University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Computer Science
CS 791AP	Advanced Topics in Automated Planning	Fall 2010
	Siddharth Srivastava and Shlomo Zilberstein

Seminar Information

Description: Planning is the hallmark of intelligence and one of the most fundamental problems in AI research. The goal of this seminar is to examine the most significant advances in planning, starting with the fundamentals of representation and leading to the state-of-the-art in domain-independent planning. Following a brief historical overview, we will cover modern planning techniques including partial-order planning, planning as satisfiability, planning graphs, planning as heuristic search, and contingent planning. The second half of the semester will focus on one of the hardest challenges in the field, namely the problem of finding program-like "generalized plans", which can solve many different problem instances. Such plans inherently require new, more compact representations, with a sophisticated flow of control. Finding and analyzing generalized plans therefore requires a synthesis of methods from AI and software model checking. We will cover different aspects of this problem, addressing questions such as: How must plan representations be extended to express such plans? How can we reason about large state spaces with unknown properties and quantities of objects? How can we efficiently find generalized plans and characterize the range of problems they solve? We will discuss applications and connections between these problems and program verification, automatic service composition, and robot task planning.

Credit: 1 or 3 units

Time: Wednesday 12:00-2:00 in CS 140

Instructors:

• Siddharth Srivastava, siddharth@cs.umass.edu, 545-2744
  Office hours: Thursdays 10:00-11:00, CS 326
• Shlomo Zilberstein, shlomo@cs.umass.edu, 545-4189
  Office hours: Wednesdays 2:30-3:30, CS 278

Seminar Format: Each seminar meeting will cover 1-2 topics. Each topic will have an associated required reading (typically one paper) plus optional related papers. In each meeting, the instructors will give an introduction to the topic being covered, placing it in the broader context of the seminar. This will be followed by a discussion led by participants. Each topic discussion will include an overview (using slides or the white board) of the assigned reading, followed by a critical examination of the contributions and their limitations.

Requirements:

1 credit

• Write 1-2 page critiques for 15 of the assigned readings. Critiques will be due at 5:00pm on the Tuesday before the corresponding class. (Critiques are not required for the topics you lead and for the guest lecture on 11/17).
  [Format for critiques]
• Lead a few class discussions (a schedule will be constructed at the beginning of the semester).
• Participate in class discussions.

3 credits

• In addition to the above requirements, students taking the class for 3 credits will be required to write a final report on one of the covered topics that could involve analysis, experimental evaluation, or an extended survey.
• Project proposals should be submitted by 10/20; final reports will be due on 12/20.

© 2010 Siddharth Srivastava & Shlomo Zilberstein