The University of Edinburgh -
Division of Informatics
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MSc Thesis #9592

Title:A Novel Process Based Plan Execution System
Authors:White,I
Date: 1995
Presented:
Keywords:
Abstract:This document describes a novel approach to plan execution. The novelty of the developed system lies with its execution of process-based plan representations, proposed by Pryor, Pym and Murphy [11]. The proposes representation not only gives the permitted actions of the agent but the environment actions can be combined using process combinators, to form various different processes, from recursive processes to conditional processes. The interleaving of an agent's and environment's actions throughout a plan, not only allows both to be given equal billing but allows them to interact and communicate throughout plan execution, essential if the agent is to be successful at operating in an unpredictable world, where it may be required to change its behaviour to cope with changes in its environment. This thesis describes how the proposed plan representation has been developed into an executable form, how it is interpreted and subsequently executed by the plan execution system. The ;resulting system is able to execute non-instantaneous actions that can be performed concurrently in a simulated world. This allows an agent to perform processes of unknown duration. This will allow future work to deal with the recognition of environmental interruptions during the execution of such processes which may lead to the recognition of opportunities or threats. Overall, the resulting system allows the agent to delay decisions until execution time forming a framework on which opportunity and threat recognition can be developed: an essential property when executing in an uncertain world.
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