A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Research Studies Project Report (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1986

It is generally accepted that the abilities to reason and to manipulate things in the physical world are part of what intelligence is . Many AI researches were conducted along this spectrum . These facilitate building intelligent robots which eventually do work for people . This study was conducted along this spectrum too . A system called "MANIPULATE" was · designed and implemented to manipulate objects and also reason their stabilities in a well- defined blocks world. The system inter leaves manipulation and reasoning in response to each kind of command . Manipulation procedures are goal - directed ones which were designed using problem reduction technique . Reasoning procedures are pack aged up in the form of rules that do embody knowledge in a systematic way. The ultimate goal in AI is to be able to solve hard , unstructured problems . However , it is still useful to explore simpler problems , such as the one MANIPULATE dealt with, in order to gain in sight in to the details of methods that can form the basis for the harder problems. The system "MANIPULAT E" considers the question of stability of physical configurations . The configurations are formed using regular shaped objects placed one upon another . The question of the stability of the structure is considered qualitatively. Further , the issues of representation of physical objects and the methodology of inference on them are also considered .