Parallelism in Planning and Problem Solving: Reasoning About Resources

Abstract

The implications of allowing parallel actions in a plan or problem solution are discussed. The planning system should take advantage of helpful interactions between parallel branches, must detect harmful interactions, and if possible, remedy them. This paper describes what is involved in this and present some new techniques that are implemented in an actual planning system and are useful in seeking solutions to these problems. The most important of these techniques, reasoning about resources, is emphasized and explained.