An action language for multi-agent domains
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: An action language for multi-agent domains
zbMATH Open document ID: 1481.68044
author: Gregory Gelfond
author: Tran Cao Son
author: Chitta Baral
author: Enrico Pontelli
published in: Artificial Intelligence
publication date: 2021-12-13T00:00:00Z
review text: This paper presents \(\mathrm{m}\mathcal{A}^*\), an action language for reasoning about actions, agents' knowledge and agents' beliefs in a multi-agent setting. The language includes actions that cause the world to be changed, sensing actions, and actions by which agents can announce states of facts to other agents (called ``announcement'' actions). The language also deals with the issue of observability, that is, circumstances in which agents get full knowledge about actions being performed and their effects, those in which this knowledge is only partial or null. The authors introduce the syntax of the language and a Kripke-structures-based semantics of it (pointed Kripke structures are used to represent the possible states of the world and of agents' knowledge and beliefs). As for the dynamic component of the semantics, a transition function is associated to actions so that, given a state, a set of resulting states is returned. The paper then proves several interesting properties pertaining the thus introduced formal setting with a particular enphasis on practical employability of the language. The paper is well equipped with many clarifying examples which help reader's intuition about the formal framework as it is stepwisely introduced. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the paper also provides an in-depth, ample comparative discussion of relevant related work. So, generally speaking, the paper presents a very interesting proposal in the context of languages designed for reasoning about actions and their effects on world states, agents' knowledge and beliefs and, in my opinion, it is a ``must-read'' for anyone working in this field.
reviewed by: Luigi Palopoli
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 68T42
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 68T20
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 68T30
zbMATH DE Number: 7443171
zbMATH Keywords: action languages
zbMATH Keywords: epistemic planning
zbMATH Keywords: reasoning about knowledge
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: j.artint.2021.103601
OpenAlex ID: W3202694371
cites work: Logics for epistemic programs
cites work: Reasoning about the Beliefs of Agents in Multi-agent Domains in the Presence of State Constraints: The Action Language mAL
cites work: Reasoning about Multi-agent Domains Using Action Language $\mathcal{C}$ : A Preliminary Study
cites work: The Complexity of Decentralized Control of Markov Decision Processes
cites work: Seeing Is Believing: Formalising False-Belief Tasks in Dynamic Epistemic Logic
cites work: Epistemic planning for single- and multi-agent systems
cites work: A resource logic for multi-agent plan merging
cites work: A Unified View of Belief Revision and Update
cites work: Q4845472
cites work: STRIPS: A new approach to the application of theorem proving to problem solving
cites work: Q4242055
cites work: Representing action and change by logic programs
cites work: Representing action: indeterminacy and ramifications
cites work: Q5715678
cites work: Q4028812
cites work: GOLOG: A logic programming language for dynamic domains
cites work: DEL Planning and Some Tractable Cases
cites work: Logic programming for finding models in the logics of knowledge and its applications: A case study
cites work: Logic Programming for Multiagent Planning with Negotiation
cites work: Reasoning and Planning with Cooperative Actions for Multiagents Using Answer Set Programming
cites work: Formalizing sensing actions -- a transition function based approach
cites work: Finitary S5-Theories
cites work: In defense of PDDL axioms
cites work: Approximation of action theories and its application to conformant planning
cites work: Dynamic logic for belief revision
cites work: Logics of communication and change
cites work: Dynamic Epistemic Logic and Knowledge Puzzles
DOI: 10.1016/J.ARTINT.2021.103601
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7443171