A planning model with problem analysis and operator hierarchy

A planning model described in terms of its goal analysis and hierarchical operator representation is presented. With this system, successful plans have been made for nonlinear problems that are described as a conjunction of subgoals. The system uses heuristic rules to analyze the problem, and thus achieves an ordered sequence of subgoals and constraints that can be achieved successively without interfering with each other. The operators are designed in a goal-oriented fashion and are stored in operator hierarchies. During the plan generation phase, each subgoal is mapped into a goal operator, which is further refined to meet details and specific conditions of the problem. As the generation phase follows the analysis, conflicts among subgoals are eliminated implicitly.<>