Representation and Basic Algorithms

Abstract

One of the early representational methods for planning domains is known as the STRIPS representation [102]. This representation models actions as operations on a database, which records the current state of affairs in the world. Its simplicity is one of the major reasons for its vast popularity in many theoretical and practical work in planning. It has also been shown that many of the more exotic representational schemes, such as those involving a limited form of first-order logic representations, can be easily and naturally derived from the STRIPS representation. In this book, we will employ the STRIPS representation for the exposition of our major ideas and algorithms, and discuss possible extensions to these algorithms where the representational languages become more sophisticated.