A general algebraic structure for situation analysis

The aim of this paper is to present recent works made in the study of distributed systems and knowledge-based programs and show how these results can contribute to the formalization of the situation analysis (SA) problem. Precisely, we propose to use the algebraic concepts detailed in a recent book of Fagin, Halpern, Moses and Vardi as a blueprint for SA system design. In this paper we show how the formal model in question can be used to handle and distinguish numerical evaluations of probabilities and belief as well as means to represent and reason on knowledge. After a presentation of key models and concepts of situation awareness (SAW) and SA we proceed with a brief review of formal models recently used and associated published work. Building upon Fagin and Halpern's work but also on Bundy's which extend the probability structure proposed by Nilsson this paper shows how to translate the basic concepts of functional SA models in the proposed formal algebraic framework. The algebraic concepts exposed and studied herein are those of agents and environment, local and global states, temporal sequences of global states called runs, systems or sets of runs, actions, protocols and finally contexts.