Interactive Answer Set Programming - Preliminary Report

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of interactive Answer Set Programming (ASP), formalizes its framework, and presents the aspic shell for interactive logic programming, expanding ASP's applicability to dynamic and user-interactive scenarios.

Contribution

It provides a formal framework for interactive ASP and introduces the aspic shell, enabling user interaction with ASP systems for dynamic problem solving.

Findings

Formal characterization of interactive ASP states and operations

Development of the aspic interactive ASP shell

Demonstration of interactive ASP functionalities

Abstract

Traditional Answer Set Programming (ASP) rests upon one-shot solving. A logic program is fed into an ASP system and its stable models are computed. The high practical relevance of dynamic applications led to the development of multi-shot solving systems. An operative system solves continuously changing logic programs. Although this was primarily aiming at dynamic applications in assisted living, robotics, or stream reasoning, where solvers interact with an environment, it also opened up the opportunity of interactive ASP, where a solver interacts with a user. We begin with a formal characterization of interactive ASP in terms of states and operations on them. In turn, we describe the interactive ASP shell aspic along with its basic functionalities.