Proving properties of states in the situation calculus

Abstract

In the situation calculus, it is sometimes necessary to prove that certain properties are true in all world states accessible from the initial state. This is the case for some forms of reasoning about the physical world, for certain planning applications, and for verifying integrity constraints in databases. Not surprisingly, this requires a suitable form of mathematical induction. This paper motivates the need for proving properties of states in the situation calculus, proposes appropriate induction principles for this task, and gives examples of their use in databases and for reasoning about the physical world.