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Knowledge Engineering Tools and Techniques for AI Planning pp 67–90Cite as

MyPDDL: Tools for Efficiently Creating PDDL Domains and Problems

Abstract

The Planning Domain Definition Language (PDDL) is the state-of-the-art language for specifying planning problems in artificial intelligence research. Writing and maintaining these planning problems, however, can be time-consuming and error- prone. To address this issue, we present myPDDL—a modular toolkit for developing and manipulating PDDL domains and problems. To evaluate myPDDL, we compare its features to existing knowledge engineering tools for PDDL. In a user test, we additionally assess two of its modules, namely the syntax highlighting feature and the type diagram generator. The users of syntax highlighting detected 36% more errors than non-users in an erroneous domain file. The average time on task for questions on a PDDL type hierarchy was reduced by 48% when making the type diagram generator available. This implies that myPDDL can support knowledge engineers well in the PDDL design and analysis process.

Keywords

  • PDDL
  • Planning
  • Knowledge engineering

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Fig. 4.1
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Fig. 4.3
Fig. 4.4
Fig. 4.5

Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.icaps-conference.org/index.php/Main/Competitions/.

  2. 2.

    http://www.sublimetext.com/.

  3. 3.

    http://rakaposhi.eas.asu.edu/planning-list-mailarchive/msg00085.html.

  4. 4.

    http://planning.domains/.

  5. 5.

    https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=jan-dolejsi.pddl.

  6. 6.

    http://www.sublimetext.com.

  7. 7.

    https://sublime.wbond.net/about.

  8. 8.

    https://github.com/Pold87/myPDDL.

  9. 9.

    https://github.com/Pold87/pddl-clojure-interface.

  10. 10.

    https://github.com/Pold87/pddl-clojure-interface-standalone.

  11. 11.

    http://pold87.github.io/myPDDL/.

  12. 12.

    Tutorial in German: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uck-K8VnNOU&list=PL3CZzLUZuiIMWEfJxy-G6OxYVzUrvjwuV.

  13. 13.

    https://github.com/Pold87/myPDDL-Atom.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRIDIA, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Volker Strobel

  2. Independent Scientist, München, Germany

    Alexandra Kirsch

Authors
  1. Volker Strobel
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  2. Alexandra Kirsch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Volker Strobel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Mauro Vallati

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Diane Kitchin

Appendix: Tasks

Appendix: Tasks

1.1 Deliberately Erroneous Logistics Domain

The original file can be downloaded at http://ipc.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/PddlExtension:

1.2 Deliberately Erroneous Coffee Domain

1.3 Planet Splisus

Please answer the following five questions on the society and structure of Planet Splisus:

  1. 1.

    Are all Flipsis also of the type Ruffisplisus?

  2. 2.

    Are all Merles also Splus?

  3. 3.

    Can a Spleus be married to a Schlok?

  4. 4.

    Only theoretically: Could a Hurpf murder a Spleus?

  5. 5.

    Let us assume there are three categories of object types on Splisus: places, beings, and food. Match the three object types Ruffisplisus, Mak, and Lech with these categories.

1.4 Store

Please answer the following five questions concerning the environment store:

  1. 1.

    Are objects of the type Lula also of the type Minis?

  2. 2.

    Are Spax and Schmus Zahls?

  3. 3.

    Is it possible for an Iltre to work at a workplace of the type Knozi?

  4. 4.

    Only theoretically: Could a Lala sell a Schmitzl to a Kosta?

  5. 5.

    Let us assume our domain store models a grocery store. There are three categories: humans, products, and places. Can you match these world terms with the object types lila, lala, and lola from the domain?

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Strobel, V., Kirsch, A. (2020). MyPDDL: Tools for Efficiently Creating PDDL Domains and Problems. In: Vallati, M., Kitchin, D. (eds) Knowledge Engineering Tools and Techniques for AI Planning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38561-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38561-3_4

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