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Reference	Nareyek, A. 2001. Beyond the Plan-Length Criterion. In Nareyek, A. (ed.), Local Search for Planning and Scheduling, Springer LNAI 2148, 55-78.
Abstract	Resources such as food, hit points or magical power are standard features of today's computer games. Computer-guided characters often have goals that are related to these resources and must take this into account in planning their behavior. In the field of artificial intelligence, resource-based action planning systems have recently begun to mushroom. However, these systems still tend to neglect resources. Conventional plan length is the primary optimization goal, resources being of only secondary importance. This paper illustrates the problem and gives an overview of the EXCALIBUR agent's planning system, which overcomes these deficiencies by applying an extended constraint programming framework to planning. It allows the search space to be explored without the need to focus on plan length, makes it possible to optimize other criteria like resource-related properties and promotes the inclusion of domain-dependent knowledge to guide and accelerate the search for a plan.
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Online Content	The article includes content from the AI Center pages below. Please note that the online pages may contain updated/revised versions, and probably do not cover the complete article: Resources The Orc Quest Example The Application of Planning Systems The Real Optimum A Question of Relevance The Nearby Wizard Plan-Length Bound A Question of Efficiency Complexity Decision-Theoretic Planning The Planning Model The Planning Model as SCSP Conclusion Revisiting the Orc Quest Example The Constraints The Constraints' Heuristics The Global Search Control Evaluation