STRIPS-like Representation

STRIPS, or the Stanford Research Institute Problem Solver, was proposed by Fikes and Nilsson in 1971 and included a representation for operators that was intended to solve (or at least address) the frame problem. STRIPS uses well-formed formulas of the first-order predicate calculus and specifies operators by a pre-condition list, an add-list and a delete-list. The pre-conditions must be satisfied by the current state before an operator is applied. The effects of the operator are given by the add and delete lists. The add-list adds new, instantiated well-formed formulas to the current state. The delete list removes wffs from the current state.

Although STRIPS did resolve some of the issues related to the frame problem, it (and all systems that use a STRIPS-like representation) suffer from a requirement for explicitness -- all actions (including secondary effects) must be included in the model of the operator. In complex worlds, this is often impossible.

The following architecures utilize a STRIPS-like operator representation:

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