The STRIPS Assumption for Planning Under Uncertainty  Michael P.
Wellman  The virtue of the STRIPS assumption for planning is
that it bounds the information relevant to determining the
effects of actions. Viewing the "assumption" as a statement
about beliefs, we find that it does not actually assume anything
about the world itself. We can characterize the assertion about
beliefs in terms of probabilistic independence, thereby
facilitating analysis of representations for planning under
uncertainty. This interpretation separates the STRIPS assumption
from other necessary features of a planning architecture, such
as its model of persistence and its inferential policies. By
isolating these factors, we can understand the role of
dependence across a wide range of planners and action
representations. Graphical models of dependence developed for
probabilistic analysis provide a convenient tool for verifying
the STRIPS assumption for a variety of planning systems.
Investigation of a few representative systems reveals