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Publications [ by Topic ] [ by Date ]

Overview of Model-based Programming, Execution and Autonomous Systems

 

Thrust 1: Model-based Programming of Discrete, Stochastic Systems.

Execution, Planning and Recovery

 

Thrust 2: Model-based Programming to Coordinate Multiple Agents

Execution, Planning and Recovery

  • Patrick R. Conrad, Julie Shah and Brian C. Williams, "Flexible Execution of Plans with Choice," Proceedings of the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS 09), Thessaloniki, Greece, September 2009. [Paper PDF]
  • Robert Effinger, Brian Williams, Gerard Kelly, Michael Sheehy, "Dynamic Controllability of Temporally-flexible Reactive Programs" Proceddings of the 19th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS 09), September 2009. [Paper PDF]
  • Julie Shah, Patrick Conrad, and Brian C. Williams, "Fast Distributed Multi-agent Plan Execution with Dynamic Task Assignment and Scheduling," Proceedings of the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS 09), Thessaloniki, Greece, September 2009. [Paper PDF]
  • Julie Shah and Brian C. Williams, "Fast Dynamic Scheduling of Disjunctive Temporal Constraint Networks through Incremental Compilation," Proceedings of the International  Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling  (ICAPS 08), Sydney, Australia, September 2008.[Paper PDF]
  • Julie Shah, John Stedl, Paul Robertson and Brian C. Williams, "A Fast Incremental Algorithm For Maintaining Dispatchability of Partially Controllable Plans," Proceedings of the International  Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling  (ICAPS 07), Providence, RI, September 2007. [Paper PDF]
  • Steve Block, Andreas F. Wehowsky, and Brian C. Williams, "Robust Execution of Contingent, Temporally Flexible Plans," Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Boston, MA, July 2006, pp. 802-808. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
    • also as Andreas F. Wehowsky, Steve A. Block, and Brian C. Williams, "Robust Distributed Coordination of Heterogeneous Robots through Temporal Plan Networks," Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS-05), Munich, Germany, September 2005, pp. 67-72. [Paper PDF]
    • also as Andreas F. Wehowsky, Steve A. Block, and Brian C. Williams, "Robust Distributed Coordination of Heterogeneous Robots Through Temporal Plan Networks," Proceedings of the ICAPS Workshop on Multi-agent Planning and Scheduling Workshop, Monterey, CA, June 2005. [Paper PDF]
  • Stephen A. Block and Brian C. Williams, "Distributed Method Selection and Dispatching of Contingent, Temporally Flexible Plans", published as "Robust Execution of Contingent, Temporally Flexible Plans", Proceedings of the ICAPS Workshop on Planning Under Uncertainty, Cumbria, UK, June 2006, pp. 25-32. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
    • also as Stephen A. Block and Brian C. Williams, "Distributed Method Selection and Dispatching of Contingent, Temporally Flexible Plans", published as "Robust Execution of Contingent, Temporally Flexible Plans", Proceedings of the AAAI Workshop on Cognitive Robotics, Boston, MA, July 2006. [Paper PDF]
  • I-hsiang Shu, Robert Effinger, and Brian C. Williams, "Enabling Fast Flexible Planning Through Incremental Temporal Reasoning with Conflict Extraction," Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS 05), Monterey, CA, June 2005, pp. 252-261. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • John Stedl and Brian C. Williams, "A Fast Incremental Dynamic Controllability Algorithm," Proceedings of the ICAPS Workshop on Plan Execution, Monterey, CA, June 2005, pp. 69-75. [Paper PDF]
  • John Stedl and Brian C. Williams, "Managing Communication Limitations in Partially Controllable Multi-agent Plans," Proceedings of the ICAPS Workshop on Multi-agent Planning and Scheduling Workshop, Monterey, CA, June 2005, pp. 8-14. [Paper PDF]
  • Phil Kim, Brian C. Williams, and Mark Abramson,"Executing Reactive, Model-based Programs through Graph-based Temporal Planning," Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Seattle, WA, 2001, pp. 487-493. [View abstract] [Paper PDF (321k)] [Paper PS (5,509k)] [Slides]
  • Patrick R. Conrad and Brian C. Williams, "Drake: An Efficient Executive for Temporal Plans with Choice," Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, vol. 42. pp 607-659, 2011.[Paper PDF]

    Estimation, Monitoring and Diagnosis

  • Tsoline Mikaelian, Brian C. Williams, and Martin Sachenbacher, "Model-based Monitoring and Diagnosis of Systems with Software-Extended Behavior," Proceedings of the Twentieth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-05), Pittsburgh, PA, July 2005, pp. 327-333. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
    • also as "Diagnosing Complex Systems with Software-Extended Behavior using Constraint Optimization," Proceedings of the 16th International Workshop on Principles of Diagnosis (DX-05), Monterey, CA, June 2005, pp. 19-24. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
    • also as "Probabilistic Monitoring from Mixed Software and Hardware Specifications," Proceedings of the ICAPS Workshop on Verification and Validation of Model-based Planning and Scheduling Systems, Monterey, CA, June 2005, pp. 95-100. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
    • also as "Autonomous Diagnosis Based on Software-Extended Behavior Models," Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS-05), Munich, Germany, September 2005. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Brian C. Williams, Seung Chung, Vineet Gupta, "Mode Estimation of Model-based Programs: Monitoring Systems with Complex Behavior, " Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Seattle, WA, 2001, pp. 579-585. [View abstract] [Paper PDF (134k)] [Paper PS (283k)]

 

Thrust 3: Model-based Programming of Dynamic Systems

Execution, Planning and Recovery

  • Ashis Banerjee, Masahiro Ono, Nicholas Roy, and Brian C. Williams, "Regression-based LP Solver for Chance-Constrained Finite Horizon Optimal Control with Nonconvex Constraints," American Control Conference, San Francisco, CA, July 2011. [Paper PDF]
  • M. Ono, B. Williams, "Decentralized Chance-Constrained Finite-Horizon Optimal Control for Multi-Agent Systems," IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Atlanta, GA, December, 2010. [Paper PDF]
  • Masahiro Ono, Lars Blackmore, and Brian C. Williams, "Chance Constrained Finite Horizon Optimal Control with Nonconvex Constraints,"American Control Conference, Baltimore, MD, July 2010. [Paper PDF]
  • Masahiro Ono and Brian C. Williams, "Market-based Risk Allocation Optimization," in Proceedings of Third International Workshop on 9th International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (OPTMAS-10), 2010. [Paper PDF]
  • "A Probabilistic Particle Control Approximation of Chance Constrained Stochastic Predictive Control." L. Blackmore, M. Ono, A. Bektassov and B. C. Williams. Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Robotics. [Paper PDF]
  • Lars Blackmore and Masahiro Ono, “Convex Chance Constrained Predictive Control Without Sampling,” in Proceedings of the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Control Conference, 2009 [Paper PDF]
  • Masahiro Ono and Brian C. Williams, "Market-based Risk Allocation for Multi-agent Systems," Doctoral Consortium of the 19th International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS-09), 2009 [Paper PDF]
  • "Active Estimation for Jump Markov Linear Systems." L. Blackmore, S. Rajamanoharan and B. C. Williams. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Nov 2008, Volume 53, Issue 10, pages 2223-2236. [Paper PDF]
  • Hui Li and Brian Williams, Generative Planning for Hybrid Systems based on Flow Tubes, the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS), Sydney, Australia, 2008. [Paper PDF]
  • Masahiro Ono and Brian C. Williams, "An Efficient Motion Planning Algorithm for Stochastic Dynamic Systems with Constraints on Probability of Failure," Twenty-Third AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-08), Chicago, IL, July 2008 [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Masahiro Ono, "Distributed Robust Execution of Qualitative State Plan with Chance Constraints," Thirteenth AAAI/SIGART Doctoral Consortium, Chicago, IL, July 2008 [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Masahiro Ono and Brian C. Williams, "Iterative Risk Allocation: A New Approach to Robust Model Predictive Control with a Joint Chance Constraint," to be appeared in Proceedings of 47th IEEE  Conference on Decision and Control, Cancun, Mexico, December 2008 [Paper PDF]
  • Lawrence A. Bush, Brian Williams and Nicholas Roy, "Computing Exploration Policies via Closed-form Least-Squares Value Iteration," ICAPS 2008. [Paper PDF]
  • Lars Blackmore, Senthooran Rajamanoharan, and Brian C. Williams, "Active Estimation for Switching Linear Dynamic Systems," 45th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, San Diego, California, December 2006.[Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Lars Blackmore and Brian C. Williams, "Finite Horizon Control Design for Optimal Discrimination between Several Models," 45th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, San Diego, California, December 2006.[Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Lars Blackmore, "A Probabilistic Particle Control Approach to Optimal, Robust Predictive Control," Best Student Paper in the AIAA GNC Graduate Student Paper Competition, Proceedings of the AIAA Conference on Guidance Navigation and Control, Keystone, Ohio, August 2006. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Andreas G. Hofmann and Brian C. Williams, "Exploiting Spatial and Temporal Flexiblity for Plan Execution of Hybrid, Under-Actuated Systems," Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on Artficial Intelligence, Boston, MA, July 2006, pp. 948-955. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Andreas G. Hofmann and Brian C. Williams, "Robust Execution of Temporally Flexible Plans for Bipedal Walking Devices," Proceedings of the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling, Cumbria, UK, June 2006. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
    • also as "Safe Execution of Temporally Flexible Plans for Bipedal Walking Devices," Proceedings of the ICAPS Plan Execution Workshop, Monterey, CA, June 2005. [Paper PDF]
    • also in Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS-05), Munich, Germany, September 2005. [Paper PDF]
  • Lars Blackmore and Brian C. Williams,"Optimal Manipulator Path Planning with Obstacles Using Disjunctive Programming," American Control Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2006, pp. 3200-3202.. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Lars Blackmore, Hui Li, and Brian C. Williams,"A Probabilistic Approach to Optimal Robust Path Planning with Obstacles," American Control Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 2006, pp. 2831-2837. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Thomas Léauté and B. C. Williams, "Coordinating Agile Systems Through the Model-based Execution of Temporal Plans," Proceedings of the Twentieth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-05), Pittsburgh, PA, July 2005, pp. 114-120. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
    • also in Proceedings of the ICAPS Workshop on Multi-agent Planning and Scheduling, Monterey, CA, June 2005, pp. 22-28. [Slides]

Estimation, Monitoring and Diagnosis

  • 1.1. Blackmore, L., S. Gil, S. Chung and B. C. Williams, “Model Learning for Switching Linear Systems with Autonomous Mode Transitions,” Proceedings of the Control and Decision Conference, New Orleans, December, 2007. [Paper PDF]

 

 

 

 

Optimal Reasoning and Constraints (Optimal Satisfiability, Valued Constraints, and Hybrid Constraints)

Tree Decomposition Methods

Conflict-directed Methods

  • Robert Effinger and Brian C. Williams, "Extending Dynamic Backtracking to Solve Weighted Conditional CSPs," Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Boston, MA, July 2006, pp. 28-35. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Martin Sachenbacher and Brian C. Williams, "Conflict-Directed A* Search for Soft Constraints," International Conference on Integration of AI and OR Techniques in Constraint Programming for Combinatorial Optimization Problems (CPAIOR-06), Cork, Ireland, June 2006, pp. 182-196. [Paper PDF]
    • also as"Solving Soft Constraints by Separating Optimization and Satisfiability," in Proceedings of the International Workshop on Preferences and Soft Constraints (SOFT-05), Sitges, Spain, October 2005, pp. 119-132. [Paper PDF]
  • Hui Li and Brian C. Williams, "Generalized Conflict Learning for Hybrid Discrete/Linear Optimization," Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Principles and Practices of Constraint Programming (CP-05), Barcelona, Spain, September 2005 pp. 415-429. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
    • also as "Efficiently Solving Hybrid Logic/Optimization Problems through Generalized Conflict Learning," Proceedings of the ICAPS Plan Execution Workshop, Monterey, CA, June 2005, pp. 63-69. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Brian C. Williams, and Robert Ragno, "Conflict-directed A* and its Role in Model-based Embedded Systems," Special Issue on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing, Journal of Discrete Applied Math, January 2003. [View abstract] [Preprint Paper PDF] [Preprint Paper PS]
  • Brian C. Williams and Jonathan Cagan, "Activity Analysis: Simplifying Optimal Design Problems Through Qualitative Partitioning," International Journal of Engineering Optimization, 27:109-137, 1996. [Paper PDF]
  • Brian C. Williams and Jonathan Cagan, "Activity Analysis: The Qualitative Analysis of Stationary Points for Optimal Reasoning," Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1994, pp. 1217-1223. [View abstract] [Paper PDF (211k)]
    • also as "Activity Analysis: Simplifying Optimal Design Problems Through Qualitative Partitioning," Proceedings of the ASME Conference on Design Theory and Methodology, Boston, MA, 1995, pp. 455-463. [Paper PDF]
    • also as "Using Activity Analysis to Identify Relevant Constraints in Optimal Reasoning Problems," Proceedings of the Symposium on Abstraction, Reformulation and Approximation, 1995.[View abstract] [Paper PDF (225k)]
  • Vijay Saraswat, Johan de Kleer and Brian C. Williams, "ATMS-based Constraint Programming," ILPS Workshop on Defeasible Reasoning and Constraint Solving, San Diego, CA, 1991.
  • Johan de Kleer and Brian C. Williams, "Back to Backtracking: Controlling the ATMS," Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Philadelphia, PA, 1986, pp. 910-917. [Paper PDF]

