BRUCE G. BUCHANAN: Department of Computer Science University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Traditional expert systems deal with problems whose descriptions do not change in the course of problem solving. In the monitoring of dynamic processes, however, this assumption is violated. P. Morizet-Mahoudeaux, "Maintaining consistency of a database during monitoring of an evolving process by a knowledge-based system," IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 21, 47-60, January/February 1991. (Un

Bruce G. Buchanan Department of Computer Science University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Path planning for a robot in a cluttered environment involves detecting collisions on paths under consideration. Several methods of representing the parts of space already occupied are currently in use, but they either depend on a stable environment or do not produce satisfactorily "direct" paths. A new hierarchical representation based on a series of approximate shapes of each object is proposed to solve the