IofT 1910 W Fall 2006

Week 5
Plan for today:
discuss questions asked in writeup
talk about approaches to building
intelligence
talk about the lab on Thursday

1. Fundamental principles used in

the paper

2. Control architecture

Model of intelligence

Traditional model
Brooks model
Model used in this paper

Control architecture

Subsumption
Finite State Machine

Model of intelligence
Traditional model, according to Brooks

In the traditional model

cognition mediates
between perception and
actions.
Actions affect the world
Perception gets
information from the
world to feed cognition

Perception

World

Cognition

Action

Brooks model

Cognition is in the
eye of the
observer.
Perception and
action do all the
work.
The world is its
own best model.

World

Action
Perception

Cognition

Model in todays paper?

AI = Rational Agents

An agent is an entity that perceives and acts.

More abstractly the agent is a function from perc
histories to actions.
The material on Agent architectures is from
Russell&Norvig,Artificial Intelligence: a Modern Approach, Prentice-Hall,

Agent types

We can design different agent types, from

simple to more complex.
Agents operate in different environments
(observable vs partially observable,
deterministic vs stochastic, static vs
dynamic, episodic vs sequential, discrete vs
continuous, single agent vs multi-agent,
etc).
The environment mostly determines the
agent design.

The vacuum cleaner world

The vacuum cleaner can perceive location and content

(in A, dirt).
Actions it can do are: left, right, suck, no-op.
How should the agent decide what to do?

Agent types: A simple reflex agent

The agent reacts to the environment using its rules,

but has no memory of its past actions.

Agent types: A reflex agent with

state

The agent reacts to the environment using its

rules,

Agent types: A learning agent

The agent can adapt its actions to increase performa

Robot control architecture

At least two approaches:

1.
The subsumption architecture, where behaviors are built by
successive layers of modules, each of which is a Finite State
Machine (FSM). A Subsumption Architecture builds a system
by layering levels of control, allowing lower levels to override
the higher ones and injecting higher level outputs into lower
levels.
2.
A finite state machine where states are connected by state
transition links and where each state includes multiple
behaviors. States allow decomposition of complex systems
into small chunks. Transitions handle flow control.
Either one can be used. People use state machines more
often than the subsumption architecture, because they are
more flexible.

FSM vs. Subsumption

FSM
(ExploreMachine)

Brooks Subsumption Control System

walk
No Obstacle

Obstacle
Detected

turn
Slide from Robotics Seminar CSI445/660, Spring 2005
Robert Salkin & Shawn Turner, University at Albany, SUNY

An example of an Agent using FSM:

MinDART
TAKE TARGET
HOME
SEARCH FOR
TARGETS
Obstacle Avoidance
Purposeful Search

Target
Dropped

Detect Other Targets

Obstacle Avoidance

Random Search

Homing
Target
Found

Obstacle Avoidance
Target Alignment
Pick Up Target

GRAB TARGET

Target
Grabbed

Lab on Thursday

Where: in EE/CS 2-140

You need your U card to get in.
Well start learning URBI, a scripting
language that can be used either with
a memory stick or with the wireless
network.
You can also continue using MEdit and
learn how to add sounds and to
program the LEDs.