A Look at Function Symbols and Planning

Foundations of Automatic Planning - The Classical Approach and Beyond

Volume

Papers from the 1993 AAAI Spring Symposium

Contents

This paper attempts to present how to use function symbols in action descriptions so that the planning algorithm only builds plans that are solutions to a planning problem. First, some coding tricks can be used so that action descriptions of the STRIPS framework can have their postconditions functionally dependent on the input situation. Since, in the STRIPS planning framework, a formula is true in a state if and only if it belongs to the set of formulas describing a state, using a function term in a STRIPS action description is impossible. Then, using ADL, it is shown how function terms can be used in action descriptions.