http://planet.dfki.de

European Networkof Excellence in

AI Planning

PLANET II

-- An Overview --

Susanne Biundo

University of Ulm, Germany

ObjectivesPromotion of the development and use of planning and

scheduling technology

• increase the awareness of the technology and promote pan-European and international collaboration

• promote the orientation of research more closely towards application requirements and open up new application areas

• provide a well-known and internationally recognised expert forum for discussion and exchange

• support high-quality training and teaching

How to Achieve the Objectives

• extend and maintain the PLANET organisational framework

• involve and bring together both suppliers and (potential) users of the technology

• co-ordinate high-quality training, teaching and exchange activities

• provide an elaborate information and communication infrastructure

• maintain an open and responsive structure

Work packages

Research and Development Co-ordinationMalik Ghallab, Lee McCluskey

1

Training and ExchangeSam Steel, Susanne Biundo

4

Technology Transfer and CommunicationRuth Aylett, Tim Grant, Brian Drabble

2 Technical Co-ordination UnitsAmedeo Cesta, Alfredo Milani

3

Information Infrastructureand ManagementSusanne Biundo, Bernd Schattenberg

5

Structure of PLANET II

AerospaceApplicationsAmedeo CestaTim Grant

WorkflowManagementDaniel Borrajo

Robot PlanningMalik Ghallab

Knowledge EngineeringLee McCluskey

Intelligent ManufacturingRuth Aylett

On-line Planningand SchedulingGerard Verfaille

Planning and IT for the WebAlfredo Milani

WP3: Technical Co-ordination Units

TCUs are the core operating initiatives to promote focusedactions

• responsiveness

– maintain attention to new technological developments/areas– respond to the needs of network members and the community– create (and close) TCUs

• continuity – focus on a particular area of interest for a certain time period– organise a series of focused workshops– create essential parts of the overall roadmap

Development of the Network

65 nodes in 14 countries

- 16 industrial companies

7 SMEs

- 16 research centres

- 33 universities

10 associated members

- end-user organisations

- consultancy companies

- software vendors

0

10

20

30

Oct 98 Oct 99 Oct 00

RCICU

WP1: Research and Development

• support of scientific workshops, in particular those relating

new areas to planning and scheduling

• support of conferences, in particular ECP’01 and AIPS’02

• organisation of technical workshops

• identification and development of industrial benchmark

problems

• creation of an online database with collections of planning tools

and benchmark problems

• organisation of competitions between planning and scheduling

techniques

WP2: Technology Transfer

• organisation of industrial technology information days

• production of specific promotional material

• creation of a repository/catalogue of free/commercial planning

and scheduling software

• participation in industrial exhibitions and conferences

• development of case studies

• organisation of joint events with other NoEs

– Planning & Agents AgentLink

– Manufacturing Applications of P&S ICIMS NoE

– Planning & Robotics Euron

Technology Information Days -

An offer to people form industrial companies and authorities

• Overview of the technology

• Demonstration of successful industrial applications in - aircraft scheduling - plant control - workflow

- ...

• Reports on increased profitability and responsiveness

Information Days

WP4: Training and Exchange

• organisation of the International Summer School on AI Planning

• development of a planning and scheduling curriculum

• organisation of gap-bridging seminars

• support of a limited number of cross-site visits with a general

benefit to the community

– update of roadmaps

– preparation of standardisation proposals

– organisation of competitions

– update of the network’s online databases

WP5: Infrastructure and Management

• edition of the newsletter, production of promotion material

• extension and maintenance of the PLANET Website

• organisation of the internal evaluation

• moderation of the mailinglist

• integration of new nodes

• external contacts and co-operations

• administration

• co-ordination with the European Commission

Measures of Success

• the number of new network members and associated members

• the number of research activities

• the number of training and exchange activities

• the number of technology transfer co-ordination activities

• the numbers of accesses to the PLANET II web site and repositories

• the number and composition of participants in each network activity

Deliverables• workshop proceedings

• roadmaps

• test and evaluation reports from technical workshops

• online database containing benchmark applications and tools

• repository and catalogue of free planning and scheduling software

• case studies

• planning and scheduling curriculum

• annual reports by the network management

MilestonesA

pril:

Sta

rt o

f P

LA

NE

T 2

Apr

il: E

nd o

f P

LAN

ET

2

2001 2002 2003 2004

Sep

: E

CP

200

1 an

d

G

ener

al N

etw

ork

Mee

ting

Apr

il: A

IPS

200

2

P

lan

ning

Co

mpe

titio

n

Res

earc

h W

ebsi

te o

nlin

eF

irst

Te

chni

cal W

orks

hops

hel

d

Indu

stria

l Ben

chm

ark

Pro

blem

Res

earc

h D

atab

ase

Sci

entif

ic W

orks

hops

Tec

hnic

al W

orks

hop

sE

xten

sion

of

Ben

chm

arks

Imp

rove

me

nt o

f D

atab

ase

Development of Roadmap

July

: E

CA

I

Aug

: IJ

CA

I 20

01

Relevance to Key Action II

Opportunities for the development of e-work and e-commerce applications

• creation of intelligent work flows and process operating procedures II.2

• support of knowledge maintenance and acquisitioninformation gathering from heterogeneous, distributed sources II.1.2

• planning and scheduling for e-commerce transactions management of orders and sales II.3

• support for the dynamic assembly and operation of virtual enterprises/businesses II.3

AerospaceApplicationsAmedeo CestaTim Grant

WorkflowManagementDaniel Borrajo

Robot PlanningMalik Ghallab

Knowledge EngineeringLee McCluskey

Intelligent ManufacturingRuth Aylett

On-line Planningand SchedulingGerard Verfaille

Planning and IT for the WebAlfredo Milani

TCU Relation to 5th FP

Network Co-ordinator: Susanne Biundo

Management Structure

Network Executive Committee

Ruth Aylett Susanne BiundoDaniel Borrajo Amedeo CestaBrian Drabble Malik GhallabTim Grant Vince LongLee McCluskey Alfredo MilaniSam Steel Gerard Verfaille

Network Administrator: Bernd Schattenberg

Budget: Breakdown of Yearly Coststravel and subsistence [10 meetings (workshops, TCU meetings, etc.) funded to an average of 1000 Euro per person and meeting;15 working meetings (cross-site visits) funded to an average of 1000 Euro per meeting] 165.000 E Summer School 35.000 E

Conference Support 15.000 E

Newsletter (8.000 E), Leaflets & Poster (2.000 E) 10.000 E

Labour [full-time network administrator (53.200 E according to BAT scale), part-time Webadmin (25.500 E)subcontracting (25.500 E)] 104.200 E

Computing Costs 1.300 E

Consumables 2.000 E

-------------- 332.500 E