The O-Plan planning agent can be accessed via the World-Wide Web (WWW) or more flexibly via interactive Internet services. A web demonstration of the O-Plan planning agent is available via a simple form-based interface. This agent has pre-defined knowledge of Non-combatant Evacuation Operations (NEOs) to rescue people from danger zones caused by natural or political disruption. The example web demonstration allows a user to quickly input information about the people to be evacuated and their locations on the fictional island of Pacifica. The form allows an indication of the number and location of ground and air transports available. The planning agent can then generate a suitable plan to use the resources known to be available and present this back to the user in a variety of formats. Such a rapid and flexible response to an emerging crisis with the timely creation of well justified options for action are a requirement in many fields of human endeavour. The provision of computer assistants on the information superhighway to help in generating and manitaining such plans will be powerful tools.
O-Plan (the Open Planning Architecture) itself allows for considerable flexibility. It is an application independent system that supports task definition, planning, scheduling and flexible plan enactment or workflow. The O-Plan planner itself is complemented by agents that can support plan execution and reaction to environmental changes. The system has been designed to make use of the considerable knowledge that is often available for a problem and to exploit this to generate suitable plans. The research has led to a significant number of technological innovations and considerable spin-offs in applications of the concepts within the European Space Agency, Hitachi, UK Search and Rescue, in the UK Enterprise Project, etc. The O-Plan team are engaged in a number of standardisation efforts to ensure the insights gained through the research and applications are fed into mainstream productive use.
The O-Plan work has benefited from funding by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (1984-88) and since 1989 has been sponsored by the US Advanced Research Projects Agency and US Air Force Rome Laboratory Planning Initiative. The O-Plan team in Edinburgh is the only non-US participant in this joint US government/industry/academic $65 million programme of research and development which is looking to the next generation of rapid response crisis action planning aids for the US military and their partners in NATO and the UN. These aids will be made available via the information superhighway of the future.
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