Planning in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the process of automatically generating a sequence of actions or steps that an intelligent agent needs to perform to achieve a specific goal from a given initial state.
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It involves reasoning about the world, the effects of possible actions, and the desired outcomes.
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The goal of planning is to find a plan — a set of actions arranged in a particular order — that leads from the current state to the goal state.
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Planning is fundamental in AI applications such as robotics, autonomous systems, game playing, logistics, and decision-making.
Key Elements of Planning:
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Initial State: The starting situation or condition.
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Goal State: The desired condition or outcome.
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Actions: Operations that change the state of the world.
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Plan: A sequence (or partial order) of actions transforming the initial state to the goal.