Proceedings of the Thirteenth National Conference on and the Eighth Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference

Volume Two

Sponsored by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence

AMI Press / The MIT Press

Menlo Park • Cambridge • London Mobile Robots Estimating the Absolute Position of a Mobile Robot Using Position Probability Grids Wolfram Burgard, Dieter Fox, Daniel Hetrnig, and Timo Schmidt, Universitat Bonn / 896 Navigation for Everyday Life Daniel D. Fu, Kristian J. Hammond and Michael J. Swain, University of Chicago 1902 Guaranteeing Safety in Spatially Situated Agents Robert C. Kohout and James A. Hendler, University of Maryland; David J. Musliner, Honeywell Technology Center/909

Video Recognizing and Interpreting Gestures on a Mobile Robot David Kortenkamp, Eric Huber, and R. Peter Bonasso, Metrica Inc. 1915 Classifying and Recovering from Sensing Failures in Autonomous Mobile Robots Robin R. Murphy and David Hershberger, Colorado School of Mines/922 GARGOYLE: An Environment for Real-Time, Context- Sensitive Active Vision Peter N. Prokopowicz, Michael J. Swain, R. James Firby, and Roger E. Kahn, University of Chicago / 930 Robot Navigation Using Image Sequences Christopher Rasmussen and Gregory D. Hager, Yale University 1938 Integrating Grid-Based and Topological Maps for Mobile Robot Navigation Sebastian Thrun, Carnegie Mellon University and Arno Biicken, Universitat Bonn 1944

Model-Based Reasoning

Model-Based Reasoning Improving Model-Based Diagnosis through Algebraic Analysis: The Petri Net Challenge Luigi Portinale, Universita di Torino 1952 A Model-Based Approach to Blame Assignment: Revising the Reasoning Steps of Problem Solvers Eleni Stroulia, Center for Applied Knowledge Processing and Ashok K. Goel, Georgia Institute of Technology / 959 Qualitative Multiple-Fault Diagnosis of Continuous Dynamic Systems Using Behavioral Modes Siddarth Subramanian, National Instruments - Georgetown and Raymond J. Mooney, University of Texas at Austin/965 A Model-Based Approach to Reactive Self-Configuring Systems Brian C. Williams and P. Pandurang Nayak, Recom Technologies/NASA Ames Center 1971

Qualitative Physics Trajectory Constraints in Qualitative Simulation Giorgio Brajnik, Universita di Udine and Daniel J. Clancy, University of Texas at Austin 1979 A Formal Hybrid Modeling Scheme for Handling Discontinuities in Physical System Models PieterJ. Mosterman and Gautam Biswas, Vanderbilt University 1985 Building Steady-State Simulators via Hierarchical Feedback Decomposition Nicolas F. Rouquette, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology 1991 Managing Occurrence Branching in Qualitative Simulation Lance Tokuda, University of Texas at Austin 1998

Spatial & Functional Reasoning Diagrammatic Reasoning and Cases Michael Anderson, University of Hartford and Robert McCartney, University of Connecticut 11004 Augmenting the Diagnostic Power of Flow-Based Approaches to Functional Reasoning Luca Chittaro and Roberto Ranon, Universita di Udine /1010 A Qualitative Model of Physical Fields Monika Lundell, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology 11016 Generating Multiple New Designs from a Sketch Thomas F. Stahovich, Randall Davis and Howard Shrobe, MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory /1022 Natural Language

Learning Tree-Bank Grammars Eugene Charniak, Brown University /1031 Left-Corner Unification-Based Natural Language Processing Steven L. Lytinen and Noriko Tomuro, DePaul University 11037 Automatically Generating Extraction Patterns from Untagged Text Ellen Riloff, University of Utah 11044 Learning to Parse Database Queries Using Inductive Logic Programming John M. Zelle, Drake University and Raymond J. Mooney, University of Texas 11050

Semantics & Discourse HUNTER-GATHERER: Three Search Techniques Integrated for Natural Language Semantics Stephen Beale, Sergei Nirenburg, and Kavi Mahesh, New Mexico State University 11056 Semantic Interpretation of Nominalizations Richard D. Hull and Fernando Gomez, University of Central Florida 11062 Building Up Rhetorical Structure Trees Daniel Marcu, University of Toronto 11069 Using Plan Reasoning in the Generation of Plan Descriptions R. Michael Young, University of Pittsburgh 11075

Perception

Perception Interfacing Sound Stream Segregation to Automatic Speech Recognition — Preliminary Results on Listening to Several Sounds Simultaneously Hiroshi G. Okuno, Tomohiro Nakatani and Takeshi Kawabata, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation 11082

