Plan reuse in cooperative, distributed problem-solving

This paper considers cooperative and distributed problem-solving in an environment where similar problems are repeatedly posed, and discusses methods for plan reuse. In distributed planning including multiple agents, the agents generate the plan cooperatively from various viewpoints which results in a plan with high cost. The reuse of the plan realizes efficient planning by utilizing the plan for similar previous problems. The first feature to note in applying plan reuse to a multi-agent system is the problem similarity. Even if an agent decides that two problems are the same, another agent may consider a totally different goal or viewpoint. In this paper, it is shown that under certain conditions, the reuse of a plan is effective independently of the goals of other agents. A planning method including reuse is presented. Finally, it is shown experimentally that efficient planning can be realized.