From Situation Calculus To Fluent Calculus: A New Motivation

While historically the Fluent Calculus arose from approaches to the Frame Problem using non-classical, linear logics, an alternative is to view it as a development of the Situation Calculus with the aim of coping with the inferential aspect of the Frame Problem. Starting oo from the concept of successor state axioms as a solution to the representational aspect, we show how by gradual improvement regarding the inferential aspect, but without losing the representational merits , one nally arrives at a novel version of the Fluent Calculus. We illustrate that under the provision that actions have no so-called open eeects, any Situation Calculus speciication can be transformed into an essentially equivalent Fluent Calculus speciication. Our hope is that this alternative access to the Fluent Calculus both clariies its role in relation to the most popular axiomatization paradigm and helps enhancing its acceptance.