Translator

The translator is a program written in Sisctus prolog. The input of the translator is an A_k program describing the planning domain and the output is a smodels program.

To translate a planning problem P=(D,I,G) into p(P), follow the steps:

1. Launch Sicstus prolog

bangkok[10]% sicstus

SICStus 3.7 beta3: Thu May 14 10:01:09 MET DST 1998

2. Compile the translator

| ?- [tr].

3. Issue gen. at the sicstus prompt to generate a domain written in the A_k language and then enter the domain description file name. Notice that the the default extension of the input domain description file is .pl.

| ?- gen. 

 Enter domain description file name: <problem-name>. (for example, a1_prob.)

4. Quit the Sicstus

| ?- halt.

The output file has the same name as the input file but the extension is .smo. For instance, the output logic program for the a1_prob.pl domain will be a1_prob.smo.

The next step is to use smodels and lparse to generate solutions for the given domain. You need to provide the maximum length and maximum level for search space. Notice that for conformant plans, the value of the level should be set to 1. For example, the following command will generate the plan for the a1_prob domain:

bangkok[10]% lparse -c length = 5 -c level = 2 a1_prob.smo | smodels

Test Results

Domains

The domains/problems used to test the program are shown in the table below. The first column shows problems and domains. These problems and domains are expressed as A_k programs in the second column. The corresponding logic programs for these domains, generated by the translator, are shown in the third column.