Using partial global plans to coordinate distributed problem solvers
IJCAI'87 Proceedings of the 10th international joint conference on Artificial intelligence - Volume 2
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A PROBLEM SOLVER''S CONTROL COMPONENT MUST RESOLVE UNCERTAINTY ABOUT WHICH POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO PURSUE AND ABOUT WHAT ACTIONS WILL BEST LEAD TO THE DESIRED SOLUTIONS. IN THIS PAPER, WE DESCRIBE A PLANNER THAT IMPROVES THE CONTROL DECISIONS MADE BY A BLACKBOARD-BASED PROBLEM SOLVER. THIS PLANNER ABSTRACTS THE PROBLEM SOLVING STATE TO RECOGNIZE POSSIBLE COMPETING AND COMPATIBLE SOLUTIONS AND ROUGHLY PREDICTS THE IMPORTANCE AND EXPENSE OF DEVELOPING THESE SOLUTIONS. WITH THIS INFORMATION, THE PLANNER PLANS SEQUENCES OF PROBLEM SOLVING ACTIVITIES THAT MOST EFFICIENTLY RESOLVE ITS UNCERTAINTY ABOUT WHICH OF THE POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO WORK TOWARD. THE PLANNER ONLY DETAILS ACTIONS FOR THE NEAR FUTURE BECAUSE THE RESULTS OF THESE ACTIONS WILL INFLUENCE HOW (AND WHETHER) A PLAN SHOULD BE PURSUED. AS PROBLEM SOLVING PROCEEDS, THE PLANNER ADDS NEW DETAILS TO THE PLAN INCRE MENTALLY, AND MONITORS AND REPAIRS THE PLAN TO INSURE IT ACHIEVES ITS GOALS WHENEVER POSSIBLE. THE PLANNER ALSO ATTEMPTS TO MEET TIME CONSTRAINTS BY USING ITS PREDICTIONS ABOUT THE TIME NEEDS OF ITS PLANS TO RECOGNIZE AND REVISE PLANS THAT WILL EXCEED PROBLEM SOLVING DEADLINES. THE PLANNER MODI- FIES PLANS TO MORE QUICKLY GENERATE INFERIOR BUT STILL ACCEPTABLE SOLUTIONS WHENEVER POSSIBLE. BY PREDICTING WHETHER PLANS TO GENERATE ALTERNATIVE SOL UTIONS ARE PROBABLY WORTH PURSUING (GIVEN ENOUGH TIME) THE PLANNER ALSO DE- CIDES WHEN A SATISFACTORY SOLUTION HAS BEEN FOUND AND PROBLEM SOLVING SHOUL