We consider the problem of representing plans for mixed-initiative planning, where several participants cooperate to develop plans. We claim that in such an environment, a crucial task is plan communication: the ability to suggest aspects of a plan, accept such suggestions from other agents, criticize plans, revise them, etc., in addition to building plans. The complexity of this interaction imposes significant new requirements on the representation of plans. We describe a formal model of plans based on defeasible argument systems that allows us to perform these types of reasoning. The arguments that are produced are explicit objects that can be used to provide a semantics for statements about plans.
George Ferguson, James F. Allen