Some twenty years have elapsed since the first attempts at planning were made by researchers in artificial intelligence. These early programs concentrated on the development of plans for the solution of puzzles or toy problems, like the rearrangement of stacks of blocks. These early programs provided the foundation for the work described in this book, the automatic generation of plans for industrial assembly. As one reads about the complex and sophisticated planners in the current gen eration, it is important to keep in mind that they are addressing real-world problems. Although these systems...

Some twenty years have elapsed since the first attempts at planning were made by researchers in artificial intelligence. These early programs concentrated on the development of plans for the solution of puzzles or toy problems, like the rearrangement of stacks of blocks. These early programs provided the foundation for the work described in this book, the automatic generation of plans for industrial assembly. As one reads about the complex and sophisticated planners in the current gen- eration, it is important to keep in mind that they are addressing real-world problems. Although these...