A Qualitative Approach to Mechanical Constraint

Nielsen, Paul

doi:10.1016/b978-1-4832-1447-4.50061-4

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For qualitative reasoning about the dynamics of motion, Nielsen developed a qualitative vector algebra, and showedhow shapes should be decomposed qualitatively to define robust notions of mechanical constraint [15]. The requirements of reasonlng about mechanical constraint again illustrate the need for interactions between qualitative and quantitative representations: The appropriate qualitative description of an object for figuring out how it can move if pushed depends not just on its shape, but also the qualitative direction to its center of rotation t.…”

Section: Example: Clockmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualitative Spatial Reasoning: Framework and Frontiers

Forbus¹

1994

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Spatial reasoning is a diverse topic; what might different spatial tasks have in common? One task where substantial progress has been made is qualitative spatial reasoning about motion. Unlike qualitative dynamics, purely qualitative spatial representations have not prove n fruitful. Instead, a diagrammatic representation appears to be necessary. This paper begins by outlining the Metric Diagram/Place Vocab. ulary (MD/PV) model of qualitative spatial reasoning, illustrating its power with via two example systems-~FZ0B, a system which reasoned about motion, and CLOCK, a system which analysed fixed-axis mechanisms. We believe this model is applicable beyond simply reasoning about motion. We suspect that (1) some form of metric diagram is a central unifying factor in all spatial reasoning tasks and (2) for human spatial reasoning, the metric diagram is part of, or at least grounded in, our perceptual apparatus. In this spirit, we identify three other kinds of spatial reasoning tasks as research frontiers where substantial progress might also be made, and pose six challenge problems to serve as milestones. The frontiers are (I) deriving system function from concrete structural descriptions (2) representing and reasoning about spatially distributed systems and (3) explicating the role visual perception and recognition in reasoning.

show abstract

Section: Example: Clockmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualitative Spatial Reasoning: Framework and Frontiers

Forbus¹

1994

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We generalize the qualitative vector used in [7] with inequalities between the inclinations to reason about angular changes during the rotation of the links . We represent the position, motion, and constraints in relative terms.…”

Section: 1 Symbolic Direction a Qualitative Theory Of Linkagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We are extending the framework of [5,7] . Previous techniques focused on fixed axis mechanisms [6,7], and thus could not analyze many important systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous techniques focused on fixed axis mechanisms [6,7], and thus could not analyze many important systems. For example, they cannot analyze the slider-crank mechanism which transmits the vertical motion of the piston to the rotation of the crankshaft in an automobile .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the general spatial reasoning problem is too unconstrained to be tractable, recently qualitative spatial reasoning research has focused on mechanical systems [6,7] . Describing and predicting the behaviors of mechanical systems is important for several rea sons .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Qualitative Kinematics of Linkages

Kim

1990

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Qualitative modeling

Forbus

2010

WIRES Cognitive Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Qualitative modeling concerns the representations and reasoning that people use to understand continuous aspects of the world. Qualitative models formalize everyday notions of causality and provide accounts of how to ground symbolic, relational representations in perceptual processes. This article surveys the basic ideas of qualitative modeling and their applications from a cognitive science perspective. It describes the basic principles of qualitative modeling, and a variety of qualitative representations that have been developed for quantities and for relationships between them, providing a kind of qualitative mathematics. Three ontological frameworks for organizing modeling knowledge (processes, components, and field) are summarized, along with research on automatically assembling models for particular tasks from such knowledge. Qualitative simulation and how it carves up time into meaningful units is discussed. We discuss several accounts of causal reasoning about dynamical systems, based on different choices of qualitative mathematics and ontology. Qualitative spatial reasoning is explored, both in terms of relational systems and visual reasoning. Applications of qualitative models of particular interest to cognitive scientists are described, including how they have been used to capture the expertise of scientists and engineers and how they have been used in education. Open questions and frontiers are also discussed, focusing on relationships between ideas developed in the qualitative modeling community and other areas of cognitive science. WIREs Cogni Sci 2011 2 374-391 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.115 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

show abstract

A Qualitative Approach to Mechanical Constraint

Cited by 17 publications

References 4 publications

Qualitative Spatial Reasoning: Framework and Frontiers

Qualitative Spatial Reasoning: Framework and Frontiers

Qualitative Kinematics of Linkages

Qualitative modeling

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About