Description Logics (DLs) are a family of logic-based knowledge representation (KR) formalisms designed to represent and reason about static conceptual knowledge in a semantically well-understood way. On the other hand, standard action formalisms are KR formalisms based on classical logic designed to model and reason about dynamic systems. The largest part of the present work is dedicated to integrating DLs with action formalisms, with the main goal of obtaining decidable action formalisms with an expressiveness significantly beyond propositional. To this end, we offer DL-tailored solutions to the frame and ramification problem. One of the main technical results is that standard reasoning problems about actions (executability and projection), as well as the plan existence problem are decidable if one restricts the logic for describing action pre- and post-conditions and the state of the world to decidable Description Logics. A smaller part of the work is related to decidable extensions of Description Logics with concrete datatypes, most importantly with those allowing to refer to the notions of space and time.

Cette thèse vise à définir des techniques pour mieux exploiter les connaissances du domaine dans l’objectif de rendre compte de la réalité de systèmes qualifiés de complexes et critiques. La modélisation est une étape indispensable pour effectuer des vérifications et exprimer des propriétés qu’un système doit satisfaire. La modélisation est une représentation simplificatrice, mais réductionniste de la réalité d’un système. Or, un système complexe ne peut se réduire à un modèle. Un modèle doit s’intégrer dans sa théorie observationnelle pour rendre compte des anomalies qu’il peut y contenir. Notre étude montre clairement que le contexte est la première problématique à traiter car principale source de conflits dans le processus de conception d’un système. L’approche retenue dans cette thèse est celle d’intégrer des connaissances du domaine en associant le système à concevoir à des formalismes déclaratifs qualifiés de descriptifs appelés ontologies. Notre attention est portée au formalisme Event-B dont l’approche correct-par-construction appelée raffinement est le principal mécanisme dans ce formalisme qui permet de faire des preuves sur des représentations abstraites de systèmes pour exprimer/vérifier des propriétés de sûreté et d’invariance. Le premier problème traité concerne la représentation et la modélisation des connaissances du contexte en V&V de modèles. Suite à l’étude des sources de conflits, nous avons établi de nouvelles règles pour une extraction de connaissances liées au contexte par raffinement pour la V&V. Une étude des formalismes de représentation et d’interprétation logiques du contexte a permis de définir un nouveau mécanisme pour mieux structurer les modèles Event-B. Une deuxième étude concerne l’apport des connaissances du domaine pour la V&V. Nous définissons une logique pour le formalisme Event-B avec contraintes du domaine fondées sur les logiques de description, établissons des règles à exploiter pour l’intégration de ces connaissances à des fins de V&V. L’évaluation des propositions faites portent sur des études de cas très complexes telles que les systèmes de vote dont des patrons de conception sont aussi développés dans cette thèse. Nous soulevons des problématiques fondamentales sur la complémentarité que peut avoir l’intégration par raffinement des connaissances du domaine à des modèles en exploitant les raisonnements ontologiques, proposons de définir de nouvelles structures pour une extraction partiellement automatisée / This thesis aims at defining techniques to better exploit the knowledge provided from the domain in order to account for the reality of systems described as complex and critical. Modeling is an essential step in performing verifications and expressing properties that a system must satisfy according to the needs and requirements established in the specifications. Modeling is a representation that simplifies the reality of a system. However, a complex system can not be reduced to a model. A model that represents a system must always fit into its observational theory to account for any anomalies that it may contain. Our study clearly shows that the context is the first issue to deal with as the main source of conflict in the design process of a system. The approach adopted in this thesis is that of integrating knowledge of the domain by associating the system to design with declarative formalisms qualified of descriptive ones that we call ontologies. We pay a particular attention to the Event-B formalism, whose correct-by-construction approach called refinement is the main mechanism at the heart of this formalism, which makes it possible to make proofs on abstract representations of systems for expressing and verifying properties of safety and invariance. The first problem treated is the representation and modeling of contextual knowledge in V&V of models. Following to the study looked at the different sources of conflict, we established new definitions and rules for a refinement context knowledge extraction for Event-B V&V. A study of logical formalisms that represent and interpret the context allowed us to define a new mechanism for better structuring Event-B models. A second study concerns the contribution that domain knowledge can make to the V&V of models. We define a logic for the Event-B formalism with domain constraints based on the description logic, and we define rules to integrate domain knowledge for model V&V. The evaluation of the proposals made deal with very complex case studies such as voting systems whose design patterns are also developed in this thesis. We raise fundamental issues about the complementarity that the integration of domain knowledge can bring to Event-B models by refinement using ontological reasoning, and we propose to define a new structures for a partially automated extraction on both levels, namely the V&V

