  Techniques for plan recognition under uncertainty require a stochastic model
of the plan-generation process. We introduce Probabilistic State-Dependent
Grammars (PSDGs) to represent an agent's plan-generation process. The PSDG
language model extends probabilistic context-free grammars (PCFGs) by allowing
production probabilities to depend on an explicit model of the planning agent's
internal and external state. Given a PSDG description of the plan-generation
process, we can then use inference algorithms that exploit the particular
independence properties of the PSDG language to efficiently answer
plan-recognition queries. The combination of the PSDG language model and
inference algorithms extends the range of plan-recognition domains for which
practical probabilistic inference is possible, as illustrated by applications
in traffic monitoring and air combat.
