Although numerous review articles on planning have appeared over the years, no systematic attempt has been made to collect the major papers in this field into one volume. The goal of this book is to remedy this situation by bringing together in one place a set of readings that can be used to develop a familiarity with the planning literature, with the major AI theory underlying planning, and with the exciting directions of current research.
The first section of the book introduces the techniques and terminology of the AI planning community. The second section collects papers describing planning systems developed over the past 30 years. A third section presents research in the area of formal models of planning. Finally, a fourth section collects recent work representative of the field's current direction. The editors, three accomplished researchers, provide introductory material surveying the field of planning as well as introductions to groups of papers placing the work in perspective.
A useful reference for AI system developers and researchers, this work is also suitable for use as a text for a planning course or as a supplemental text for a more general AI course.