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-12T20:15:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Karla Weber.pdf: 792478 bytes, checksum: 5ad5bec34e3e16a7e56322ccf40af568 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / In this work we will show that the wave equations for any twistor fields carrying a single index, which occur in the frameworks of the Infeld-van der Waerden γ formalisms for General Relativity, must be formally the same. This result stems mainly from the fact that the spinor transcription of the traditional conformal Killing equation provides twistor equations of the same form. A consequence of this result is that the usual γ formalism covariant differential devices for controlling valences of spinor-index configurations turn out to be inapplicable as regards the speciation of the formal patterns for the wave equations under consideration here. / Mostraremos neste trabalho que as equações de onda para quaisquer campos twistoriais de um único índice, as quais ocorrem no contexto dos formalismos espinoriais γ de Infeld e van der Waerden para a Relatividade Geral, devem ser formalmente as mesmas. Este resultado decorre essencialmente do fato que a transcrição espinorial da tradicional equação conforme de Killing fornece equações twistoriais da mesma forma. Uma conseqüência deste resultado e que os dispositivos diferenciais covariantes do formalismo γ, os quais usualmente servem para controlar valências de conjurações indiciais, tornam-se inaplicáveis no que concerne a obtenção dos padrões formais das equações de onda sob consideração aqui.

Parmi les différentes formes de raisonnement étudiées dans le contexte de l'intelligence artificielle, le raisonnement qualitatif permet d'inférer de nouvelles connaissances dans le contexte d'informations imprécises, incomplètes et dépourvues de valeurs numériques. Il permet par exemple de déduire de nouvelles informations à partir d'un ensemble d'informations spatiales telles que « la France est frontalière de l'Allemagne », « la Suisse est à l'est de la France », « l'Italie est en Europe » et « le Luxembourg est proche de la France ». Il peut également être utilisé pour résoudre des abstractions de problèmes quantitatifs difficiles à résoudre, afin par exemple d'accélérer la résolution de ces problèmes.De nombreux formalismes de raisonnement qualitatif ont été proposés dans la littérature. Ils ne se focalisent cependant que sur un seul aspect du monde, alors que la majorité des applications requièrent la prise en compte d'informations hétérogènes. Afin de répondre à ces besoins, plusieurs combinaisons et extensions de formalismes qualitatifs, comme le raisonnement spatio-temporel et le raisonnement multi-échelle, ont récemment été proposées dans la littérature. Le raisonnement spatio-temporel permet de raisonner dans le contexte d'informations spatiales et temporelles interdépendantes. Le raisonnement multi-échelle permet de raisonner avec des informations de précisions différentes, et en particulier de lever des incohérences apparentes.Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons au raisonnement multi-échelle, au raisonnement spatio-temporel et aux combinaisons de formalismes qualitatifs.Nous proposons d'étendre le raisonnement qualitatif temporel multi-échelle pour prendre en compte le fait que les intervalles de temps peuvent être perçus comme des instants à certaines échelles de précision, de formaliser intégralement ce raisonnement et d'étudier la décision de la cohérence dans ce contexte ainsi que sa complexité. Nous montrons en particulier que ce formalisme permet de décider la cohérence et que le problème de décision de la cohérence est NP-complet, même dans le cas le plus simple.En outre, nous proposons un cadre général permettant de raisonner sur les séquences temporelles d'informations qualitatives, une forme de description spatio-temporelle. Ce cadre permet notamment de raisonner dans le contexte d'évolutions complexes. Par exemple, les entités considérées peuvent avoir des caractéristiques préservées au cours du temps, évoluer de manière dépendante les unes par rapport aux autres, tout en ayant un comportement potentiellement irréversible et différent selon leur nature. De plus, dans ce cadre, le raisonnement est plus performant computationnellement que les approches de l'état de l'art. Nous étudions en particulier la décision de la cohérence dans le contexte spécifique de régions mobiles de taille constante, et montrons que ce cadre permet effectivement de décider la cohérence.De surcroît, nous proposons un cadre formel unifiant plusieurs formes d'extensions et de combinaisons de formalismes qualitatifs, incluant le raisonnement multi-échelle et les séquences temporelles. Ce cadre permet de raisonner dans le contexte de chacune de ces combinaisons et extensions, mais également d'étudier de manière unifiée la décision de la cohérence et sa complexité. Nous établissons en particulier deux théorèmes complémentaires garantissant que la décision de la cohérence est polynomiale, et nous les utilisons pour prouver que plusieurs fragments de séquences temporelles sont traitables.Nous généralisons également la définition principale de formalisme qualitatif afin d'inclure des formalismes qualitatifs exclus des définitions de la littérature, importants dans le cadre des combinaisons. / In this thesis, we are interested in qualitative multi-scale reasoning, qualitative spatio-temporal reasoning and combinations of qualitative formalisms.We propose to extend the multiscale temporal reasoning to take into account the fact that time intervals can be perceived as instants at certain scales of precision, to fully formalize this reasoning and to study its consistency problem. We show in particular that this formalism decides consistency and that the consistency problem is NP-complete, even in the simplest case.In addition, we propose a general framework for reasoning on temporal sequences of qualitative information, a form of spatio-temporal description. This framework allows for reasoning in the context of complex evolutions. For example, the considered entities may have characteristics preserved over time, evolve in a dependent manner with respect to each other, while having a potentially irreversible and different behavior depending on their nature. Moreover, in this context, reasoning is computationally more efficient than state-of-the-art approaches. In particular, we study the consistency problem in the specific context of constant-size moving regions, and show that this framework actually decides consistency.Furthermore, we propose a formal framework unifying several forms of extensions and combinations of qualitative formalisms, including multi-scale reasoning and temporal sequences. This framework allows one to reason in the context of each of these combinations and extensions, but also to study in a unified way the consistency problem. In particular, we establish two complementary theorems guaranteeing that the consistency problem is polynomial, and we use them to prove that several fragments of temporal sequences are tractable.

