A Unified Knowledge Base for Companion-Systems – A Case Study in Mixed-Initiative Planning

Abstract. Companion systems aim to extend the abilities of ordinary technical systems, for instance by modeling the user’s situation, by rec-ognizing the user’s intentions, and by being able to interact with the user and to adapt to her/him. Such a system depends on planning capabilities to determine which actions are necessary to achieve a particular goal. In many situations it may not be appropriate for a companion system to develop plans on its own, but instead it has to integrate the user while cre-ating the plan, i.e., it needs to be mixed-initiative. Based on earlier work, we demonstrate how a central knowledge base for a mixed-initiative plan-ning system can be designed. We outline various benefits our approach brings to bear within a companion system. Lastly, we present several requests a user might issue towards the mixed-initiative planning system and how they can be answered by harnessing the knowledge base.