A Realistic Experiment in Knowledge Representation in Open Event Calculus: Protocol Specification

This paper presents one of the first realistic experiments in the use of Event Calculus in Open Logic Programming: the specification of a process protocol. The specification task involves most of the common complications of temporal reasoning: the representation of context dependent actions, of preconditions and ramifications of actions, object creation, the modelling of system faults, and most of all, the representation of uncertainty of actions. As the underlying language, the Open Logic Programming formalism, an extension of Logic Programming, is used. The experiment shows that Event Calculus is a promising candidate for the specification of dynamic systems. A comparison between specification of process protocols in Event, Calculus and in the more commonly used process algebras shows fundamental differences between the two approaches.