Action planning has been used in the field of robotics for solving long-running tasks. In the robot architectures field, it is also known as the deliberative layer. However, there is still a gap between the symbolic representation on the one hand and the low-level control and sensor representation on the other. In addition, the definition of a planning problem for a complex, real-world robot is not trivial. The planning process could become intractable as its search spaces become large. As the defined planning problem determines the complexity and the computationability for solving the problem, it should contain only relevant states. In this work, a novel approach which amalgamates Description Logic (DL) reasoning with Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning is introduced. The planning domain description as well as fundamental HTN planning concepts are represented in DL and can therefore be subject to DL reasoning; from these representations, concise planning problems are generated for HTN planning. The method is presented through an example in the robot navigation domain. In addition, a case study of the RoboCup@Home domain is given. As proof of concept, a well-known planning problem that often serves as a benchmark, namely that of the blocks-world, is modeled and solved using this approach. An analysis of the performance of the approach has been conducted and the results show that this approach yields significantly smaller planning problem descriptions than those generated by current representations in HTN planning.

Numerous studies on Queueing systems, such as Internet traffic flows, have shown to be bursty, self-similar and/or long-range dependent, because of the heavy (long) tails for the various distributions of interest, including intermittent intervals and queue lengths. Other studies have addressed vacation in no-customers’ queueing system or when the server fails. These patterns are important for capacity planning, performance prediction, and optimization of networks and have a negative impact on their effective functioning. Heavy-tailed distributions have been commonly used by telecommunication engineers to create workloads for simulation studies, which, regrettably, may show peculiar queueing characteristics. To cost-effectively examine the impacts of different network patterns on heavy- tailed queues, new and reliable analytical approaches need to be developed. It is decided to establish a brand-new analytical framework based on optimizing entropy functionals, such as those of Shannon, Rényi, Tsallis, and others that have been suggested within statistical physics and information theory, subject to suitable linear and non-linear system constraints. In both discrete and continuous time domains, new heavy tail analytic performance distributions will be developed, with a focus on those exhibiting the power law behaviour seen in many Internet scenarios. The exposition of two major revolutionary approaches, namely the unification of information geometry and classical queueing systems and unifying information length theory with transient queueing systems. After conclusions, open problems arising from this thesis and limitations are introduced as future work.

Com a crescente complexidade das aplicações e sistemas computacionais, atualmente tem se tornado importante o uso de formalismos de várias naturezas na representação e modelagem de problemas complexos, como os sistemas reativos e concorrentes. Este trabalho apresenta uma contribuição na Tecnologia Adaptativa e uma nova técnica no desenvolvimento de uma aplicação para execução de alguns tipos de jogos, (General Game Playing), cuja característica está associada à capacidade de o sistema tomar conhecimento das regras do jogo apenas em tempo de execução. Com esse trabalho, amplia-se a classe de problemas que podem ser estudados e analisados sob a perspectiva da Tecnologia Adaptativa, através dos Dispositivos Adaptativos Cooperantes. A aplicação desenvolvida como exemplo neste trabalho introduz uma nova ótica no desenvolvimento de aplicações para jogos gerais (GGP) e abre novos horizontes para a aplicação da Tecnologia Adaptativa, como a utilização das regras para extração de informação e inferência. / The complexity of computer applications has grown so much that several formalisms of different kinds became important nowadays. Many systems (e.g. reactive and concurrent ones) employ such formalisms to represent and model actual complex problems. This work contributes to the field of Adaptive Technology, and proposes a new approach for developing general game playing system, whose feature is the capability to play a game by acknowledging the game rules only at run time. This work expands the set of problems that can be studied and analyzed under the Adaptive Technology perspective, by means of cooperating adaptive devices. The developed application used a new approach for general game playing development bringing and widens the application field of Adaptive Technology with subjects related to information extraction and inference based in the devices rules.

