Dynagent: Interruption HTN Planning Agent

• Published in: Journal of Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics Vol. 21; no. 5; pp. 856 - 869
• Main Authors: HAYASHI, Hisashi, TOKURA, Seiji, OZAKI, Fumio, HASEGAWA, Tetsuo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics 15.10.2009
• Subjects: agent; interruption planning; online planning; planning; robot
• ISSN: 1347-7986; 1881-7203
• DOI: 10.3156/jsoft.21.856

Adaptation to the dynamically changing world has been an important subject of research. Typically, two types of agents have been researched: deliberative agents and reactive agents. Deliberative agents “think” before and while taking actions. On the other hand, reactive agents react to the changing world without thinking too much about the future. Some researchers have been trying to combine deliberation and reaction because even deliberative agents need to react tentatively and immediately to the changing world when unexpected events occur. These kinds of agents are supposed to react within a short time without changing the current situation too much. However, in the case of an emergency, even while executing a plan for a goal, agents might need to achieve a more important goal for which “emergency deliberation” is necessary. If the agents suspend the current plan and execute the emergency plan, they might change the situation greatly and it might not be easy to continue the suspended plan. In this paper, we will combine deliberation and “emergency deliberation,” which is beyond the combination of deliberation and reaction. Because our agents continuously modify the suspended plans while executing an emergency plan, they can resume the suspended plans correctly and efficiently even if the world has changed greatly due to the emergency plan execution.