A Case-Based Approach to Reactive Control for Autonomous Robots *

Abstract

We propose a case-based method of selecting behavior sets as an addition to traditional reactive robotic control systems. The new system (ACBARR --- A Case BAsed Reactive Robotic system) provides more flexible performance in novel environments, as well as overcoming a standard "hard" problem for reactive systems, the box canyon. Additionally, ACBARR is designed in a manner which is intended to remain as close to pure reactive control as possible. Higher level reasoning and memory functions are intentionally kept to a minimum. As a result, the new reasoning does not significantly slow the system down from pure reactive speeds. Introduction Reactive robotic control systems [ Arkin, 1989a, Brooks, 1986 ] have produced impressive results in the area of generating intelligent robotic action. Unlike traditional approaches, these systems typically decompose actions into simple behaviors in order to produce rapid real-time response to the environment. Generally, however, the behaviors which s...