On the Implementation and Evaluation of AbTweak

Qiang Yang and Josh Tenenberg and Steven Woods.

Abstract

In this paper we describe the implementation and evaluation of the Abtweak planning system, a test bed for studying and teaching concepts in partial-order planning, abstraction, and search control. We start by extending the hierarchical, precondition-elimination abstraction of Abstrips to partial-order-based, least-commitment planners such as Tweak. The resulting system, Abtweak, is used to illustrate the advantages of using abstraction to improve the efficiency of search. We show that by protecting a subset of abstract conditions achieved so far, and by imposing a bias on search toward deeper levels in a hierarchy, planning efficiency can be greatly improved. Finally, we relate Abtweak to other planning systems Snlp, Alpine and Sipe by exploring their similarities and differences.

Copyright Notice

Copyright 1996, Computational Intelligence. Published in Computational Intelligence Journal, Volume 12, 1996. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works, must be obtained from Computational Intelligence.

The Paper