Planning procedural advice

A planner which generates advice about the procedures which should be carried out by a human agent in order to achieve a goal is described. The fact that the agent is a person, not a robot, makes it possible to develop plans cooperatively with the user in the course of a dialogue, but imposes special requirements on the planner. The planner should be capable of taking advantage of the user's knowledge and abilities; of providing partial plans; of planning even in the absence of complete knowledge about the user's current state; of re-planning when the execution does not succeed or the situation changes; and of providing explanations of its advice. The paper considers the implications of these requirements on the design of such an advisory planner, implemented as part of the ‘Advice System’, a knowledge-based system for advising members of the public about welfare benefits.