We propose a real-time implementable motion planning technique for cooperative object transportation by nonholonomic mobile manipulator robots (MMRs) in an environment with static and dynamic obstacles. The proposed motion planning technique works in two steps. A novel visibility vertices-based path planning algorithm computes a global piece-wise linear path between the start and the goal location in the presence of static obstacles offline. It defines the static obstacle free space around the path with a set of convex polygons for the online motion planner. We employ a Nonliner Model Predictive Control (NMPC) based online motion planning technique for nonholonomic MMRs that jointly plans for the mobile base and the manipulators arm. It efficiently utilizes the locomotion capability of the mobile base and the manipulation capability of the arm. The motion planner plans feasible motion for the MMRs and generates trajectory for object transportation considering the kinodynamic constraints and the static and dynamic obstacles. The efficiency of our approach is validated by numerical simulation and hardware experiments in varied environments.

The problem of optimal planning under uncertainty in collaborative multi-agent domains is known to be deeply intractable but still demands a solution. This thesis will explore principled approximation methods that yield tractable approaches to planning for AI assistants, which allow them to understand the intentions of humans and help them achieve their goals. AI assistants are ubiquitous in video games, mak- ing them attractive domains for applying these planning techniques. However, games are also challenging domains, typically having very large state spaces and long planning horizons. The approaches in this thesis will leverage recent advances in Monte-Carlo search, approximation of stochastic dynamics by deterministic dynamics, and hierarchical action representation, to handle domains that are too complex for existing state of the art planners. These planning techniques will be demonstrated across a range of video game domains.

This project proposes a methodology for the automatic generation of action models from video game dynamics descriptions, as well as its integration with a planning agent for the execution and monitoring of the plans. Planners use these action models to get the deliberative behaviour for an agent in many different video games and, combined with a reactive module, solve deterministic and no-deterministic levels. Experimental results validate the methodology and prove that the effort put by a knowledge engineer can be greatly reduced in the definition of such complex domains. Furthermore, benchmarks of the domains has been produced that can be of interest to the international planning community to evaluate planners in international planning competitions.

The contributed article was authored by Jonah McIntire of TNX Logistics and Anna Shaposhnikova of Transmetrics. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy or outlook of FreightWaves.com. Soon it will be applied to core logistics operations. This should be a golden era of practical AI, when algorithms give way to implementation. For decision-makers, it is worth understanding some of the basics behind those algorithms to help ensure first experiences with AI in your workplace are likely to succeed.

Capturing and exploiting structural knowledge of planning problems has shown to be a successful strategy for making the planning process more efficient. Plans can be decomposed into its constituent coherent subplans, called blocks, that encapsulate some effects and preconditions, reducing interference and thus allowing more deordering of plans. According to the nature of blocks, they can be straightforwardly transformed into useful macro-operators (shortly, macros). Macros are well known and widely studied kind of structural knowledge because they can be easily encoded in the domain model and thus exploited by standard planning engines. In this paper, we introduce a method, called BloMa, that learns domain-specific macros from plans, decomposed into macro-blocks which are extensions of blocks, utilising structural knowledge they capture. In contrast to existing macro learning techniques, macro-blocks are often able to capture high-level activities that form a basis for useful longer macros (i.e. those consisting of more original operators). Our method is evaluated by using the IPC benchmarks with state-of-the-art planning engines, and shows considerable improvement in many cases.

Empirical studies with humans and agents demonstrate that the nature and forms of information required by the human differ depending on the design of the relationship between the participants — a relationship that is sometimes characterised using the concept of levels of autonomy, though the usefulness of that characterisation has recently been questioned. Therefore, understanding how people work with automation and how to design automated systems to better support people, is a field long studied, but of growing importance. Our current work seeks to contribute to the design of representations and algorithms that can be deployed in such contexts.

This paper deals with planning domains that appear in computer games, especially when modeling intelligent virtual agents. Some of these domains contain only actions with no negative effects and are thus treated as easy from the planning perspective. We propose two new techniques to solve the problems in these planning domains, a heuristic search algorithm ANA* and a constraint-based planner RelaxPlan, and we compare them with the state-of-the-art planners, that were successful in IPC, using planning domains motivated by computer games.

A computer program that uses AI planning techniques is now the world champion computer program in the game of Contract Bridge. As reported in The New York Times and The Washington Post, this program -- a new version of Great Game Products' BRIDGE BARON program -- won the Baron Barclay World Bridge Computer Challenge, an international competition hosted in July 1997 by the American Contract Bridge League. It is well known that the game tree search techniques used in computer programs for games such as Chess and Checkers work differently from how humans think about such games. This article gives an overview of the planning techniques that we have incorporated into the BRIDGE BARON and discusses what the program's victory signifies for research on AI planning and game playing.