Hybrid Planning Heuristics Based on Task Decomposition Graphs

Abstract

Hybrid Planning combines Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning with concepts known from Partial-Order Causal-Link (POCL) planning. We introduce novel heuristics for Hybrid Planning that estimate the number of necessary modifications to turn a partial plan into a solution. These estimates are based on the task decomposition graph that contains all decompositions of the abstract tasks in the planning domain. Our empirical evaluation shows that the proposed heuristics can significantly improve planning performance.