Automating Transfer of Robot Task Plans using Functorial Data Migrations

This paper introduces a novel approach to ontology-based robot plan transfer using functorial data migrations from category theory. Functors provide structured maps between domain types and predicates which can be used to transfer plans from a source domain to a target domain without the need for replanning. Unlike methods that create models for transferring specific plans, our approach can be applied to any plan within a given domain. We demonstrate this approach by transferring a task plan from the canonical Blocksworld domain to one compatible with the AI2-THOR Kitchen environment. In addition, we discuss practical applications that may enhance the adaptability of robotic task planning in general.

Encoding Compositionality in Classical Planning Solutions

Classical AI planners provide solutions to planning problems in the form of long and opaque text outputs. To aid in the understanding transferability of planning solutions, it is necessary to have a rich and comprehensible representation for both human and computers beyond the current line-by-line text notation. In particular, it is desirable to encode the trace of literals throughout the plan to capture the dependencies between actions selected. The approach of this paper is to view the actions as maps between literals and the selected plan as a composition of those maps. The mathematical theory, called category theory, provides the relevant structures for capturing maps, their compositions, and maps between compositions. We employ this theory to propose an algorithm agnostic, model-based representation for domains, problems, and plans expressed in the commonly used planning description language, PDDL. This category theoretic representation is accompanied by a graphical syntax in addition to a linear notation, similar to algebraic expressions, that can be used to infer literals used at every step of the plan. This provides the appropriate constructive abstraction and facilitates comprehension for human operators. In this paper, we demonstrate this on a plan within the Blocksworld domain.