VI Motion and Color Analysis for Animat Perception Tamer F. Rabie andDemetri Terzopoulos, University of Toronto 11090 Noise and the Common Sense Informatic Situation for a Mobile Robot Murray Shanahan, Queen Mary & Westfield College/1098

Vision A Hybrid Learning Approach for Better Recognition of Visual Objects Ibrahim F. Imam, SRA International and Srinivas Gutta, George Mason University /1104 Using Elimination Methods to Compute Thermophysical Algebraic Invariants from Infrared Imagery /. D. Michel and N. Nandhakumar, University of Virginia; Tushar Saxena and Deepak Kapur, State University of New York at Albany/1110

Video Approximate World Models: Incorporating Qualitative and Linguistic Information into Vision Systems Claudio S. Pinhanez and Aaron F. Bobick, MIT Media Laboratory 11116 Integrating Visual Information across Camera Movements with a Visual-Motor Calibration Map Peter N. Prokopowicz, University of Chicago and Paul R. Cooper, Northwestern University /1124

Planning The Environment A Bias towards Relevance: Recognizing Plans where Goal Minimization Fails Abigail S. Gertner, University of Pittsburgh and Bonnie L. Webber, University of Pennsylvania /1133 What Is Planning in the Presence of Sensing? Hector J. Levesque, University of Toronto /1139 Opportunity Recognition in Complex Environments Louise Pryor, University of Edinburgh /1147 Generalizing Indexical-Functional Reference Marcel Schoppers and Richard Shu, Robotics Research Harvesting /1153 Handling Uncertainty Rewarding Behaviors Fahiem Bacchus, University of Waterloo; Craig Boutilier, University of British Columbia; Adam Grove, NEC Research Institute /1160 Computing Optimal Policies for Partially Observable Decision Processes Using Compact Representations Craig Boutilier and David Poole, University of British Columbia/1168 A Qualitative Model for Temporal Reasoning with Incomplete Information Hector Geffner, Universidad Simdn Bolivar /1176 On the Size of Reactive Plans Peter Jonsson and Christer Bdckstrom, Linkoping University /1182

Search Is "Early Commitment" in Plan Generation Ever a Good Idea? David Joslin, CIRL/University of Oregon and Martha E. Pollack, University of Pittsburgh 11188 Pushing the Envelope: Planning, Prepositional Logic, and Stochastic Search Henry Kautz and Bart Selman, AT&T Laboratories 11194 Finding Optimal Solutions to the Twenty-Four Puzzle RichardE-KorfandLarryA. Taylor, University of California, Los Angeles 11202 Linear Time Near-Optimal Planning in the Blocks World John Slaney, Australian National University and Sylvie Thiibaux, IRISA /1208

Temporal Reasoning Planning for Temporally Extended Goals Fahiem Bacchus, University of Waterloo and Froduald Kabanza, Universite de Sherbrooke 11215 A Cost-Directed Planner: Preliminary Report Eithan Ephrati, Bar Ilan University; Martha E. Pollack and Marina Milshtein, University of Pittsburgh 11223 Monitoring the Progress of Anytime Problem-Solving Eric A. Hansen and Shlomo Zilberstein, University of Massachusetts 11229 A Linear-Programming Approach to Temporal Reasoning Peter Jonsson and Christer BUckstrom, Linkoping University /1235

Rule-Based Reasoning & Connectionism Production Systems Need Negation as Failure Phan Minh Dung, Asian Institute of Technology and Paolo Mancarella, University of Pisa 11242 Using Constraints to Model Disjunctions in Rule-Based Reasoning BingLiu andjoxan Jaffar, National University of Singapore 11248 A Connectionist Framework for Reasoning: Reasoning with Examples Dan Roth, Weizmann Institute of Science 11256

Uncertainty

Bayesian Networks Goal Oriented Symbolic Propagation in Bayesian Networks Enrique Castillo and Jose" Manuel Gutierrez, University of Cantabria; AH S. Hadi, Cornell University/1263 A Clinician's Tool for Analyzing Non-Compliance David Maxwell Chickering and Judea Pearl, University of California, Los Angeles 11269 Building Classifiers Using Bayesian Networks Nir Friedman, Stanford University and Moises Goldszmidt, Rockwell Science Center/1277 Generalized Queries on Probabilistic Context-Free Grammars David V. Pynadath and Michael P. Wellman, University of Michigan /1285

