Planning, or reasoning about actions, is a fundamental element of intelligent behavior--and one that artificial intelligence has found very difficult to implement. The most well-understood approach to building planning systems has been under refinement since the late 1960s and has now reached a level of maturity where there are good prospects for building working planners.

Practical Planning is an in-depth examination of this classical planning paradigm through an intensive case study of SIPE, a significantly implemented planning system. The author, the developer of SIPE,...