Accession Number:

ADA183237

Title:

Towards an Integrated Discovery System.

Descriptive Note:

Interim rept. Jan-Mar 87,

Corporate Author:

CALIFORNIA UNIV IRVINE DEPT OF INFORMATION AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

Personal Author(s):

• Nordhausen,Bernd
• Langley,Pat

Report Date:

1987-07-27

Pagination or Media Count:

14.0

Abstract:

Previous research on machine discovery has focused on limited parts of the empirical discovery task. This paper describes IDS, an integrated discovery system that addresses both qualitative and quantitative discovery. The program represents its knowledge in terms of qualitative schemas, which it discovers by interacting with a simulated physical environment. Once IDS has formulated a qualitative scheme, it uses that schema to design experiments and to constrain the search for quantitative laws. The authors have carried out preliminary tests in the domain of heat phenomena. In this context the system has discovered both intrinsic properties, such as the melting point of substances, and numeric laws, such as the conversation of mass for objects going through a phase change. Keywords Artificial intelligence Knowledge representation.

Descriptors:

• *ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
• *PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
• HEAT
• MELTING POINT
• PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
• SIMULATION
• MASS TRANSFER

Subject Categories:

• Cybernetics
• Thermodynamics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE