Characterizing an Architecture for Intelligent, Reactive Agents

Abstract

In this paper we briefly describe a software architecture that integrates reactivity and deliberation. The architecture has three levels, or tiers. The bottom tier contains a set of situated, reactive skills. The second tier is a sequencer that can activate sets of skills to perform a task. The third tier is a planner that reasons in-depth about goals, resources and constraints. We characterize this architecture across several dimensions and then describe the lessons that we have learned from applying this architecture to several robotics projects. Introduction For several years we have investigated ways to combine deliberation and reactivity in robot control architectures to program robots to carry out tasks robustly in field environments (Bonasso 1991; Bonasso, Antonisse, & Slack 1992). We believe this integration is crucial. Not only must an agent be able to adjust to changes in a dynamic situation, but it must be able to synthesize plans, since the complexities of the real world m...