Title: A transition function based characterization of actions with delayed and continuous effects

Authors: Chitta Baral, Tran Son, Le-Chi Tuan

Abstract

In this paper we present a transition function based characterization of actions in a realistic environment. Our language allows for the specification of actions with duration, continuous effects, delayed effects, dependency on non-sharable resources, and accounts for parallel and overlapping execution of actions. One of the main contribution of our paper is a new definition of state in such an environment. Our notion of state encodes not only the fluent values but also obligations due to delayed effect of actions that were executed recently. This allows us to define a Markovian transition function. Although there have been earlier attempts at developing action languages with similar features, none of them present a transition function based characterization.