Task Networks for Controlling Continuous Processes

This paper describes an extension to the RAP system task-net semantics and representation language to enable the effective control of continuous processes. The representation addresses the problems of synchronizing plan expansion with events in the world, coping with multiple, non-deterministic task outcomes, and the description of a simple form of clean-up task. It is also pointed out that success and failure need no special place in a task network representation. Success and failure are really messages about the execution system’s knowledge and do not explicitly define that system’s flow of control.