Symbolic Search Methods

Incremental Methods

Model-based Autonomous System Architectures: Remote Agent and Deep Space One

Qualitative and Model-based Reasoning

Diagnosis

Invention and Design

  • Jonathan Cagan and Brian C. Williams, "A First Order Necessary Condition for Robust Optimality," Proceedings of the ASME Conference on Advances in Design Automation, Albuquerque, NM, 1993, pp. 539-549. [Paper PDF]
    • also in Recent Advances in Qualitative Physics, Faltings and Struss eds., MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 413-434, 1992.
    • also in Lecture Notes in AI 462: International Workshop on Expert Systems in Engineering Principles and Applications, Springer-Verlag, pp. 119-134, 1990.
  • Brian C. Williams, "Interaction-based Invention: When Decomposability Becomes the Exceptional Case," Working Papers of the 3rd Workshop on Research Directions for Artificial Intelligence in Design, Los Angeles, CA, pp. 71-75, 1992.
  • Brian C. Williams, "Interaction-based Invention: Designing Novel Devices From First Principles," Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Boston, MA, pp. 349-356, 1990. [Paper PDF] [Draft PDF];
    • also in Recent Advances in Qualitative Physics, Faltings and Struss, eds., MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 413-34, 1992.
    • also in Lecture Notes in AI 462: International Workshop on Expert Systems in Engineering Principles and Applications, Springer-Verlag. [Slides]
  • Brian C. Williams, "Invention from First Principles: An Overview," Preprints of Modeling Creativity and Knowledge-based Creative Design, International Round-Table Conference, Heron Island, Queensland, 1989;
    • also in Artificial Intelligence at MIT: Expanding Frontiers, vol. 1, Winston and Shellard eds., MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 430- 463, 1990. [Paper PDF]

Automated Modeling

Qualitative Algebraic Analysis

Simulating Qualitative Processes over Time

  • Brian C. Williams, "Doing Time: Putting Qualitative Reasoning on Firmer Ground," Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Philadelphia, PA, pp. 105-113, 1986. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
    • also in Readings in Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Systems, Weld and de Kleer eds., Morgan Kaufman, pp. 353-360, 1990.
  • Brian C. Williams, "The Qualitative Analysis of MOS Circuits," Artificial Intelligence, 24:281-346, 1985. [Paper PDF]
    • also in Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Systems, Bobrow, ed., MIT Press and North-Holland, pp. 281-346, 1984.
    • also as "Temporal Qualitative Analysis: Explaining How Physical Systems Work," in Readings in Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Systems, Weld and de Kleer, eds., Morgan Kaufman, pp. 133-177, 1990.
    • also in Artificial Intelligence in Engineering Design, vol. 2, Tong and Sriram, eds., Academic Press, pp. 335-422, 1992.
  • Brian C. Williams, "The Use of Continuity in Qualitative Physics," Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Austin, TX, pp. 350-354, 1984. [Paper PDF]
  • Brian C. Williams,"Beyond Qualitative Reasoning," Working Papers of the 1st AAAI Workshop on Qualitative Physics, Urbana, IL, 1987. [Paper PDF]

