A Constraint Satisfaction Framework for Executing Perceptions and Actions in Diagrammatic Reasoning

Diagrammatic reasoning (DR) is pervasive in human problem solving as a powerful adjunct to symbolic reasoning based on language-like representations. The research reported in this paper is a contribution to building a general purpose DR system as an extension to a soar-like problem solving architecture. The work is in a framework in which DR is modeled as a process where subtasks are solved, as appropriate, either by inference from symbolic representations or by interaction with a diagram, i.e., perceiving specified information from a diagram or modifying/creating objects in a diagram in specified ways according to problem solving needs. The perceptions and actions in most DR systems built so far are hand-coded for the specific application, even when the rest of the system is built using the general architecture. The absence of a general framework for executing perceptions/actions poses as a major hindrance to using them opportunistically – the essence of open-ended search in pro...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: JAIR
• Authors: Bonny Banerjee, B. Chandrasekaran
• Keywords: Constraint Satisfaction Problem, General Purpose Dr, JAIR 2010, Spatial Problem