Representation and Evaluation of Plans with Loops

Extending Theories of Action: Formal Theory and Practical Applications

Volume

Papers from the 1995 AAAI Spring Symposium

Contents

This paper describes: 1. A formal representation for such plans; it allows probabilistic, information-gathering actions, parallel execution, contingent execution, and loops. (Most existing plan representations could not express loops.) 2. An aggregation technique for evaluating such plans. This technique uses Markov modelling to recursively evaluate and simplify small fragments of the schematically represented plan. We are thus able to avoid constructing a Markov model for the entire plan.