HTN planning for Web Service composition using SHOP2

• DOI: 10.1016/j.websem.2004.06.005
• Publication Date: 2004-08-10T19:56:00Z
• Authors: Evren Sirin; Bijan Parsia; Dan Wu; James Hendler; Dana Nau
• Keywords: OWL-S; SHOP2; Web Services; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; HTN planning; 02 engineering and technology; Web Service composition

Automated composition of Web Services can be achieved by using AI planning techniques. Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning is especially well-suited for this task. In this paper, we describe how HTN planning system SHOP2 can be used with OWL-S Web Service descriptions. We provide a sound and complete algorithm to translate OWL-S service descriptions to a SHOP2 domain.We prove the correctness of the algorithm by showing the correspondence to the situation calculus semantics of OWL-S. We implemented a system that plans over sets of OWL-S descriptions using SHOP2 and then executes the resulting plans over the Web. The system is also capable of executing information-providing Web Services during the planning process. We discuss the challenges and difficulties of using planning in the information-rich and human-oriented context of Web Services.