ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the design of an artificial intelligence planner capable of producing plans that coordinate multiple units into a joint maneuver on the battlefield. It looks at how planning for multiple units is different from planning for a single unit. The chapter introduces the basic ideas of hierarchical plan-space planning. These ideas are made more concrete for the case of combat maneuvers. Creating a plan for multiple units is different from planning for a single unit. Obviously, the plan needs to cater to all the units instead of a single unit, and will involve more actions. In many cases, these units will perform their actions concurrently. The planner main loop executes the search through plan-space. The search starts with a single plan consisting of a single top-level task. Next, the main loop repeatedly picks the most promising plan from the open plans in plan-space and attempts to expand that plan by refining the plan’s tasks.
