Logic Mathematical logic is a fundamental formalism in computational complexity theory and AI. Many problems are closely connected to the expression of logical formulas and their feasibility. Our research activities concentrate on the efficiency of algorithms for the decision problem ‘satisfiability’ (SAT) in propositional logic and related questions, e.g., the structure of minimal unsatisfiable formulas or the representation of formulas as circuits. A recent research focus is on Quantified Boolean Formulas (QBF). We investigate short encodings of propositional formulas as QBFs, satisfiability and equivalence model for QBFs, especially for QHORN, and consider applications such as model checking.
Multiagent Systems and Machine Learning Our multiagent system research concentrates on the coordination of a team of agents and the learning of both emergent and single group-independent behavior. We assume that the knowledge and capabilities of agents are restricted due to resource limitations. Our activities focus on partitioning the problems and hierarchical organization of multiple agents as well as acting in highly dynamic environments. Techniques taken from evolutionary computation and swarm intelligence contributed to powerful learning approaches in this research context, i.e. the evolution of sets of rules for reactive agent control.
Modeling, Analysis, and Synthesis of Technical Systems The automatic synthesis of technical systems forms the core of many problems from the field of configuration, design, and feasibility analysis. To master it, questions from the field of economics, engineering sciences, intelligent search, and knowledge processing need to be answered. In various research projects and industrial ventures we have investigated questions on formal models of technical system design, model generation with design graph grammars, and the learning of optimum design decisions. Our research led to the development of remarkable tools that support fluidic system design and world-class software in education and uncaused simulation (FluidSIM).
