Workshop on "Integrating Planning Into Scheduling"

AAAI 2005 Workshop Program

Workshop on "Integrating Planning Into Scheduling"
(WIPIS-05)

To be held in conjunction with:

The 20th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-05)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 9-13, 2005

Call for Papers :: Scope :: Format :: Submission :: Dates
Program Committee :: Agenda :: Location

Call for Papers
This workshop is a follow-on to the very successful workshop on the same topic held last year at ICAPS (the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling) in Whistler, BC (WIPIS@ICAPS-04). The topic of the workshop is the general question of how to integrate planning capabilities into scheduling algorithms and frameworks. It has been recognized for some time that classical planning and scheduling models are at opposite ends of a spectrum, with most interesting real-world problems falling somewhere in the middle and requiring characteristics of both. Real "planning" problems tend to require the ability to handle metric quantities, overlapping actions with finite durations, and very often some notion of a resource model. Similarly, most real-world scheduling problems are not "pure" scheduling problems - i.e., concerned strictly with allocating resources to pre-specified activities over time. Even in venerable scheduling domains such as manufacturing, it is frequently necessary to solve something that looks very much like a planning problem, ranging in scope from simple selection among alternative processes (e.g., heterogeneous resource capabilities) to the synthesis of complex networks of resource configuration and support activities. Historically, scheduling research has addressed such planning issues via specialized, problem-specific model and algorithm extensions.

The workshop will start with a brief summary of the previous edition, the proceedings of which are available here. Given the very discussory flavor of the workshop, papers which duplicate or do not take into account work presented at the past edition will not be viewed favorably.

Scope
The central theme of the workshop is that planning techniques are necessary to the solution of these problems, but must be integrated into scheduling algorithms and frameworks. To this end, the workshop seeks to bring together researchers interested in the intersection of scheduling and planning technologies to share perspectives, techniques and results on how to better solve scheduling problems with embedded planning sub-problems. Topics of interest include:

Frameworks for integrating causal reasoning into resource allocation and scheduling algorithms
Descriptions of scheduling problems requiring embedded planning capabilities
Descriptions of algorithms and implementation of features and components which add planning capabilities to the scheduling framework
Algorithms for partial order scheduling and their advantages and disadvantages in comparison to temporal planning frameworks
Techniques for reasoning about context-dependent tasks and resource setup and reconfiguration activities (e.g., ensuring the proper state of resources for correct schedule execution)
Proposals for the generation of an appropriate set of benchmark problems, similar to the current IPC domains
Arguments to the contrary (e.g., proposals for extending classical planning to address problems in which resources are primary).

Workshop Format
We plan to organize a one-day workshop, consisting of short sessions (2-3 papers) each with individual presentations on a common theme, followed by a "commentator" who provides their views on the collection of papers and the session theme, followed by general discussion leading into a break. There will be a final discussion session to sum up the workshop, led by the organizers.

Submission Instructions
Participation in the workshop will be by invitation only, and prospective participants are requested to submit one of the following:

Full Paper - Technical papers are invited that address one or more of the workshop topics indicated above. Papers can be up to 8 pages in length. The first page of the paper should include the title, a brief abstract, and author names, affiliations, postal addresses, electronic mail addresses, and telephone and fax numbers.
Statement of Interest - Although first preference will be given to full paper submissions, we anticipate room for some number of additional attendees and request that other individuals interested in attending the workshop submit a one-page statement of interest.

Accepted full papers will appear in the workshop proceedings. Due to a desire to maximize discussion, we may accept some papers "for attendance" meaning that the work may not be presented due to resource constraints, but that we would welcome the authors' participation in the discussion
Authors are encouraged to submit papers electronically in postscript or PDF format. Papers should be formatted using the AAAI conference style downloadable at the site http://www.aaai.org/Publications/Author/macros-link.html.
Please send your submissions by email to mark.boddy@adventiumlabs.org no later than April 20, 2005 using the subject line "WIPIS-05 Workshop Submission". Confidentiality of submissions will be maintained during the review process. All submitted materials for rejected papers will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted papers will be kept confidential until the date of the workshop. Submissions should not include information that will be confidential or proprietary at the time of publication.

Compiling your Camera Ready Version
Please follow AAAI's technical report instructions.

Important Dates

April 20, 2005: Submissions due
May 11, 2005: Notification of acceptance
May 18, 2005: Camera-ready copy due
July 9-10, 2005: AAAI-05 workshop program

Program Committee

Roman Bartak - Charles University
Pauline Berry - SRI International
Mark Boddy - Adventium Labs (Co-Chair)
Amedeo Cesta - ISTC-CNR (Co-Chair)
Hector Geffner - Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Maria Fox - University of Strathclyde
Philippe Laborie - ILOG
Kenneth N. McKay - University of Waterloo
Stephen F. Smith - Carnegie Mellon University (Co-Chair)
Jean Paul Watson - Sandia National Laboratories
Terry Zimmerman - Carnegie Mellon University

Agenda

8:30 - 8:45		Welcome, Workshop Introduction
8:45 - 9:30		Summary of WIPIS-04 - Mark Boddy
9:30 - 10:30		Invited talk: PDDL perspective on P&S - Derek Long
10:30 - 11:00		BREAK
11:00 - 12:45		Paper Session 1
11:00		Evaluating Plans through Restrictiveness and Resource Strength - Federico Pecora
11:30		Towards Integrated Planning and Scheduling: Resource Abstraction in the Planning Graph - Terry Zimmerman
12:00		The Integration of Planning into Scheduling in OMP - Simone Fratini
12:30		Commentator (15 minutes) - Pauline Berry
12:45 - 1:45		LUNCH
1:45 - 3:30		Paper Session 2
1:45		Real-Time Auction-Based Allocation of Tasks for Multi-Robot Exploration Problem in Dynamic Environments - Sanem Sariel
2:15		Services Allocation Planner for Dynamic Reconfiguration - Bogumil Zieba
2:45		Heterogeneous, Multirobot Coordination with Spatial and Temporal Constraints - Mary Koes
3:15		Commentator (15 min) - Adrian Petcu
3:30 - 4:00		BREAK
4:00 - 5:30		Panel and Open Discussion
5:30		Closing remarks

Location
The workshop will be held in the Washington Room of the Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh Hotel, on the second level. Registration will be in the foyer on the third level of the hotel.

Call for Papers :: Scope :: Format :: Submission :: Dates
Program Committee :: Agenda :: Location

Webmaster: Federico Pecora (fpecora@istc.cnr.it)