Learning Agents Center, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA

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Abstract—This paper presents an approach to rapid development of virtual planning experts that can collaborate to develop plans of action requiring expertise from multiple domains. The approach is implemented into a new type of software tool, called Disciple-VPT, which includes an extensible library of virtual planning experts from different domains. Teams of such virtual experts can be rapidly assembled from the library to generate complex plans of actions that require their joint expertise. The basic component of the Disciple-VPT tool is the Disciple-VE learning agent shell that can be taught directly by a subject matter expert how to plan, trough planning examples and explanations, in a way that is similar to how the expert would teach an apprentice. Copies of the Disciple-VE shells are used by experts in different domains to rapidly populate the library of virtual experts of Disciple-VPT.

Index Terms—knowledge engineering, HTN planning, learning, collaboration, expert systems, emergency response planning, knowledge bases, ontology, rules, software tool

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Cite: Gheorghe Tecuci, Mihai Boicu, Dorin Marcu, Marcel Barbulescu, Cristina Boicu, Vu Le, Thomas Hajduk, " Teaching Virtual Experts for Multi-Domain Collaborative Planning," Journal of Software vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 38-59, 2008.