Emma@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU.UUCP (02/26/87)
Reading: "Reasoning and Planning in Dynamic Domains:
An Experiment with a Mobile Robot"
by Michael Georgeff, Amy Lansky, and Marcel Schoppers
discussion led by Amy Lansky
Ventura Hall, March 5, 12:00 noon
Both Georgeff and Lansky will be present to discuss their recent paper
on using their Procedural Reasoning System (PRS) to control SRI's
robot, Flakey. The PRS architecture has been one of the focuses of
RATAG group discussions.
This paper describes progress made toward having the mobile robot
reason and plan complex tasks in real-world environments. To cope
with the dynamic and uncertain world, they use a highly reactive
system to which is attributed the attitudes of belief, desire, and
intention. Because these attitudes are explicitly represented, they
can be manipulated and reasoned about, resulting in complex
goal-directed and reflective behaviors. Unlike most planning systems,
the plans or intentions formed by the system need only be partly
elaborated before it decides to act. This allows the system to avoid
overly strong expectations about the environment, overly constrained
plans of action, and other forms of over-commitment common to previous
planners. In addition, the system is continuously reactive and has
the ability to change its goals and intentions as situations warrant.
Thus, while the system architecture allows for reasoning about means
and ends in much the same way as traditional planners, it also
possesses the reactivity required for survival in complex, dynamic
domains.