Planning Domain Definition Language
In plain wordsA standard computer language for describing planning problems — the available actions, the starting situation and the goal — so that any automated planner can read and solve them.
A Lisp-like standard language for specifying automated planningautomated planning, n.: The branch of AI that works out a sequence of actions to reach a goal, such as the steps a robot must take to assemble a part, from descriptions of what each action needs and what it changes. problems, split into a domain file, which declares types, predicates and parameterized action schemas with preconditions and effects in the style of STRIPSSTRIPS, prop. n.: An early AI planning program, and the simple action language it introduced, in which each action lists what must be true beforehand, what becomes true and what stops being true., and a problem file, which lists the objects, the initial state and the goal. Requirement flags declare which language features a problem uses. Later versions added numeric fluents and durative actions (PDDL2.1), derived predicates and timed initial literals (PDDL2.2), soft goals and trajectory constraints (PDDL3), and continuous processes and events (PDDL+). As a common input format it allows planners to be compared directly in the International Planning Competition. Since about 2023 it has also served as an intermediate language for language modelslarge language model, n.: A computer program trained on enormous amounts of text to predict the words that come next. At vast scale, that simple skill lets it chat, answer questions, translate, summarize and write code.: the model translates a request into PDDL, and a classical planner computes a plan that can be checked for validity.
The model writes the PDDL problem file; Fast Downward finds the plan.
Origin
Drafted in 1998 by a committee led by Drew McDermott for the first International Planning Competition, held at the AIPS-98 conference. Maria Fox and Derek Long's PDDL2.1 (2003) and Alfonso Gerevini and Derek Long's PDDL3 (2005) extended it.
Related
- automated planningautomated planning, n.: The branch of AI that works out a sequence of actions to reach a goal, such as the steps a robot must take to assemble a part, from descriptions of what each action needs and what it changes.
- STRIPSSTRIPS, prop. n.: An early AI planning program, and the simple action language it introduced, in which each action lists what must be true beforehand, what becomes true and what stops being true.
- hierarchical task networkhierarchical task network, n.: A planning method that breaks a big task, such as 'travel to Paris', into smaller tasks, such as 'book a flight' and 'pack', using stored recipes, until only simple actions remain.
- LispLisp, prop. n.: A programming language invented in 1958 for AI research, in which programs and data are written the same way, as nested lists in parentheses. It was the main language of AI for decades.
- state space searchstate space search, n.: Solving a problem by treating every situation it could be in as a point on a map, with each possible move as a road between points, and searching for a route from the start to a goal.
Sources
- McDermott, D. et al. (1998). PDDL — The Planning Domain Definition Language. Technical Report CVC TR-98-003, Yale Center for Computational Vision and Control.
- Fox, M. & Long, D. (2003). PDDL2.1: An Extension to PDDL for Expressing Temporal Planning Domains. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research 20, 61–124.
Mentioned in
automated planningautomated planning, n.: The branch of AI that works out a sequence of actions to reach a goal, such as the steps a robot must take to assemble a part, from descriptions of what each action needs and what it changes., hierarchical task networkhierarchical task network, n.: A planning method that breaks a big task, such as 'travel to Paris', into smaller tasks, such as 'book a flight' and 'pack', using stored recipes, until only simple actions remain., STRIPSSTRIPS, prop. n.: An early AI planning program, and the simple action language it introduced, in which each action lists what must be true beforehand, what becomes true and what stops being true., temporal logictemporal logic, n.: A logic for statements about time — 'eventually the light turns green', 'the door is never open while the train moves' — used to specify and check how systems must behave over time.