---
title: "The Nonlinear Nature of Plans"
authors:
  - "Earl D. Sacerdoti"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1975/31"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1975/0031.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Fourth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1975
pages: "206-213"
track: "Planning and Problem Solving"
keywords:
---

# The Nonlinear Nature of Plans

Earl D. Sacerdoti

*Proceedings of the Fourth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 206-213.

## Abstract

We usually think of plans as linear sequences of actions. This is because plans are usually executed one step at a time. But plans themselves are not constrained by limitations of linearity. This paper describes a new information structure, called the procedural net, that represents a plan as a partial ordering of actions with respect to time. By avoiding premature commitments to a particular order for achieving subgoals, a problemsolving system using this representation can deal easily and directly with problems that are otherwise very difficult to solve.