Foundations On the Foundations of Qualitative Decision Theory Ronen I. Brafman, University of British Columbia and Moshe Tennenholtz, Technion — Israel Institute of Technology /1291 Plausibility Measures and Default Reasoning Nir Friedman, Stanford University and Joseph Y. Halpem, IBMAlmaden Research Center/1297

vu First-Order Conditional Logic Revisited Mr Friedman, Stanford University; Joseph Y. Halpern, IBMAlmaden Research Center; and Daphne Koller, Stanford University 11305 A Counterexample to Theorems of Cox and Fine Joseph Y. Halpern, IBMAlmaden Research Center/1313

AAAI-96 INVITED TALKS Robots with AI: A Retrospective on the AAAI Robot Competitions and Exhibitions Pete Bonasso, Metrica, Inc., Johnson Space Center, NASA and Tom Dean, Brown University 11321 Moving Up the Information Food Chain: Deploying Softbots on the World Wide Web Oren Etzioni, University of Washington 11322 Brain Dynamics in the Genesis of Trust as the Basis for Communication by Representations Walter J. Freeman, University of California, Berkeley 11327 Using Multi-Agent Systems to Represent Uncertainty Joseph Y. Halpern, IBMAlmaden Research Center/1329 Refinement Planning: Status and Prospectus Subbarao Kambhampati, Arizona State University 11331 Boosting Theory Towards Practice: Recent Developments in Decision Tree Induction and the Weak Learning Framework Michael Kearns, AT&T Research 11337 Challenge Problems for Artificial Intelligence BartSelman, AT&T Laboratories; Rodney A. Brooks, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Thomas Dean, Brown University; Eric Horvitz, Microsoft; Tom M. Mitchell, Carnegie Mellon University; and Nils J. Nilsson, Stanford University /1340 The Database Approach to Knowledge Representation Jeffrey D. Ullman, Stanford University 11346

