Conference Announcement,
Call for Papers, and Call for Workshop Proposals

The Fourth International Conference on
Artificial Intelligence Planning Systems (AIPS'98)

June 7-10, 1998
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA

The International Conference on AI Planning Systems will bring together researchers working in all aspects of problems in planning, scheduling, planning and learning, and plan execution, for dealing with complex problems. The format of the conference will include paper presentations, invited speakers, panel discussions, workshops, and planning and scheduling competitions.

Call for Papers

Original papers are welcome in all areas of planning and scheduling research. Of particular interest are papers that address real-world problems and those that combine planning and scheduling research with other areas of Artificial Intelligence. Topics of interest include:
  • Planning algorithms
  • Planning and reasoning about action and change
  • Planning and learning
  • Planning and temporal reasoning
  • Planning under uncertainty
  • Decision-theoretic planning
  • Scheduling algorithms
  • Constraint management approaches to planning and scheduling
  • Resource management
  • Mixed-initiative planning
  • Plan and schedule visualization
  • Multi-agent planning
  • Plan execution, monitoring and replanning
  • Agent architectures for planning and control
  • Active perception and sensor-based planning
  • Reactive systems
  • Applications and domain-specific techniques

    Papers should be submitted on US letter or A4 paper, using 12pt type and high-quality printing. Papers must not exceed eight (8) pages based on the AAAI style template (approximately 6000 words). (If you think this is inconsistent, click here.) Submissions should include a separate title page containing the paper's title, name, full address, email address, and telephone numbers for all authors, keywords, word count, and a 100-200 word abstract. Submitters should send five (5) hardcopies of papers by December 9, 1997 to:

    AIPS'98, c/o Reid Simmons
    School of Computer Science
    Carnegie Mellon University
    5000 Forbes Avenue
    Pittsburgh, PA 15213

    Papers received after this date will be returned, unopened. Notification of acceptance/rejection will be sent to the first (or designated) author of each paper by January 30, 1998. Final versions of accepted papers will be due by March 17, 1998.

    Call for Workshop Proposals

    Proposals are invited for the Workshop Program of AIPS'98, which is a new feature of the conference. Workshops (we anticipate 3-4) will be held at the beginning of the conference, June 7. Participants will have the opportunity to meet and discuss planning and scheduling issues with a selected focus, providing an informal setting for active exchange among small groups (25-50) of researchers, developers and users on topics of current interest. Members of all segments of the planning and scheduling and AI community are encouraged to submit proposals. Proposals for workshops should be about two (2) pages in length, and should contain: (1) A description of the specific issues that the workshop will address, (2) A brief discussion of why the workshop is of particular interest at this time, (3) A brief description of the workshop format, regarding the mix of paper presentations, invited talks, and/or panels, and (4) the names and addresses of the organizing committee (typically 3 to 4 people). Strong proposals include organizers who bring differing perspectives to the workshop topic. We especially welcome proposals that explore emerging new subfields of planning and scheduling, or that bridge the gaps between theory, experiment and practice, or between planning and scheduling, and other areas of research.

    Workshop proposals should be submitted as soon as possible but no later than October 14, 1997. Organizers will be notified of the committee's decision by October 31, 1997. Workshop organizers will be responsible for (1) producing a call for participation, (2) selecting participants, based on their submissions, (3) coordinating the production of the workshop notes (limited to a total of 200 pages). AIPS'98 will provide administrative support, support to cover reproduction of the working notes, and logistical support, such as rooms for the workshops. Workshop fees will be announced later, but they are expected to be minimal for participants who register for the main conference.

    Please submit workshop proposals and address inquiries concerning workshops to:
    Steve Chien (email submissions preferred)
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, M/S 525-3660
    California Institute of Technology
    4800 Oak Grove Drive
    Pasadena, CA 91109-8099


    Time Table of Critical Dates

    Conference Paper Submission DeadlineDecember 9, 1997
    Conference Paper Notification January 30, 1998
    Final Conference Papers Due March 17, 1998
    Workshop Proposal Submission Deadline October 14, 1997
    Workshop Proposal Notification October 31, 1997
    Workshop Call for Participation Due December 16, 1997
    Workshop Submission Deadline March 3, 1998
    Workshop Submission Notification April 20, 1998
    Final Workshop Submission Due May 15, 1998
    Workshops Held Sunday, June 7, 1998
    Technical Conference Held June 8-10, 1998

    Program Committee

    Conference Chair: James Allen, University of Rochester

    Program Chairs:

  • Reid Simmons, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Manuela Veloso, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Stephen Smith, Carnegie Mellon University

    Workshop Chair: Steve Chien, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

    Planning Competition Rules Committee Chair: Drew McDermott, Yale University

    Scheduling Competition Rules Committee Chair: Mark Boddy, Honeywell Corporation

    Program Committee:

  • Ralph Bergmann, University of Kaiserslautern
  • Larry Birnbaum, Northwestern University
  • Jim Blythe, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Mark Boddy, Honeywell Corporation
  • Daniel Borrajo, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
  • John Bresina, Recom Technologies / NASA Ames
  • Amedeo Cesta, National Research Council of Italy
  • Steve Chien, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  • Paul Cohen, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
  • Tom Dean, Brown University
  • Brian Drabble, Computational Intelligence Research Laboratory
  • Jim Firby, University of Chicago
  • Malik Ghallab, LAAS-CNRS
  • Yolanda Gil, USC/Information Sciences Institute
  • Keith Golden, University of Washington
  • Richard Goodwin, IBM Watson
  • Peter Haddawy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • Steve Hanks, University of Washington
  • James Hendler, University of Maryland
  • Adele Howe, Colorado State University
  • Peter Jonsson, Linkoping University
  • Subbarao Kambhampati, Arizona State University
  • Craig Knoblock, USC/Information Sciences Institute
  • Jana Koehler, Albert Ludwigs University
  • Sven Koenig, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Richard Korf, UCLA
  • Claude LePape, Bouygues - Direction Scientifique
  • Drew McDermott, Yale University
  • David Morley
  • Karen Myers, SRI International
  • Martha Pollack, University of Pittsburgh
  • Patrick Prosser, University of Strathclyde
  • Louise Pryor, Harlequin Ltd
  • Marcio Rillo, Sao Paulo University
  • Bart Selman, Cornell University
  • David Smith, Rockwell Science Center
  • Sam Steel, University of Essex
  • Milind Tambe, USC/Information Sciences Institute
  • Austin Tate, University of Edinburgh
  • David Wilkins, SRI International

    Contact Information

    Conference home page: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aips98

    Email address: aips98+info@cs.cmu.edu