Comparative Envisionment Construction: A General Method for the Comparative211 Analysis of Dynamical Systems

摘要

Comparative analysis (CA) is a qualitative reasoning task directed at the211u001ecomparison of behaviors of two dynamical systems. The authors introduce the CA 211u001emethod CEC(astrisk) which is able to compare systems with the same structure as 211u001ewell as systems with a different structure within a sngle formalism. The 211u001ealgorithm constructs a comparative envisionment showing (1) possible effects of 211u001edifferences in the antecedent conditions or (2) possible causes of differences in 211u001ethe response of two systems. Its clear foundation in the theory of differential 211u001eequations makes it possible to prove that CEC(astrisk) is sound and incomplete. 211u001eThe method has been implemented and used to answer CA questions on a range of 211u001eexamples drawn from the qualitative reasoning literature.