Towards a theory of random walk planning: Regress factors, fair homogeneous graphs and extensions

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Nakhost, Hootan^; | Müller, Martin

Affiliations: Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. E-mails: {nakhost, mmueller}@ualberta.ca

Note: [] Corresponding author. E-mail: nakhost@ualberta.ca

Abstract: Random walks are a relatively new component used in several state of the art satisficing planners. Empirical results have been mixed: while the approach clearly outperforms more systematic search methods such as weighted A* on many planning domains, it fails in many others. So far, the explanations for these empirical results have been somewhat ad hoc. This paper proposes a formal framework for comparing the performance of random walk and systematic search methods. Fair Homogeneous and Infinitely Regressable Homogeneous graphs are proposed as graph classes that represent characteristics of the state space of prototypical planning domains, and are simple enough to allow a theoretical analysis of the performance of both random walk and systematic search algorithms. These models give well-founded insights into the relative strength and weaknesses of these approaches. The close relation of the models to some well-known planning domains is shown through simplified but semi-realistic planning domains that fulfill the constraints of the models. One main result is that in contrast to systematic search methods, for which the branching factor plays a decisive role, the performance of random walk methods is determined to a large degree by the Regress Factor, the ratio between the probabilities of progressing towards and regressing away from a goal with an action. The performance of random walk and systematic search methods can be compared by considering both branching and regress factors of a state space.

Keywords: Automated planning, random walks, heuristic search

DOI: 10.3233/AIC-140603

Journal: AI Communications, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 329-344, 2014