Controller Synthesis for Timeline-based Games

TL;DR

This paper introduces an effective and optimal method for synthesizing controllers in timeline-based games, addressing the challenge of implementing winning strategies in nondeterministic planning scenarios.

Contribution

It provides the first concrete, computationally optimal approach for controller synthesis in timeline-based games, filling a key gap in the field.

Findings

The proposed method is computationally optimal.

It successfully synthesizes controllers for complex timeline-based games.

The approach handles general nondeterminism effectively.

Abstract

In the timeline-based approach to planning, the evolution over time of a set of state variables (the timelines) is governed by a set of temporal constraints. Traditional timeline-based planning systems excel at the integration of planning with execution by handling temporal uncertainty. In order to handle general nondeterminism as well, the concept of timeline-based games has been recently introduced. It has been proved that finding whether a winning strategy exists for such games is 2EXPTIME-complete. However, a concrete approach to synthesize controllers implementing such strategies is missing. This paper fills this gap, by providing an effective and computationally optimal approach to controller synthesis for timeline-based games.