Planning Models
Given the subset model of uncertainty
we can now address what planning model to use. Following the same general
idea as before, a list of candidates will be presented, and each will be
evaluated with respect to the subset representation.
Again, as this document evolves, both the features that are used as
evaluation criteria, and the choice of planning models will be subject
to change.
Finding high probability plans
There seem to be two different approaches to finding the 'best'. Either
search the entire space and select the optimum, or re-arrange the search
order, so that the first solution found is the optimum. When searching
for the highest probability plan, both of these can be used. The first
is trivial, since if we search the entire space, we will find the best.
Unfortunately, this is intractable for all but the most trivial planning
problems. So it is necessary to limit the search space, by controlling
the search. The second approach is to rearrange the search order, so that
the first plan found also meets the optimality criteria. In the case of
classical planning, optimality is defined as plan length, so any search
that pushes a frontier outward, will find the shortest plan first, thus
eliminating the need to search the entire space. In the shortest
path model, each operator adds a fixed amount to the plan cost, so all
N step plans are less valuable that all (N-K) length plans.
While this works well for shortest plan first, it is a little trickier
for highest probability. The probability of plan success is the product
of the probability of the steps (assuming independent operators). This
means that there is no direct coupling between the plan length and the
plan probability. So the same type of greedy algorithm that works for SFP
planners, won't apply directly to probability aware planning. It is possible,
however, to transform the planning space to allow SFP planners to produce
MaxProb plans, under certain constraints.
Features
- works with subset probability representation
- elaboration time
- Traditional
- Less than Traditional
- Possibly new
This is the classic planning model. The planner begins from the desired
goal state, and works toward the initial state. This approach can limit
the search space by only looking at the operators that could modify the
world to be closer to the goal.
Probability
Unfortunately, backward chaining planners are primarily designed to find
the shortest plan that spans from the initial state to the goal state.
Elaboration Time
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Forward Chaining Planners
Forward chaining planners work from the initial state to the goal, and
control the search space by the use of explicit search control rules. These
frequently work as breadth first search systems, and/or rely on the developer
to encode rules that can be used to prune in-effective branches of the
search tree.
Probability
Since the developer is responsible for encoding the search control rules,
it is fairly straight forward to encode rules that limit search based on
expected probability of success. In the case of my existing forward chaining
planner, two classes of search control rules are used. First I use a function
(called Stupid()) to determine whether it is worth pursuing a branch. Once
the goal is reached, a second function is used to evaluate the probability,
and expected value of the plan, and if it exceeds the best plan so far,
the new plan is kept.
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The basic concept of sub-plan exploration is that it is
computationally easier to find two plans of length (N/2) than it is to
find one plan of length (N). This is, of course due to the exponential
growth of the plan space as a function of plan length. For example, In
the Fixit problem,
given an operator set of size 14, and a plan of length 19, the naive plan
space for the full plan is on the order of 6 * 10^21, whereas the plan
space for the two half plans is only 6 * 10^11. This alone reduces the
search space, in this case, by a factor of 10^10.
So, what we would like to do is find a state, which is reachable
from the initial state in about (n/2) steps, and from which the goal
state is reachable in about (n/2) steps. Then do two planning
episodes. The only headache is how to find this mid-state?
Suppose that our representation of operators is in the form of an
initial world description (IWD) and a terminal world description
(TWD). Let's assume an open world model, with the absence of
specification indicating a 'don't care' condition. Then the operator
can be applied if its IWD is a subset of the world state at any time,
since its preconditions would be met by that world state. After
application, the world state is modified to reflect the effects of the
operator' TWD. This would act as the new world state for the next
operator, and so on until the goal state was reached.
With this representation, it is possible to treat the world
descriptions as attribute sets, where each one consists of those
attribute which are salient to the planning problem (the initial and
final world descriptions), and the available operators.
Given this set representation, we can take the difference between
the two sets, and use this to guide the process of selecting possible
partitioning points for the planner.
Since this set difference captures only the salient differences
between the initial and terminal world descriptions, it represents the
'net effect' of any plan which achieves the goals. If such a plan
exists, then at least one point on the trajectory created by executing
this plan must be a subset of the set difference. (!! Insert a link to
a brief sketch of a betweeness proof, based on plan space as an
asymetric pseudo-metric space !!)
So the long and the short of it is this: use the set difference to
guide the search of possible way-points in the plan trajectory, for
each possibility, search for connectedness to one end (a much smaller
problem), and if the path is found, then search for the other half of
the plan. If that fails, move onto the next possible way-point.
The headache with this is goal clobbering. Goal clobbering occurs
when achieving one goal must be undone to achieve a second goal. The
classic example of this is Sussman's Anomaly, set in the Blocks World
Domain. Imagine that we have three blocks on a table, and Block C is
on top of Block A which is on the table. Block B is also on the
table. Our goal state is a tower with A on top of B on top of C.
Given two operators Pick-up and Stack, Pick-up
will grasp a block as long as there is no other block ontop of it, and
Stack will place a grasped block ontop of a second, as long as
the second block is clear.
Sussman's anomoly arises when the construction of the tower is
attempted as multiple sub-goals. We need to achieve three changes to
the world: 1) place Block C on the table, 2) place block B on top of
Block C, and 3) place Block A on top of Block B. If the three sub-goals
are done in this order, everything is cool. But if the order is
altered, then Block B is picked-up from the table, and placed on top of
Block C (sub-goal!), now however, the pick-up operator cannot
be applied to Block A, since it is not clear. Thus the achieved
sub-goal must be undone (hopefully by putting Block B on the table,
then Block C onto the table) then re-done after the other sub-goals are
completed.
This is the risk associated with the sub-plan evaluation
approach. However, the benefits can be significant. Using the Fixit
world, experiments indicated that the
cost of elaborating all 6 possible mid-points in the plan space
explored only 0.000364 of the total plan space.
Probability
This extends to probability fairly well, since we are finding ways to
investigate a set of possible plans at lower computational
cost. However, it does not really exploit the exisitence of possible
alternate outcomes. So it is more suited to POS or BUG models that to
reasoning about the expected value of the plan.
Elaboration Time
The elaboration time is tricky. In the asymptotic case, we are simply
doing exhaustive search of the space. However, we are using the
heuristic to guide the search to cause viable plans to be located
much sooner in the search process.
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