Approximative Query Techniques for Agents with Heterogeneous Ontologies and Perceptive Capabilities

In this paper, we propose a framework that provides software and robotic agents with the ability to ask approximate questions to each other in the context of heterogeneous ontologies and heterogeneous perceptive capabilities. The framework combines the use of logic-based techniques with ideas from approximate reasoning. Initial queries by an agent are transformed into approximate queries using weakest sufficient and strongest necessary conditions on the query and are interpreted as lower and upper approximations on the query. Once the base communication ability is provided, the framework is extended to situations where there is not only a mismatch between agent ontologies, but the agents have varying ability to perceive their environments. This will affect each agent’s ability to ask and interpret results of queries. Limitations on perceptive capability are formalized using the idea of tolerance spaces.