Optimizing Planning Domains by Automatic Action Schema Splitting

C. Areces, F. Bustos, M. Dom\'inguez, and J. Hoffmann. Optimizing Planning Domains by Automatic Action Schema Splitting. In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS'14), pp. 11–19, AAAI Press, Portsmouth, NH, USA, 2014.

Download

[pdf] 

Abstract

As modeling details can have a large impact on planner performance, domain transformation has been a traditional subject of interest in the planning community not only between languages, but also within languages. Herein, we automate an intra-language transformation method that has as yet been applied only manually, and that has never been formally described: action schema splitting, which transforms an action schema with a big interface (many parameters) into several schemas with smaller interfaces, exponentially reducing the number of ground actions. We spell out this method, characterizing exactly the choice of splits preserving equivalence to the original schema. Making that choice involves a trade-off between interface size and plan length, which we explore by designing automatic domain optimization methods. Our experiments show that these methods can substantially improve performance on domains with large interfaces.

BibTeX

@InCollection{Areces2014a,
  author =       "C. Areces and F. Bustos and M. Dom{\'i}nguez and J.
                 Hoffmann",
  booktitle =    "Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on
                 Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS'14)",
  title =        "Optimizing Planning Domains by Automatic Action Schema
                 Splitting",
  year =         "2014",
  address =      "Portsmouth, NH, USA",
  pages =        "11--19",
  publisher =    "AAAI Press",
  abstract =     "As modeling details can have a large impact on planner
                 performance, domain transformation has been a
                 traditional subject of interest in the planning
                 community not only between languages, but also within
                 languages. Herein, we automate an intra-language
                 transformation method that has as yet been applied only
                 manually, and that has never been formally described:
                 action schema splitting, which transforms an action
                 schema with a big interface (many parameters) into
                 several schemas with smaller interfaces, exponentially
                 reducing the number of ground actions. We spell out
                 this method, characterizing exactly the choice of
                 splits preserving equivalence to the original schema.
                 Making that choice involves a trade-off between
                 interface size and plan length, which we explore by
                 designing automatic domain optimization methods. Our
                 experiments show that these methods can substantially
                 improve performance on domains with large interfaces.",
  owner =        "areces",
  timestamp =    "2014.06.10",
  ISBN =         "978-1-57735-609-7",
}