Event calculus and temporal action logics compared Original Research Article

We compare the event calculus and temporal action logics (TAL), two formalisms for reasoning about action and change. We prove that, if the formalisms are restricted to integer time, inertial fluents, and relational fluents, and if TAL action type specifications are restricted to definite reassignment of a single fluent, then the formalisms are not equivalent. We argue that equivalence cannot be restored by using more general TAL action type specifications. We prove however that, if the formalisms are further restricted to single-step actions, then they are logically equivalent.