Reasoning about actions using description logics with general TBoxes

Abstract. Action formalisms based on description logics (DLs) have recently been introduced as decidable fragments of well-established action theories such as the Situation Calculus and the Fluent Calculus. However, existing DL action formalisms fail to include general TBoxes, which are the standard tool for formalising ontologies in modern description logics. We define a DL action formalism that admits general TBoxes, propose an approach to addressing the ramification problem that is introduced in this way, show that our formalism is decidable and perform a detailed investigation of its computational complexity. 1