Applications of Model-based Programming, Execution and Autonomous Systems

  • Morris, R., T. Estlin, L. Pedersen and B. C. Williams, “Demonstrating Robotic Autonomy in NASA’s Intelligent Systems Project,” in Proceedings of the 8th ESA Workshop on Advanced Space Technologies for Robotics and Automation (ASTRA 2004), Noordwijk, The Netherlands, Nov 2, 2004. [Paper PDF]
  • Paul Robertson, Robert Effinger, and Brian C. Williams,"Autonomous Robust Execution of Complex Robotic Missions," Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-9), Tokyo, Japan, March 2006, pp. 595-604. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Paul Robertson and Brian C. Williams, "A Model-Based System Supporting Automatic Self-Regeneration of Critical Software," Proceedings of the IFIP/IEEE International Workshop on Self-Managed Systems & Services (SELFMan 2005), Nice, France, 2005. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Robert Effinger, Andreas Hofmann, and Brian C. Williams, "Progress Towards Task-Level Collaboration between Astronauts and Their Robotic Assistants," Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation in Space (iSAIRAS-05), Munich, Germany, September 2005, Session 7C. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Lorraine Fesq, Mitch Ingham, Mike Pekala, John Van Eepoel, David Watson, and Brian C. Williams, "Model-Based Autonomy for the Next Generation of Robotic Spacecraft," Proceedings of the 53rd International Astronautical Congress, Houston, TX, October 2002, pp. 212-237. Paper # IAC-02-U.5.04. [Paper PDF] [Slides]
  • Brian C. Williams, Phil Kim, Michael Hofbaur, Jon How, Jon Kennell, Jason Loy, Robert Ragno, John Stedl and Aisha Walcott, “Model-based Reactive Programming of Cooperative Vehicles for Mars Exploration.” Int. Symp. on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space, St-Hubert, Canada, June 2001. [Abstract PDF (60k)] [Paper PDF (340k)]
  • Steve Chien, Robert Sherwood, M. Burl, Russell Knight, Greg Rabideau, Barbara Engelhardt, A. Davies, Paul Zetocha, R. Wainright, P. Klupar, Pat Cappelaere, D. Surka, Brian C. Williams, Ron Greeley, V. Baker and J. Doan, “The Techsat-21 Autonomous Sciencecraft Constellation,” Int. Symp. on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space, St-Hubert, Canada, June 2001. [Paper PDF]
  • Mitch Ingham, Robert Ragno and Brian C. Williams, "A Reactive Model-based Programming Language for Robotic Space Explorers," Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space: A New Space Odyssey, Montreal, Canada, June 2001. [Paper PDF (160k)] [Slides]
  • Mitch Ingham, Brian C. Williams, Thomas Lockhart, A. Oyake, Mica Clarke, and Abdullah Aljabri, "Autonomous Sequencing and Model-based Fault Protection for Space Interferometry," International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space, Montreal, Canada, June 2001. [Abstract PDF (56k)] [Paper PDF (170k)] [Slides]
  • Jeff Bradshaw, Yuri Gawdiak, Hans Thomas and Brian C. Williams, "R2D2 in a Softball: The Portable Satellite Assistant," International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, 2000, pp. 125-128. [Paper PDF]
  • James Kurien, Pandu Nayak, Brian C. Williams, "Model-based Autonomy for Robust Mars Operations, " Proceedings of the First International Conference of the Mars Society , August 1998,pp. 421-428.[View abstract] [Paper PS (562k)] [Paper PDF (221k)]

Theses

Thrust 1: Model-based Programming of Discrete, Stochastic Systems.