Planning with Loops

Abstract

Unlike the case for sequential and conditional planning, much of the work on iterative planning (planning where loops may be needed) leans heavily on theorem-proving. This paper does the following: it proposes a different approach where generating plans is decoupled from verifying them; describes the implementation of an iterative planner based on the situation calculus; presents a few examples illustrating the sorts of plans that can be generated; shows some of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach; and finally sketches the beginnings of a theory, where validation of plans is done offline.