Method and device for hierarchically planning executions of operation sequences achieving goal states of technical system workflows and checking them through system simulation or system hardware execution

A device for hierarchically planning executions of operation sequences achieving goal states of technical system workflows and checking them through system simulation or hardware execution, with a processor, a graphical user interface and a communications interface each connected to the processor and a non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium having processor-readable program-instructions of a program module for planning and checking the executions of the operation sequences, which is stored in the non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium, wherein the processor executing the processor-readable program-instructions of the program module, the graphical user interface, the communications interface and the non-transitory, processor-readable storage medium with the processor-readable program-instructions of the program module form a functional unit which is configured in such a way that

• a) for a workflow of a technical system a workflow related planning domain is given by deploying workflow related facts, which are based on a digital twin, e.g., a 3D representation, of the technical system, a workflow related set of planning operators each inputted via the graphical user interface,
• b) a workflow related goal state inputted via the graphical user interface is specified by graphical-user-interface-based inputs of a goal-state-specifying-process given by consecutive steps,
• b1) a first step, wherein a user chooses, by using a 3D editor, each time in doing so respectively one different initial goal state, wherein the chosen, different initial goal state is one of the graphical-user-interface-based inputs,
• b2) a second step, wherein a list with a finite, depending on the chosen initial goal state number “mGSi” with mGSi∈N of different goal state abstraction levels is generated, and
• b3) a third step, wherein the user selects from the generated list, each time in doing so respectively one different “jGSi”-th with jGSi∈{1GSi, . . . , mGSi} goal state abstraction level of the number “mGSi” of different goal state abstraction levels, wherein the selected different goal state abstraction level is one of the graphical-user-interface-based inputs,
• c) a planning task is defined for the specified goal state and according to the deployed planning domain based on the facts and for at least one selected planning operator of the workflow related set of planning operators, and
• d) by a planning approach according to the defined planning task and an execution engine
• d1) executions of the selected planning operator are checked iteratively in order to find a full plan comprising first operation sequences achieving the goal state by a primary query loop, wherein in consecutive loop iterations until, by <i> executing the at least one selected planning operator through the execution engine <ii> generating primary control commands due to the at least one executed selected planning operator through the execution engine, <iii> accordingly applying the primary control commands outputted via the communications interface to simulate the technical system workflow and <iv> accordingly checking the system simulation through primary measurement results of measurements fed back to the execution engine, the full plan achieving the goal state is found or an error of the technical system workflow is reached, and
• d2) when in d1) the full plan is found, the executions of the found full plan achieving the goal state are checked iteratively by a secondary query loop, wherein in consecutive loop iterations until by <i> executing the full plan through the execution engine, <ii> generating secondary control commands due to the executed full plan through the execution engine, <iii> accordingly applying the secondary control commands outputted via the communications interface to simulate or to execute in hardware the technical system workflow and <iv> accordingly checking the system simulation or system hardware execution through secondary measurement results of measurements fed back to the execution engine, the goal state is achieved.