Common Sense

True Intelligent systems exhibit common sense -- they possess more than enough knowledge to
be able to work in a given environment.

We have already mentioned the CYC system which is an ambitious attempt to code up common
sense. However as this example illustrates you require a very large knowledge base for this type
of system.

Common sense systems need to support:

 Descriptions of everyday objects -- Frames.

Common sense strategies illustrate many important AI topics. We will study how this can be
implemented drawing on many of the topics we have studied previously.

The Physical World -- Qualitative Physics

Qualitative Physics is an area of AI concerned with reasoning about the behaviour of physical
systems.

It is a good area to study since humans know a great deal about this world:

 They can predict that a falling ball will bounce many times.
 They can predict the projection of cricket ball and even catch it.
 They know a pendulum swings back and fore finally coming to rest in the middle.

However most humans whilst being to operate in this world have no notion of the laws of
physics that govern this world.

We can clearly look up the information and derive equations to describe, say pendulum motion.
Indeed computers are very good at this sort of computation when they have been programmed by
experienced programmers.

Is this how an intelligent system functions in this world?

Three year old children can and cannot even read or do elementary maths?

One other motivation is that whilst complex computer models can be assembled many problems
remain difficult or impossible to solve analytically. Systems of equations (differential etc.) might
hard to derive and even impossible to solve.
Modelling the Qualitative World

Qualitative physics seeks to understand physical processes by building models of them.

A model may consist of the following entities:

Variables

-- make take on values as in a traditional physics model but with a restricted set of values, e.g.

temperature as .

Quantity Spaces

-- a small set of discreet values for a variable.

Rate of Change

-- Variables take on different values at different times. A real valued rate of change can be

modelled qualitatively with a quantity space, e.g. .

Expressions

-- Combination of variables.

Equations

-- Assignment of expression to variables.

States

-- Sets of variables who's values change over time.

Note that qualitative algebra is different:

Say we describe the volume of glass as

Then when we add two qualitative values together we get:

Reasoning in this area is often called qualitative simulation.

The basic idea being:

 Construct a sequence of discrete episodes that occur as qualitative variable value changes.
 States are linked by qualitative rules that may be general.
 Rules may be applied to many objects simultaneously as they may all influence each other --
constraint satisfaction used.

 Ambiguity may arise so split outcomes into different paths and form a network of all possible
states and transitions.
 Each path is called a history the network an envisionment.
 In order to achieve effective programs for this we must know how to represent the behaviour of
many kinds of processes, materials and the world in which they act.

Reasoning with qualitative information

Reasoning in this area is often called qualitative simulation.

The basic idea being:

Construct a sequence of discrete episodes that occur as qualitative variable value changes.

States are linked by qualitative rules that may be general.

Rules may be applied to many objects simultaneously as they may all influence each other -- constraint
satisfaction used.

Ambiguity may arise so split outcomes into different paths and form a network of all possible states and
transitions.

Each path is called a history the network an envisionment.

In order to achieve effective programs for this we must know how to represent the behaviour of many
kinds of processes, materials and the world in which they act.
Space

The Blocks World is a simple example of we can model and describe space.

However common sense notions such a place object x near object y are not accommodated.

Now objects have a spatial extent while events have a temporal extent.

So we might try to extend of common sense theory of time.

However space is 3D and there are many more relationships than those for time so it is not a
good idea.

Another approach is view objects and space at various levels of abstraction. E.g. We can view
most printed circuit boards as being a 2D object.

Choosing a representation means selecting relevant properties at particular levels of granularity.

For instance we can define relations over spaces such as inside, adjacent etc.

We can also define relations for curves, lines, surfaces, planes and volumes. E.g. along, across,
perpendicular etc.

Materials

We need to describe properties of materials:

 You cannot walk on water.

Liquids (as can be seen from above) provide many interesting points.

It is useful to think of spaces occupied by objects. Thus we can define properties such as:

 Capacity -- a bound to an amount of liquid.

Other properties materials can posses include:

 Free -- if a space is not wholly contained inside another object.

Materials

We need to describe properties of materials:

You cannot walk on water.

If you knock a cup of coffee over what happens?

If you pour a full kettle into a cup what happens?

You can squeeze a sponge but not a brick.

Liquids (as can be seen from above) provide many interesting points.

It is useful to think of spaces occupied by objects. Thus we can define properties such as:

Capacity -- a bound to an amount of liquid.

Amount -- volume occupied by a liquid.

Full -- if amount equals capacity.

Other properties materials can posses include:

Free -- if a space is not wholly contained inside another object.

Surround -- if enclosed by a very thin free space.

Rigid

Flexible

Particulate -- e.g. sand

Let us finish this topic by seeing how memory is employed in problem solving.

We have seen that many problems are solved by analogy. Computer systems that perform this
task are sometimes called case based reasoning (CBR) systems.

CBR systems employ large case libraries rather than descriptions from first principles.

They therefore rely heavily on memory organisation and retrieval.

 A rich indexing system must be employed -- when reasoning with a problem only relevant past
experience should be recalled.
o Index by features present in problem.
 Require some measure of relevance of retrieved information.
o Some features only important in a certain context.
o Inductive and explanation based learning suitable here.
 The data structures used will be important as the number of cases represented will be large.
o Do we retrieve all information about a case or fragment of it?

 A number of cases are usually retrieved. We need to select the best one using some heuristic
which may include:
o Goal directed preference -- cases that include same goal as current problem.
o Salient feature preference -- cases that include the most important (or largest number
of) features.
o Specificity preference -- certain match features identified.
o Frequency preference -- select frequently matched cases.
o Recency preference -- select recently matched cases.
o Ease of adaptation preference -- cases whose features easily modified for new problem.