Incorporating Decision Nodes into Conditional Simple Temporal Networks

Abstract

A Conditional Simple Temporal Network (CSTN) augments a Simple Temporal Network (STN) to include special time-points, called observation time-points. In a CSTN, the agent executing the network controls the execution of every time-point.  However, each observation time-point has a unique propositional letter associated with it and, when the agent executes that time-point, the environment assigns a truth value to the corresponding letter. Thus, the agent observes but, does not control the assignment of truth values. A CSTN is dynamically consistent (DC) if there exists a strategy for executing its time-points such that all relevant constraints will be satisfied no matter which truth values the environment assigns to the propositional letters.

 Alternatively, in a Labeled Simple Temporal Network (Labeled STN) - also called a Temporal Plan with Choice - the agent executing the network controls the assignment of values to the so-called choice variables. Furthermore, the agent can make those assignments at any time.  For this reason, a Labeled STN is equivalent to a Disjunctive Temporal Network.

 This paper incorporates both of the above extensions by augmenting a CSTN to include not only observation time-points but also decision time-points.  A decision time-point is like an observation time-point in that it has an associated propositional letter whose value is determined when the decision time-point is executed.  It differs in that the agent - not the environment - selects that value. The resulting network is called a CSTN with Decisions (CSTND).  This paper shows that a CSTND generalizes both CSTNs and Labeled STNs, and proves that the problem of determining whether any given CSTND is dynamically consistent is PSPACE-complete. It also presents algorithms that address two sub-classes of CSTNDs:
(1) those that contain only decision time-points; and (2) those in which all decisions are made before execution begins.