Dynamic World Simulation for Planning With Multiple Agents

The background to t h i s work is the s i m u l a t i o n of a p lanne r who o p e r a t e s in a dynamic e n v i r o n m e n t , by r e c o g n i s i n g the p l ans o f o t h e r s and p r e d i c t i n g f u t u r e e v e n t s . The domain is t h a t of a d r i v e r who must n e g o t i a t e a r o u t e , obey ing t r a f f i c r e g u l a t i o n s , and t a k i n g account o f and a v o i d i n g c o l l i s i o n s w i t h o t h e r v e h i c l e s The wor ld o f the d r i v e r is r e p r e s e n t e d by a changing w o r l d mode l ; the channel of communicat ion between p lanner and t h i s wo r l d model are a c t i o n s from p lanne r ( d r i v e r ' s mind) t o w o r l d , and p e r c e p t i o n s from wor ld to p l a n n e r . S i m u l a t i n g a dynamic w o r l d model has been an i m p o r t a n t aspect of t h i s work , and i t i s the imp lemen ta t i on o f t h i s which i s d i scussed be low. Some new techn iques of s i m u l a t i n g p h y s i c a l processes have been d e v e l o p e d .