On the planning problem in sequential control

The authors study a subclass of sequential control problems, the simplified action structures post-unique, unary, binary, single-valued (SAS-PUBS) class. They present a planning algorithm for this class. The algorithm is developed using a formalism from artificial intelligence. For planning problems in the SAS-PUBS class the algorithm finds a plan from a given initial state to a desired final state if and only if any plan exists solving the stated planning problem. Furthermore, the complexity of the given algorithm increases polynomially with the number of state variables. The proposed planning algorithm is applied to the problem of refueling an aircraft using a mobile refuel vehicle