Lesson 6: Planning

Planning is the process of determining what steps to take, Scheduling is determining when to carry out a certain step to achieve a goal, and Optimization is the process of identifying the optimal solution to a problem.

Planning and AI

AI planning determines the course of action that is required for a system to reach its goals in the most optimal way.

The planning process includes:

• Initial state I
• Goal state G
• Actions A

The plan enables an AI system to perform a series of actions (A), that turn the initial state (I) into the end goal (G).

In manufacturing, a production plan is an outline of the steps that are required to build a product from end to end. The building process typically involves hundreds of parts arriving at different times and being integrated with an assembly line. The planning process can quickly become too complex for humans.

AI is used in production planning systems to process a massive amount of data and construct an optimal plan to build a product. As new parts are added, they are easily integrated into the planning model.