Concurrent probabilistic temporal planning with policy-gradients

Abstract

We present an any-time concurrent probabilistic temporal planner that includes continuous and discrete uncertainties and metric functions. Our approach is a direct policy search that attempts to optimise a parameterised policy using gradient ascent. Low memory use, plus the use of function approximation methods, plus factorisation of the policy, allow us to scale to challenging domains. This Factored Policy Gradient (FPG) Planner also attempts to optimise both steps to goal and the probability of success. We compare the FPG planner to other planners on CPTP domains, and on simpler but better studied probabilistic non-temporal domains.