Hybrid problems, hybrid solutions

Abstract

Hybridness is a topical, if somewhat ambiguous, concept in a research environment where there is increasing acceptance of multiple co-existent research paradigms: artificial intelligence with its emphasis on reasoning with abstract symbols; the connectionist approach, with its exploration of the synergies of many interconnected simple structures; and Nouvelle Robotics, which places a focus on the interplay between systems generating skill or behaviour in complete agents. There is scope for considerable argument about principles, research programmes, the Nature of Things, as well as room for compromise and synthesis. This collection of papers, presented at AISB '95 (the 10th biennial conference on AI and the Simulation of Behaviour) reveals both argument and synthesis.