V1U AAAI-96 ROBOT COMPETITION & EXHIBITION ABSTRACTS A Reactive Mobile Robot Based on a Formal Theory of Action C. Baral, L. Floriano, A. Gabaldon, D. Morales, T. Son, andR. Watson, University of Texas at El Paso /1350 CoMRoS: Cooperative Mobile Robots Stuttgart Thomas Brdunl, Martin Kalbacher, PaulLevi, and Gunter Marnier, Universitat Stuttgart, Germany 11351 McMaster University's Artificial Computing System Andrew Dawes and Mark Bentley, McMaster University /1352 Doing Tasks with Multiple Mini-Robots John Fischer, Paul Rybski, Dirk Edmonds, and Maria Gini, University of Minnesota 11353 Lola, the Mobile Robot from NC State Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna, Daniel S. Schudel, Jason A. Janet, and Ren C. Luo, North Carolina State University /1354 Clementine: Colorado School of Mines Robin R. Murphy and the Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Robotics Team, Colorado School of Mines/1355 Mobile Robot Navigation and Control: A Case Study Nicholas Roy, Gregory Dudek, and Michael Daum, McGill University, Canada 11356 YODA: The Young Observant Discovery Agent Wei-Min Shen, Jafar Adibi, Bonghan Cho, Gal Kaminka, Jihie Kim, Behnam Salemi, and Sheila Tejada, University of Southern California 11357 Amelia Reid Simmons, Sebastian Thrun, Greg Armstrong, Richard Goodwin, Karen Haigh, Sven Koenig, Shyjan Mahamud, Daniel Nikovski, and Joseph O'Sullivan, Carnegie Mellon University 11358 SIGART/AAAI DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM ABSTRACTS Selection of Passages for Information Reduction Jody J. Daniels, University of Massachusetts 11360 Towards a Unified Approach to Concept Learning Pedro Domingos, University of California, Irvine /1361 A Computational Theory of Turn-Taking Toby Donaldson, University of Waterloo, Canada 11362 Learning in Multi-Agent Systems Claudia V. Goldman, The Hebrew University, I srael/1363 Bounding the Cost of Learned Rules: A Transformational Approach Jihie Kim, University of Southern California 11364 Agent-Centered Search: Situated Search with Small Look-Ahead Sven Koenig, Carnegie Mellon University 11365 Recurrent Expert Networks Cathie LeBlanc, Florida State University 11366 Semi-Deterministic Reasoning Chengjiang Mao, University of Delaware 11367 A Connectionist Model of Instructed Learning David C. Noelle, University of California, San Diego 11368 Symptom Management for Schizophrenic Agents Phoebe Sengers, Carnegie Mellon University 11369 Adaptive Shared Control for an Intelligent Power Wheelchair Richard C. Simpson and Simon P. Levine, University of Michigan Hospital /1370 Induction of Selective Bayesian Networks from Data Moninder Singh, University of Pennsylvania /1371 Why Dissect a Frog When You Can Simulate a Lion? Brian K. Smith, Northwestern University/1372 Algorithm Evolution for Signal Understanding Astro Teller, Carnegie Mellon University 11373 The Use of Knowledge-Based Systems Techniques for Risk Assessment Botond Virginas, University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom/1374 AAAI-96 STUDENT ABSTRACTS Efficient Planning by Graph Rewriting Jose Luis Ambite and Craig A. Knoblock, University of Southern California 11376 Expecting the Unexpected: Detecting and Reacting to Unplanned-for World States Ella M. Atkins, Edmund H. Durfee, and Kang G. Shin, University of Michigan 11377 Experiments in Evolutionary Synthesis of Robotic Neurocontrollers Karthik Balakrishnan and Vasant Honavar, 11378 A Reinforcement Learning Framework for Combinatorial Optimization Justin A. Boyan, Carnegie Mellon University /1379 Learning Topological Maps: An Alternative Approach Arno Biicken and Sebastian Thrun, University of Bonn, Germany/1380 Computing Default Logic Extensions: An Implementation A. P. Courtney and N. Y. Foo, University of Sydney; G. Antoniou, Griffith University, Australia 11381 Characterizing Temporal Repetition Diana Cukierman and James Delgrande, Simon Fraser University, Canada 11382 Achieving Agent Coordination via Distributed Preferences Joseph G. D'Ambrosio and William P. Birmingham, The University of Michigan /1383 Fast Discovery of Simple Rules Pedro Domingos, University of California, Irvine/1384 Multistrategy Learning: A Case Study Pedro Domingos, University of California, Irvine/1385 Simple Bayesian Classifiers Do Not Assume Independence Pedro Domingos and Michael Pazzani, University of California, Irvine/1386 CADI -An Intelligent, Multimedia Tutor for Cardiac Auscultation KurtD. Fenstermacher, University of Chicago 11387 Integration of an Expert Teaching Assistant with Distance Learning Software Steven P. Fonseca and Nancy E. Reed, University of California, Davis/1388 Self-Adaptation of Mutation Rates and Dynamic Fitness Matthew R. Glickman and Katia P. Sycara, Carnegie Mellon University/1389 Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Robot Group Behavior Dani Goldberg, Brandeis University /1390 Inducing Design Biases that Characterize Successful Experimentation in Weak-Theory Domains: TIPS Vanathi Gopalakrishnan, University of Pittsburgh 11391 Belief Network Algorithms: A Study of Performance Nathalie Jitnah, Monash University, Australia /1392 Proposed Interestingness Measure for Characteristic Rules Micheline Kamber, Simon Eraser University andRajjan Shinghal, Concordia University, Canada /1393 A Transformational Analysis of the EBL Utility Problem Jihie Kim and Paul S. Rosenbloom, University of Southern California 11394 Controlling State-Space Abstraction in Bayesian Networks Chao-Lin Liu, University of Michigan 11395 Ad Hoc Attribute-Value Prediction Gabor Melli, Simon Eraser University, Canada 11396 An Incremental Interactive Algorithm for Regular Grammar Inference Rajesh Parekh and Vasant Honavar, Iowa State University 11397 Constructive Neural Network Learning Algorithms Rajesh Parekh, Jihoon Yang, and Vasant Honavar, Iowa State University 11398 A Computational Model of Persistent Beliefs Sunju Park, The University of Michigan 11399 Contracting Strategy Based on Markov Process Modeling Sunju Park and Edmund H. Durfee, The University of Michigan /1400 Learning Procedural Planning Knowledge in Complex Environments Douglas J. Pearson, The University of Michigan /1401 MarketBayes: A Distributed, Market-Based Bayesian Network David M. Pennock, The University of Michigan /1402 The Kritzel System for Handwriting Interpretation Gaofeng Qian, The University of Texas at Dallas /1403 SplitNet: A Dynamic Hierarchical Network Model Jurgen Rahmel, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany 11404 Symbolic Performance & Learning in Continuous Environments Seth O. Rogers, University of Michigan /1405 Effects of Local Information on Group Behavior Shounak Roychowdhury, Neeraj Arora, and Sandip Sen, University ofTulsa /1406 Automated Formulation of Constraint Satisfaction Problems Mihaela Sabin and Eugene C. Freuder, University of New Hampshire /1407 Dynamic Constraint-Based Planning in Trauma Management Moninder Singh, University of Pennsylvania 11408 Blocking as a Middle-Ground for Step-Order Commitments in Planning Biplav Srivastava and Subbarao Kambhampati, Arizona State University /1409 Experimentation-Driven Operator Learning Kang Soo Tae, University of Texas at Arlington /1410 Hybrid Knowledge- and Databases Merwyn Taylor, University of Maryland 11411 Learning Models for Multi-Source Integration Sheila Tejada, Craig A. Knoblock, and Steven Minton, University of Southern California 11412 Rabbi: Exploring the Inner World through Stories Marina Umaschi, MIT Media Laboratory /1413 Constructive Induction of Features for Planning Michael van Lent, University of Michigan /1414 Agents Modeling Agents in Information Economies Jose M. Vidal and Edmund H. Durfee, University of Michigan 11415 Optimal Factory Scheduling Using Stochastic Dominance A* Peter R. Wurman, University of Michigan 11416 Dynamic Map: Representation of Interactions between Robots Christian Zanardi, GRPR, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada 11417 Neural Network Guided Search Control in Partial Order Planning Terry Zimmerman and Subbarao Kambhampati, Arizona State University/1418

