We present a way to mix the lower control of agents with the high level specifications of their goals. This paper addresses various topics required to animate virtual humans in a distributed way such as combining primary actions into tasks, using verbal communication between virtual humans and directing them with high level orders. Our models have been tested into a multi-languages / multi-modu...

We address the problem of constructing multiagent systems by coordinating heterogeneous , autonomous agents, whose internal designs may not be fully known. We develop a customizable coordination service that (a) takes declarative speciications of the desired interactions, and (b) automatically enacts them. Our approach is based on temporal logic, and has a rigorous semantics and a naturally dis...

This paper reviews the current state of the art in the research concerning the development of autonomous artificial intelligent agents. First, the meaning of specific terms, like agency, automaticity, autonomy, embodiment, situatedness, and intelligence, are discussed in the context of this domain. The motivations for conducting research in this area are then exposed. We focus, in particular, o...

In this paper we describe an infrastructure for implementing hybrid intelligent agents with the ability to trade in the Forex Market without requiring human supervision. This infrastructure is composed of three modules. The “Intuition Module”, implemented using an Ensemble Model, is responsible for performing pattern recognition and predicting the direction of the exchange rate. The “A Posterio...

One category of researchers in arti cial life is concerned with modeling and building so-called adaptive autonomous agents. Autonomous agents are systems that inhabit a dynamic, unpredictable environment in which they try to satisfy a set of time-dependent goals or motivations. Agents are said to be adaptive if they improve their competence at dealing with these goals based on experience. Auton...

Constructing a collection of autonomous agents requires the development of appropriate experimental hardware platforms. Here we describe the process of re-purposing inexpensive radio-controlled (RC) electric motorboat as autonomous surface craft. Standard electronics components are used to interface with the RC boat electronics, and the vessels are augmented with GPS, vision, and a tilt-compens...

We are interested in producing reliable autonomous robots that can operate for extended periods of time in uncertain, dynamic environments. We have been developing methodologies and software tools to facilitate this, including the Task Control Architecture and probabilistic methods for representing and reasoning about uncertainty. The aim is to incrementally produce reliable behavior by adding ...

In this paper we show how the resilience approach can give a generic solution to the problems of looping and high-bandwidth output in autonomous agents. A resilient approach to looping is for the agent to delay responding again to a source that has recently triggered a task. A resilient approach to high-bandwith output is for the agent to delay output when the overall “noise” level in the envir...

INSTRUCTABLE AUTONOMOUS AGENTS by Scott Bradley Huffman Chair: John E. Laird In contrast to current intelligent systems, which must be laboriously programmed for each task they are meant to perform, instructable agents can be taught new tasks and associated knowledge. This thesis presents a general theory of learning from tutorial instruction and its use to produce an instructable agent. Tutori...

Cooperating autonomous agents are becoming increasingly attractive for systems where problem solving and decision making must be decentralized. So far, work in this area has focused either on theoretical aspects or on implementation of ad-hoc specialized applications, but neither has led to significant result in the industrial field. One reason for this is that little of the work done can be us...