosophy and artificial intelligence to modelling the interaction of agents’ knowledge and abilities and then focus on concurrent game models and the alternating-time temporal logic ATL. We show how ...