Com a crescente complexidade das aplicações e sistemas computacionais, atualmente tem se tornado importante o uso de formalismos de várias naturezas na representação e modelagem de problemas complexos, como os sistemas reativos e concorrentes. Este trabalho apresenta uma contribuição na Tecnologia Adaptativa e uma nova técnica no desenvolvimento de uma aplicação para execução de alguns tipos de jogos, (General Game Playing), cuja característica está associada à capacidade de o sistema tomar conhecimento das regras do jogo apenas em tempo de execução. Com esse trabalho, amplia-se a classe de problemas que podem ser estudados e analisados sob a perspectiva da Tecnologia Adaptativa, através dos Dispositivos Adaptativos Cooperantes. A aplicação desenvolvida como exemplo neste trabalho introduz uma nova ótica no desenvolvimento de aplicações para jogos gerais (GGP) e abre novos horizontes para a aplicação da Tecnologia Adaptativa, como a utilização das regras para extração de informação e inferência. / The complexity of computer applications has grown so much that several formalisms of different kinds became important nowadays. Many systems (e.g. reactive and concurrent ones) employ such formalisms to represent and model actual complex problems. This work contributes to the field of Adaptive Technology, and proposes a new approach for developing general game playing system, whose feature is the capability to play a game by acknowledging the game rules only at run time. This work expands the set of problems that can be studied and analyzed under the Adaptive Technology perspective, by means of cooperating adaptive devices. The developed application used a new approach for general game playing development bringing and widens the application field of Adaptive Technology with subjects related to information extraction and inference based in the devices rules.

Nous étudions l’analyse asymptotique en relativité générale sous deux aspects: le peeling et le scattering (diffusion) conforme. Le peeling est construit pour les champs scalaires linéaire et non-linéaires et pour les champs de Dirac en espace-temps de Kerr (qui est non-stationnaire et à symétrie simplement axiale), généralisant les travaux de L. Mason et J-P. Nicolas (2009, 2012). La méthode des champs de vecteurs (estimations d’énergie géométriques) et la technique de compactification conforme sont développées. Elles nous permettent de formuler les définitions du peeling à tous ordres et d’obtenir les données initiales optimales qui assurent ces comportements. Une théorie de la diffusion conforme pour les équations de champs sans masse de spîn n/2 dans l’espace-temps de Minkowski est construite.En effectuant les compactifications conformes (complète et partielle), l’espace-temps est complété en ajoutant une frontière constituée de deux hypersurfaces isotropes représentant respectivement les points limites passés et futurs des géodésiques de type lumière. Le comportement asymptotique des champs s’obtient en résolvant le problème de Cauchy pour l’équation rééchelonnée et en considérant les traces des solutions sur ces bords. L’inversibilité des opérateurs de trace, qui associent le comportement asymptotique passé ou futur aux données initiales, s’obtient en résolvant le problème de Goursat sur le bord conforme. L’opérateur de diffusion conforme est alors obtenu par composition de l’opérateur de trace futur avec l’inverse de l’opérateur de trace passé. / This work explores two aspects of asymptotic analysis in general relativity: peeling and conformal scattering.On the one hand, the peeling is constructed for linear and nonlinear scalar fields as well as Dirac fields on Kerr spacetime, which is non-stationary and merely axially symmetric. This generalizes the work of L. Mason and J-P. Nicolas (2009, 2012). The vector field method (geometric energy estimates) and the conformal technique are developed. They allow us to formulate the definition of the peeling at all orders and to obtain the optimal space of initial data which guarantees these behaviours. On the other hand, a conformal scattering theory for the spin-n/2 zero rest-mass equations on Minkowski spacetime is constructed. Using the conformal compactifications (full and partial), the spacetime is completed with two null hypersurfaces representing respectively the past and future end points of null geodesics. The asymptotic behaviour of fields is then obtained by solving the Cauchy problem for the rescaled equation and considering the traces of the solutions on these hypersurfaces. The invertibility of the trace operators, that to the initial data associate the future or past asymptotic behaviours, is obtained by solving the Goursat problem on the conformal boundary. The conformal scattering operator is then obtained by composing the future trace operator with the inverse of the past trace operator.

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