INNOVATIVE APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CONFERENCE

Case Studies EASy: Expert Authorizations System Jonathan Altfeld, Brightware, Inc.; Douglas E. Landon and Charles J. Daniels, Equifax Check Services/1421 Near Optimal Objects Packing through Dimensional Unfolding Emilio Bertolotti, Enrico Castaldo, and Gino Giannone, BULL HN, Italy /1433 Developing and Deploying Knowledge on a Global Scale James Borron and David Morales, Reuters America; Philip Klahr, Inference Corporation /1443 An Intelligent System for Asset and Liability Assessment Urs Biihler and Luca Bosatta, Swiss Bank Corporation, Switzerland; Lawrence Poynter, Inference (CSE) GmbH, Germany /1455 Localization of Troubles in Telephone Cable Networks Chuxin Chen, Pacific Bell; Teresa L. Hollidge, TIBCO Inc.; and DD Sharma, Pacific Bell /1461 Using Artificial Neural Networks to Predict the Quality and Performance of Oilfield Cements P. V. Coveney and T. L. Hughes, Schlumberger Cambridge Research Ltd.; P. Fletcher, Schlumberger Dowell, United Kingdom /1471 Comet: An Application of Model-Based Reasoning to Accounting Systems Robert Nado, Melanie Chams, JeffDelisio, and Walter Hamscher, Price Waterhouse Technology Centre /1482 Diagnosing Delivery Problems in the White House Information Distribution System Mark Nahabedian and Howard Shrobe, MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory 11491 Settlement Analysis Expert (SAX) - Modeling Complex Business Logic in the Development of Enterprise Solutions John C. Ownby, Frito-Lay, Inc. 11500 EZ Reader: Embedded AI for Automatic Electronic Mail Interpretation and Routing Amy Rice and Julie Hsu, Brightware, Inc.; Anthony Angotti and Rosanna Piccolo, Chase Manhattan Bank, N. A. 11507 Intelligent Retail Logistics Scheduling John Rowe and Keith Jewers, J. Sainsbury pic; Andrew Codd and Andrew Alcock, Inference Corporation, United Kingdom 11518 The NASA Personnel Security Processing Expert System David Silberberg, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and Robert Thomas, NASA Headquarters/1527 KARMA: Managing Business Rules from Specification to Implementation Jacqueline Sobieski, Fannie Mae; Srinivas Krowidy, Brightware, Inc.; Colleen McCHntock and Margaret Thorpe, Tangram, Inc. 11536 The SIGNAL Expert System RolfStruve, SIGNAL Versicherungen, Germany 11548 Supporting Performance and Configuration Management of GTE Cellular Networks Ming Tan, Carol Lafond, and Gabriel Jakobson, GTE Laboratories, Inc., Gary Young, GTE Mobilnet /1556 Monitoring Frog Communities: An Application of Andrew Taylor, University of New South Wales; Graeme Watson, University of Melbourne; Gordon Grigg and Hamish McCallum, University of Queensland, Australia 11564 AdjudiPro®2. 0 David Williams, Bradley C. Simons, and Joe Connolly, United HealthCare Corporation /1570 SSCFI: Autonomous Fault Isolation in Communications Circuits Ralph Worrest, Roland Zito-Wolf, Hongbin Wang, and Shri Goyal, GTE Laboratories Incorporated 11579 Invited Talks The BOEING 777 - Concurrent and Digital Pre-Assembly Bob Abarbanel, Boeing Information & Support Services 11589 and Knowledge Discovery in Databases: Applications in Astronomy and Planetary Science Usama M. Fayyad, Microsoft Research 11590

Index/1593