Well-Behaved Search and the Robbins Problem

The Robbins problem was solved in October 1996 [7] by the equational theorem prover EQP [6]. Although the solution was automatic in the sense that the user of the program did not know a solution, it was not a simple matter of giving the conjecture and pushing a button. The user made many computer runs, observed the output, adjusted the search parameters, and made more computer runs. The goal of this kind of iteration is to achieve a well-behaved search. Several of the searches were successful. The purpose of this presentation is to convey some of the methods that have led to well-behaved searches in our experiments and to speculate on automating the achievement of well-behaved search. First, I give some background on the Robbins problem and its solution.

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