Claudio Cesar de Sá

An Autonomous Agent Architecture and the Locomotion Problem

This paper presents a three level architecture for an autonomous agent and its application to the navigation problem in an unknown environment. The architecture is structured in three levels, called, reactive, instinctive and cognitive. The reactive level is based on a feed-forward symbolic neural network. The instinctive level is based on a set of predefined behaviors selected by a fuzzy classifier according to the perceived situation. Finally, the cognitive level is supported by symbolic production rules that determine the global behavior of the agent. In this sense, the three levels are responsible by behaviors of increasing complexity. The main characteristics of the architecture are: heterogeneity, hierarchic assembly, behavior-oriented design and biological plausibility. Some examples are also presented, that show the behavior robustness of the proposed architecture in a simulated environment.