Ebook: The Biology and Technology of Intelligent Autonomous Agents

The NATO sponsored Advanced Study Institute 'The Biology and Tech­ nology of Intelligent Autonomous Agents' was an extraordinary event. For two weeks it brought together the leading proponents of the new behavior­ oriented approach to Artificial Intelligence in Castel Ivano near Trento. The goal of the meeting was to establish a solid scientific and technological foun­ dation for the field of intelligent autonomous agents with a bias towards the new methodologies and techniques that have recently been developed in Ar­ tificial Intelligence under the strong influence of biology. Major themes of the conference were: bottom-up AI research, artificial life, neural networks and techniques of emergent functionality. The meeting was such an extraordinary event because it not only featured very high quality lectures on autonomous agents and the various fields feeding it, but also robot laboratories which were set up by the MIT AI laboratory (with a lab led by Rodney Brooks) and the VUB AI laboratory (with labs led by Tim Smithers and Luc Steels). This way the participants could also gain practical experience and discuss in concreto what the difficulties and achievements were of different approaches. In fact, the meeting has been such a success that a follow up meeting is planned for September 1995 in Monte Verita (Switzerland). This meeting is organised by Rolf Pfeifer (University of Zurich).

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This book treats the problem of building intelligent autonomous agents. Biology is taken as a major source of inspiration. The book is based on an extraordinarily successful NATO Advanced Study Institute at which leading proponents of the new behavior-oriented approach to artificial intelligence met to establish a solid scientific foundation for the field of intelligent autonomous agents. The meeting was an extraordinary event because it featured not only very high quality lectures but also robot laboratories set up by the AI labs of the MIT and the University of Brussels. The book has three parts. Part 1 consists of papers based on lectures given at the institute, Part 2 of papers based on presentations made or experiments conducted at the institute, and Part 3 of shorter contributions.

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This book treats the problem of building intelligent autonomous agents. Biology is taken as a major source of inspiration. The book is based on an extraordinarily successful NATO Advanced Study Institute at which leading proponents of the new behavior-oriented approach to artificial intelligence met to establish a solid scientific foundation for the field of intelligent autonomous agents. The meeting was an extraordinary event because it featured not only very high quality lectures but also robot laboratories set up by the AI labs of the MIT and the University of Brussels. The book has three parts. Part 1 consists of papers based on lectures given at the institute, Part 2 of papers based on presentations made or experiments conducted at the institute, and Part 3 of shorter contributions.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-VIII
The Biology of Behavior — Criteria for Success in Animals and Robots....Pages 1-20
On Quantitative Performance Measures of Robot Behaviour....Pages 21-52
Robot Adaptivity....Pages 53-71
Intelligence — Dynamics and Representations....Pages 72-89
An Introduction to Reinforcement Learning....Pages 90-127
Cognition — Perspectives from Autonomous Agents....Pages 128-164
Lifelong Robot Learning....Pages 165-196
Cognitive Architectures — From Knowledge Level To Structural Coupling....Pages 197-221
Circle In The Round: State Space Attractors for Evolved Sighted Robots....Pages 222-257
Animal and Robot Navigation....Pages 258-274
From Local Interactions to Collective Intelligence....Pages 275-295
The Mobile Robot of MAIA: Actions and Interactions in a Real Life Scenario....Pages 296-311
Of Elephants and Men....Pages 312-344
How Do You Choose Your Agents? How Do You Distribute Your Processes?....Pages 345-364
The Reactive Accompanist: Adaptation and Behavior Decomposition in a Music System....Pages 365-376
Behavior-Based Architecture with Distributed Selection....Pages 377-389
Reporting Experiments on Integration of Learning Algorithms and Reactive Behaviour-Oriented Control Systems on a Real Mobile Robot....Pages 390-414
Distributed Reinforcement Learning....Pages 415-428
A New Three-degree-of-freedom Spatially Mobile Robot Topology or Kurt: A Mobile Robot for the Study of Prototypical Autonomy....Pages 429-438
How Swarms Build Cognitive Maps....Pages 439-450
Multiple Neural Experts for Improved Decision Making....Pages 451-458
Understanding Complex Systems: What Can the Speaking Lion Tell us?....Pages 459-474
Multi-Modal Active Sensing for a Simple Mobile Agent....Pages 475-483
Evaluating an Active Camera Controlled by a Subsumption Architecture....Pages 484-500
AMOS: Basic Autonomy via Integrating Symbolic and Subsymbolic Mechanisms....Pages 501-512
Back Matter....Pages 513-517

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This book treats the problem of building intelligent autonomous agents. Biology is taken as a major source of inspiration. The book is based on an extraordinarily successful NATO Advanced Study Institute at which leading proponents of the new behavior-oriented approach to artificial intelligence met to establish a solid scientific foundation for the field of intelligent autonomous agents. The meeting was an extraordinary event because it featured not only very high quality lectures but also robot laboratories set up by the AI labs of the MIT and the University of Brussels. The book has three parts. Part 1 consists of papers based on lectures given at the institute, Part 2 of papers based on presentations made or experiments conducted at the institute, and Part 3 of shorter contributions.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-VIII
The Biology of Behavior — Criteria for Success in Animals and Robots....Pages 1-20
On Quantitative Performance Measures of Robot Behaviour....Pages 21-52
Robot Adaptivity....Pages 53-71
Intelligence — Dynamics and Representations....Pages 72-89
An Introduction to Reinforcement Learning....Pages 90-127
Cognition — Perspectives from Autonomous Agents....Pages 128-164
Lifelong Robot Learning....Pages 165-196
Cognitive Architectures — From Knowledge Level To Structural Coupling....Pages 197-221
Circle In The Round: State Space Attractors for Evolved Sighted Robots....Pages 222-257
Animal and Robot Navigation....Pages 258-274
From Local Interactions to Collective Intelligence....Pages 275-295
The Mobile Robot of MAIA: Actions and Interactions in a Real Life Scenario....Pages 296-311
Of Elephants and Men....Pages 312-344
How Do You Choose Your Agents? How Do You Distribute Your Processes?....Pages 345-364
The Reactive Accompanist: Adaptation and Behavior Decomposition in a Music System....Pages 365-376
Behavior-Based Architecture with Distributed Selection....Pages 377-389
Reporting Experiments on Integration of Learning Algorithms and Reactive Behaviour-Oriented Control Systems on a Real Mobile Robot....Pages 390-414
Distributed Reinforcement Learning....Pages 415-428
A New Three-degree-of-freedom Spatially Mobile Robot Topology or Kurt: A Mobile Robot for the Study of Prototypical Autonomy....Pages 429-438
How Swarms Build Cognitive Maps....Pages 439-450
Multiple Neural Experts for Improved Decision Making....Pages 451-458
Understanding Complex Systems: What Can the Speaking Lion Tell us?....Pages 459-474
Multi-Modal Active Sensing for a Simple Mobile Agent....Pages 475-483
Evaluating an Active Camera Controlled by a Subsumption Architecture....Pages 484-500
AMOS: Basic Autonomy via Integrating Symbolic and Subsymbolic Mechanisms....Pages 501-512
Back Matter....Pages 513-517
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