Exploiting Opportunities Using Planning Graphs

Exploiting Opportunities Using Planning Graphs

Van der Krogt, R.P.J.
De Weerdt, M.M.
Witteveen, C.

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Software Computer Technology

2003-12-09

Opportunities arise in planning when changes in the environment make new propositions available to the planner. Replanning methods often focus only on the negative effects that changes in the environment have and therefore do not apply well. This paper introduces a method that is specifically focused on the opportunity problem. This method is based on the potential graph structure. This potential graph is basically an annotated version of the planning graph as used in many contemporary planners. We show how this potential graph can be used to discover the positive impact of opportunities. This information can then be used to improve upon the plan by exploiting such opportunities. The benefit of this method over standard planning techniques is two-fold: firstly, it can be used in an any-time algorithm. That is, when only little time is available, little improvements are quickly found. With more time available, greater improvements may be found. Secondly, this technique helps us focus on those parts of the plan that might be improved. Other parts are not changed, which greatly adds to the efficiency of the method. The applicability of the method is demonstrated by some initial experiments.

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:21941402-0cb9-435d-ac6b-bf5db8eea9a6

PlanSIG 2003: 22nd Annual Workshop of the UK Planning and Scheduling Special Interest Group, Glasgow, UK, 9-10 December 2003

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2003 The Author(s)