• Formal defining the problem solved by planning algorithms.

• Context in which planning is used.

• Basic AI techniques used for problem solving in general, and planning problems in particular.

• STRIPS planning system

• Plan space search is a different approach to the same problem.

• Hierarchical planning addresses a similar problem and has been used in many real world Applications.

• state-of-the-art in planning Research: Introducing some of the techniques used in the fastest planners available today.

• Applications areas in which AI planning is been used + some more advanced topics.

Planning is one of the most important Aspects of intelligent behavior. The ability to identify and select appropriate activity, and to project forward the consequences of executing that activity is fundamental to humans and intelligent machines alike.

• What is planning (in AI)
• A conceptual Model for Planning
• Planning and Search
• Example Problems

Planning in important for artifical intelligence as a whole.

Human Planning and Acting

Humans rarely plan before acting in everyday situation. Humans act without prior explicit planning quite often. There is a number of stations where this is the case. Some examples are the following:

When the purpose of the action is immediate, there is no need to make an explicit plan.

When performing well trained behaviors, there is also no need to do explicit planning.

When the course of action can be freely adapted there is also no need for a plan.

In contrast a number of situation make it possible to plan, though. In the following are some examples here planning is necessary, that is explicit planning.

When addressing a new situation, that have not been encountered before or not been done often., the there is need to do explicit planning. Another situation is when the task that needs to be achieved is very complex.

A further situation where acting happens only after planning is when the environment imposes a high risk or a high cost.

Importantly also when collaborating with others, explicit planning can be extremely helpful. Think of people who wants to build a Digital Decipher Machine. That are the people that are constructing the infrastructure, filling it with content and making it possible that information can be visual represented. They need to coordinate their activity and that means they all need to have an explicit plan for when they do what and in which order.

Overall people only plan when it is strictly necessary, they do not plan when they do not have to. They only plan when they feel there is a benefit to it. This is because planning is a complicated and time-consuming process. There is a basic trade-off. If they plan, they normally come up with a course of actions that leads to better results, but there is a cost. So if there is no benefit to be had from planning, they are better off not planning. That is, often they seek only solutions or plans that are good enough for what they are trying to achieve, not optimal plans. Thus, humans only plan when it is strictly necessary.

• Acting without (explicit) planning

  • when purpose is immediate
  • when performing well-trained behaviors
  • when course of action can be freely adapted

• Acting after planning

  • when addressing a new situation
  • when tasks are complex
  • when the environment imposes high risk/cost
  • when collaborating with others

• People plan only when strictly necessary

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