Characterising the Planning Niche in a Real-Time Control Architecture

Real-time control and planning are largely separate fields. Control theory is found largely in the engineering and mathematics literature, while planning theory can be found in management science, operations research and AI. In practice, real-time control of operations is invariably plan-based. The research reported here is part of a project intended to integrate planning and control by means of a generic software architecture based on a rational reconstruction of Boyd’s (1996) Observe-Orient-Decide-Act process model. In particular, the paper characterises the planning niche in the architecture, showing that several different types of planning are required. Conclusions are drawn for research directions