Multitiered representation for autonomous agents
Glenn Wasson, Worthy N. Martin · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1999
This paper reports on work in developing systems of representation for multi-tiered autonomous agent architectures. Although some have suggested that agents may be able to perform complex tasks using stateless behaviors, we believe this to be strawman. Imagine washing the dishes and dropping a fork into a sudsy sink. Even though the fork cannot be perceived, it should still be washed and not forgotten. We believe agents can be made more efficient or effective if they are allowed to use task dependent information about their environment, which comes not only form current perception, but also from expectations or previous perceptions. We do not propose to have agents develop a compete model of their environment, but rather that their current task will decide what elements of the environment are important and what elements need representation.