An Architecture For Intelligent Reactive Systems

Abstract

Any intelligent system that operates in a moderately complex or unpredictable environment must be reactive — that is, it must respond dynamically to changes in its environment. A robot that blindly follows a program or plan without verifying that its operations are having their intended effects is not reactive. For simple tasks in carefully engineered domains, non-reactive behavior is acceptable; for more intelligent agents in unconstrained domains, it is not. This paper presents the outline of an architecture for intelligent reactive systems. Much of the discussion will relate to the problem of designing an autonomous mobile robot, but the ideas are independent of the particular system. The architecture is motivated by the desires for modularity, awareness, and robustness.