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Evidence Accumulation and Flow of Control in a Hierarchical Spatial Reasoning System
A fundamental goal of computer vision is the development of systems capable of carrying out scene interpretation while taking into account all the available knowledge. In this article, we focus on how the interpretation task can be aided by the expected scene information (such as map knowledge), which, in most cases, would not be in registration with the perceived scene. The proposed approach is applicable to the interpretation of scenes with three-dimensional structures as long as it is possible to generate the equivalent two-dimensional orthogonal or perspective projections of the structures in the expected scene. The system is implemented as a two-panel, six-level blackboard and uses the Dempster-Shafer formalism to accomplish inexact reasoning in a hierarchical space. Inexact reasoning involves exploiting, at different levels of abstraction, any internal geometric consistencies in the data and between the data and the expected scene. As they are discovered, these consistencies are used to update the system's belief in associating a data element with a particular entity from the expected scene.
What AI Pratitioners Should Know about the Law Part Two
This is Part 2 of a two-part article and discusses issues of tort liability and the use of computers in the courtroom. [The legal dimensions of topics covered in this part are given comprehensive attention by the author in Tort Adjudication and the Emergence of Artificial Intelligence Software, 21 Suffolk University Law Review 623 (1987)]. Part 1 of this article, which appeared in the Spring 1988 issue of AI Magazine, discussed steps that developers of AI systems can take to protect their efforts, and the attendant legal ambiguities that must eventually be addressed in order to clarify the scope of such protection. Part 2 explores the prospect of AI systems as subjects of litigation.
New Hitech Computer Chess Success
There was a six-way tie were losses to International Master's, for first with 5.5 points between: and there were two draws against International Grandmaster Mikhail players rated over 2500, (one an International Tal (a former world champion), International Master). Grandmaster Sergey Kudrin, From previous tournaments rated FIDE Master Michael Brooks, International by FIDE, the international chess federation, Master James Rizzitano, International Hitech has achieved a performance Master Calvin Blocker, and worthy of a FIDE rating. However, International Grandmaster Leonid at present FIDE is declining to Shamkovich. Hitech has met every points were: National Master Hitech, qualification but one for achieving a International Grandmaster Maxim rating--it is not a human. If Hitech Dlugy, International Grandmaster were eligible for a rating, its FIDE rating Walter Browne, International Grandmaster would be 2350, which would qualify Arthur Bisguier, and nine others.
Navigation and Mapping in Large Scale Space
Kuipers, Benjamin J., Levitt, Todd S.
In a large-scale space, structure is at a significantly larger scale than the observations available at an instant. To learn the structure of a large-scale space from observations, the observer must build a cognitive map of the environment by integrating observations over an extended period of time, inferring spatial structure from perceptions and the effects of actions. The cognitive map representation of large-scale space must account for a mapping, or learning structure from observations, and navigation, or creating and executing a plan to travel from one place to another. Approaches to date tend to be fragile either because they don't build maps; or because they assume nonlocal observations, such as those available in preexisting maps or global coordinate systems, including active landmark beacons and geo-locating satellites. We propose that robust navigation and mapping systems for large-scale space can be developed by adhering to a natural, four-level semantic hierarchy of descriptions for representation, planning, and execution of plans in large-scale space. The four levels are sensorimotor interaction, procedural behaviors, topological mapping, and metric mapping. Effective systems represent the environment, relative to sensors, at all four levels and formulate robust system behavior by moving flexibly between representational levels at run time. We demonstrate our claims in three implemented models: Tour, the Qualnav system simulator, and the NX robot.
Sensor Fusion in Certainty Grids for Mobile Robots
A numeric representation of uncertain and incomplete sensor knowledge called certainty grids was used successfully in several recent mobile robot control programs developed at the Carnegie-Mellon University Mobile Robot Laboratory (MRL). Certainty grids have proven to be a powerful and efficient unifying solution for sensor fusion, motion planning, landmark identification, and many other central problems. MRL had good early success with ad hoc formulas for updating grid cells with new information. A new Bayesian statistical foundation for the operations promises further improvement. MRL proposes to build a software framework running on processors onboard the new Uranus mobile robot that will maintain a probabilistic, geometric map of the robot's surroundings as it moves. The certainty grid representation will allow this map to be incrementally updated in a uniform way based on information coming from various sources, including sonar, stereo vision, proximity, and contact sensors. The approach can correctly model the fuzziness of each reading and, at the same time, combine multiple measurements to produce sharper map features; it can also deal correctly with uncertainties in the robot's motion. The map will be used by planning programs to choose clear paths, identify locations (by correlating maps), identify well-known and insufficiently sensed terrain, and perhaps identify objects by shape. The certainty grid representation can be extended in the time dimension and used to detect and track moving objects. Even the simplest versions of the idea allow us to fairly straightforwardly program the robot for tasks that have hitherto been out of reach. MRL looks forward to a program that can explore a region and return to its starting place, using map "snapshots" from its outbound journey to find its way back, even in the presence of disturbances of its motion and occasional changes in the terrain.
New Mexico State University's Computing Research Laboratory
The Computing Research Laboratory (CRL) at New Mexico State University is a center for research in artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Specific areas of research include the human-computer interface, natural language understanding, connectionism, knowledge representation and reasoning, computer vision, robotics, and graph theory. This article describes the ongoing projects at CRL.
Concurrent Logic Programming, Metaprogramming, and Open Systems
An informal workshop on concurrent logic programming, metaprogramming, and open systems was held at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) on 8-9 September 1987 with support from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. The 50 workshop participants came from the Japanese Fifth Generation Project (ICOT), the Weizmann Institute of Sci-ence in Israel, Imperial College in London, the Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Stanford University, the Mas-sachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Cal Tech, Science University of Tokyo, Melbourne University, Calgary University, University of Wisconsin, Case Western Reserve, University of Oregon, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Quintus, Symbolics, IBM, and Xerox PARC. No proceedings were generated; instead, participants distributed copies of drafts, slides, and recent papers.
New Mexico State University's Computing Research Laboratory
The Computing Research Laboratory (CRL) at New Mexico State University is a center for research in artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Specific areas of research include the human-computer interface, natural language understanding, connectionism, knowledge representation and reasoning, computer vision, robotics, and graph theory. This article describes the ongoing projects at CRL.