Integrating knowledge engineering for planning with Validation and Verification tools

Knowledge Engineering environments aim at simplifying direct access to the technology for system designers, and the integration of Validation and Verification (V&V) capabilities in such environments may potentially enhance the users trust in the technology. In particular, V&V techniques may represent a complementary technology with respect to Planning and Scheduling (P&S) contributing to develop richer software environments to synthesize a new generation of robust problem-solving applications. This paper presents the integration of classical knowledge engineering features connected to support design of timeline-based P&S applications taking advantage of services of automated V&V techniques such as domain validation, planner validation, plan verification etc. The result is a Knowledge Engineering ENvironment (called KEEN) that exploits a state-of-the-art verification tool, i.e., UPPAAL-TIGA, as core engine to support the design and development of timeline-based planning and scheduling systems. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013.