In formal theories for reasoning about actions, the qualification problem denotes the problem to account for the many conditions which, albeit being unlikely to occur, may prevent the successful execution of an action. By a simple counter-example in the spirit of the well-known Yale Shooting scenario, we show that the common straightforward approach of globally minimizing such abnormal disquali...

This note presents a theoretical analysis of disjunctive constraints featuring unbounded variables. In this framework, classical modeling techniques, including big-M approaches, are not applicable. We introduce a lifted second-order cone formulation of such on/off constraints and discuss related constraint qualification issues. A solution is proposed to avoid solvers’ failure.

The use of causal rules or fluent dependency constraints has proven to provide a versatile means of dealing with the ramification problem. In this paper we show how fluent dependency constraints together with the use of durational fluents can be used to deal with problems associated with action qualification. We provide both a weak and a strong form of qualification and demonstrate the approach...

The modelling of complex problems tends to be most effective when modelling is calibrated using a concrete solver and modifications to the model are made as a result. In some cases, the final model is significantly different from the simple model that best fits the constraints of the problem. While there are several projects that are attempting to create black box solvers with generic modelling...