A Deductive Database Approach to A.I. Planning

In this paper, we show that the classical A.I. planning problem can be modelled using simple database constructs with logic-based semantics. The approach is similar to that used to model updates and nondetermism in active database rules. We begin by expressing plans by means of Datalog 1S programs and nondeterministic choice constructs, for which we provide a formal semantics using the concept of stable models. The resulting programs are characterized by a syntactic structure (XY-stratification) that makes them amenable to efficient implementation using compilation and fixpoint computation techniques developed for deductive database systems