Newsgroups: comp.ai.jair.announce
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!europa.chnt.gtegsc.com!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!kronos.arc.nasa.gov!jair-ed
From: jair-ed@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov
Subject: New Article, FLECS: Planning with a ...
Message-ID: <1995Jun28.055107.148@ptolemy-ethernet.arc.nasa.gov>
Originator: jair-ed@polya.arc.nasa.gov
Lines: 40
Sender: usenet@ptolemy-ethernet.arc.nasa.gov (usenet@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov)
Nntp-Posting-Host: polya.arc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA/ARC Computational Sciences Division
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 1995 05:51:07 GMT
Approved: jair-ed@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov

JAIR is pleased to announce the publication of the following article:

Veloso, M. and Stone, P. (1995)
  "FLECS: Planning with a Flexible Commitment Strategy", 
   Volume 3, pages 25-52.
   PostScript: volume3/veloso95a.ps (294K)
	       compressed, volume3/veloso95a.ps.Z (126K)
   Online Appendix: volume3/veloso95a-appendix.tar.Z (20K) data file


   Abstract: There has been evidence that least-commitment planners can
   efficiently handle planning problems that involve difficult goal
   interactions.  This evidence has led to the common belief that
   delayed-commitment is the "best" possible planning strategy.  However,
   we recently found evidence that eager-commitment planners can handle a
   variety of planning problems more efficiently, in particular those
   with difficult operator choices.  Resigned to the futility of trying
   to find a universally successful planning strategy, we devised a
   planner that can be used to study which domains and problems are best
   for which planning strategies. In this article we introduce this new
   planning algorithm, FLECS, which uses a FLExible Commitment Strategy
   with respect to plan-step orderings.  It is able to use any strategy
   from delayed-commitment to eager-commitment.  The combination of
   delayed and eager operator-ordering commitments allows FLECS to take
   advantage of the benefits of explicitly using a simulated execution
   state and reasoning about planning constraints.  FLECS can vary its
   commitment strategy across different problems and domains, and also
   during the course of a single planning problem.  FLECS represents a
   novel contribution to planning in that it explicitly provides the
   choice of which commitment strategy to use while planning.  FLECS
   provides a framework to investigate the mapping from planning domains
   and problems to efficient planning strategies.

The PostScript file is available via:
   
 -- comp.ai.jair.papers

 -- World Wide Web: The URL for our World Wide Web server is
       http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/jair/home.html

 -- Anonymous FTP from either of the two sites below:
      CMU:   p.gp.cs.cmu.edu        directory: /usr/jair/pub/volume3
      Genoa: ftp.mrg.dist.unige.it  directory:  pub/jair/pub/volume3

 -- automated email. Send mail to jair@cs.cmu.edu or jair@ftp.mrg.dist.unige.it
    with the subject AUTORESPOND, and the body GET VOLUME3/FILE-NM
    (e.g., GET VOLUME3/MOONEY95A.PS)
    Note: Your mailer might find our files too large to handle. Also, note  
    that compressed files cannot be emailed, since they are binary files.

 -- JAIR Gopher server: At p.gp.cs.cmu.edu, port 70. 

For more information about JAIR, check out our WWW or FTP sites, or
send electronic mail to jair@cs.cmu.edu with the subject AUTORESPOND
and the message body HELP, or contact jair-ed@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov.



