In hierarchical planning for Markov decision processes (MDPs), temporal abstraction allows planning with macro-actions that take place at different time scale in the form of sequential composition. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to compositional reasoning and hierarchical planning for MDPs under co-safe temporal logic constraints. In addition to sequential composition, we introduce a composition of policies based on generalized logic composition: Given sub-policies for sub-tasks and a new task expressed as logic compositions of subtasks, a semi-optimal policy, which is optimal in planning with only sub-policies, can be obtained by simply composing sub-polices. Thus, a synthesis algorithm is developed to compute optimal policies efficiently by planning with primitive actions, policies for sub-tasks, and the compositions of sub-policies, for maximizing the probability of satisfying constraints specified in the fragment of co-safe temporal logic. We demonstrate the correctness and efficiency of the proposed method in stochastic planning examples with a single agent and multiple task specifications.
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This content will become publicly available on June 3, 2025
Toward Planning with Hierarchical Decompositions and Time-frames
The semantics of temporal hierarchical planners are limited. In hierarchical paradigms, temporal reasoning has largely focused on durative constraints of primitive actions, which may be added directly or appear post-expansion. We propose extending temporal reasoning to composite actions, specifically within decompositional partial order causal linked planning. We outline how a general-purpose hierarchical planner can approach temporal reasoning outlined in a STRIPS-like for- malism. We build upon existing temporal and hierarchical semantics, and sketch two novel approaches: time-frame planning and decompositional time-frame planning.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2046294
- PAR ID:
- 10519819
- Publisher / Repository:
- hierarchical-task.net
- Date Published:
- Volume:
- 7
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Other: pdf
- Location:
- 7th ICAPS Workshop on Hierarchical Planning
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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