A multi-threaded architecture for cognitive robotics
Speaker: Keith Clark, Imperial College
When: 2007-05-25 10:00:00
Venue: 78-420
Host: Peter Robinson
Abstract:We describe a multi-threaded architecture combining elements of
Belief, Desires, Intentions (BDI) agent architectures with the
goal directed reactive control of Nilsson's Teleo Reactive (TR)
programs.
TR programs are a rule based programming notation influenced by
process control concepts of continuous monitoring and action, but
they have parameterized procedures and rule actions can be TR
procedure calls, even recursive calls. A TR procedure is also
typically goal directed, the actions of its rules being oriented
towards achieving a state of the environment that can be
determined by some test of sensor readings. They are thus well
suited to implementing robotic control where action routines are
selected on the basis of the computational analysis of sensor
readings .
TR computation comprises nested threads of execution, each thread
being the execution of a TR procedure called from its parent
thread. The TR procedures of the higher threads can be programmed
to monitor beliefs, inferred from sensor readings and a model of
the environment, rather than percepts. But to retain reactivity,
the lower level threads can still directly test percepts computed
from sensor readings. This makes it also suitable for programming
hybrid deliberative/reactive robots. Finally, a topmost control
thread, which decides which high level TR procedure to invoke
based on significant events, such as belief updates or new goals,
can be added borrowing from BDI agent architectures. This allows
the robot to switch tasks based on message events or sensor
reading events that lead to significant changes in the robots
higher level beliefs. This is the control architecture currently
being used at Imperial both for Multi-agent systems and
co-operative robotics applications.
Biography:Keith Clark has been Professor of Computational Logic at Imperial College
London since 1987. Before 1990 his main research interest was in concurrent
symbolic programming languages and he was a consultant to the Japanese Fifth
Generation Program during the 1980s. Since 1990 his research interest has
switched to multi-threaded symbolic programming languages and their
application for Multi-agent systems and Cognitive Robotics applications. He
is a Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland where he has had a
research collaboration with the Software Verification Res. Center, and now
the Center for Complex Systems, since 1990.
Type: ITEE Seminar
Contact:Peter Robinson, seminar host (pjr@itee.uq.edu.au)
or Guido Governatori (ITEE seminar co-ordinator)
(guido@itee.uq.edu.au)