Solving Sequential Planning Problems via Constraint Satisfaction

Planning problems deal with finding a sequence of actions that transfer the initial state of the world into a desired state. Frequently such problems are solved by dedicated algorithms but there exist planners based on translating the planning problem into a different formalism such as constraint satisfaction or Boolean satisfiability and using a general solver for this formalism. The paper describes how to enhance existing constraint models of sequential planning problems by using techniques such as symmetry breaking (dominance rules), singleton consistency, nogoods, lifting, or techniques motivated by the partial-order planning.