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CS 4612/7612: AI Planning
Spring 2003 1:35-2:55 p.m.
Burger Henry Building 311 (Tuesday and Thursday)
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Instructor:
Prof. Sven Koenig
Email: skoenig@cc.gatech.edu
Office: 396 Centenial Research Building (CRB)
Office hours: TBD
Phone: 404-894-5095 (email preferred)
Teaching Assistant:
Alexander Stoytchev
Email: saho@cc.gatech.edu
Office hours: After class or by appointment.
Office: Classroom.
Class Web Page:
Class Newsgroup:
Content:
Planning techniques allow intelligent systems to decide how they
should act in order to achieve their goals. This is important for a
variety of applications, such as mobile robots, real-time computer
games, puzzle solving, autonomous space craft, decision-support
systems for crisis situations, and production planning. The class will
cover state-of-the-art symbolic and numerical planning techniques,
including action and plan representation, plan synthesis and
reasoning, analysis of planning algorithms, plan execution and
monitoring, plan reuse and learning, and applications. If you want to
learn more about planning prior to the first class, you can use the
pointers on the class webpage.
The class is a joint graduate and undergraduate class. It will consist
of some lectures, lots of presentations given by students, and
discussions. You will learn about methods (tools) that allow you to
build systems that plan. You will also learn to read and present
scientific texts from the recent literature on artificial intelligence
planning, use planning methods and systems to solve problems, and
possibly program them.
There is no textbook. The class webpage contains a listing of the
papers that we will read, together with pointers to the online
versions of the papers, where available.
Note: This is an experimental class that is being offered for the
first time. It is a joint graduate and undergraduate class that will
likely be offered once every 2 years only.
Pre-requisites:
The only formal pre-requisite is CS 4600. The most important
prerequisite of all, however, is your interest in the course,
motivation, and commitment to learning. If you are not sure whether
this class is for you, please talk to us.
Grading:
You are expected to do the readings (1-2 papers per lecture) and
participate in the class discussions. Your active participation in
class is crucial to making the course successful. Please also use your
colleagues as a resource (they are working toward the same goal as you
are), for example, by forming study groups or posting questions to the
newsgroup. If you need additional help, please come by during our
office hours and talk to us.
There will be three homeworks. Some of them will involve using
planning software, others will be on paper only. There will also be
one project, where you can choose a research topic related to the
class. The homeworks have to be done individually. The projects can be
done in groups of two. All solutions have to be the work of only the
people listed on it. Do not copy from others or let others copy your
work. In particular, you have to cite all of the resources you relied
on for coming up with your answers. This includes webpages, people,
publications, and so on, other than the instructor and teaching
assistant. You need to abide by the academic honor code of Georgia
Tech
http://www.gatech.edu/honor/
We will not accept late homeworks or projects and you will get zero
credit for them. The only exceptions are late solutions that are
accompanied with a NOTE from a doctor (or a similar note that verifies
the problem), WE WERE TOLD ABOUT THE PROBLEM IMMEDIATELY WHEN IT
AROSE, and your excuse is acceptable. There will be no exams.
A precondition for passing the class is to present the papers assigned
to you. Your grade will be determined as follows:
Class participation: 10%
Paper presentation: 15%
Homeworks (3x 15%): 45%
Project: 30%
If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what we
talked about, including the announcements we made in class.
Help:
At some point, you will have questions. For example, you might not be
able to get code to run that we provided, there is something in the
papers that you do not understand, and so on. In this case, we
encourage you to first post the question to the newsgroup and see
whether someone can help you. If this does not work, we are happy to
help you in person. We do answer email but, unfortunately, will
sometimes not manage to answer it on the same day.
It is very important to us that you voice your concerns about any
aspect of the class as soon as they arise. Please send us e-mail, call
us, or talk to us in person. We will accept anonymous notes and treat
them seriously, as long as they are sincere and constructive. Your
comments will have an effect on the class, so please do not be
hesitant to provide them.
Questionnaire:
We will ask you to fill out a questionnaires at the end of class so
that we can improve future classes. Filling out the questionnaires is
voluntary and anonymous. We hope that you will make use of this
opportunity and choose to provide us with feedback.
Dates:
Jan 7: First class
Feb 11: Homeworks 1 and 2 out
Feb 25: Homework 1 due
Mar 4: Spring break
Mar 6: Spring break
Mar 11: Project proposal due
Mar 17: Individual meetings with professor about the project proposals
Mar 18: Refined project proposal due
Mar 18: Homework 2 due
Mar 25: Homework 3 out
Apr 3: Midproject reports due
Apr 8: Homework 3 due
Apr 15: Final project reports due
Apr 22: Project Presentations
Apr 24: Project Presentations
Apr 24: Last class
Artificial intelligence planning is a fun topic, and we hope that all
of us will have lots of fun!
Sven and Alex