No Rigid Robots Please
Chadwick J. Cox, Douglas K. Freeman · Infotech@Aerospace · 2005
This paper presents a novel method to make robot s appear unpredictable to o pponants . Si multanously, predictability and coordination are maintained with respect to allies. This method is called Cryptic Command, Control, Planning, and Management (C 3 PM) . Science fiction writers have identified the rigidity of deterministic logic as a weakness of robots. In typical stories of battles between robots and humans , the robots exhibit overly predictive (rigid) behavior and humans exploit this weakness to win . Indeed, these fantasy predictions are becoming a reality . Modern r obots , including Unmanned Combat Vehicles (UCV) , exhibit amazing behaviors and perform difficult tasks, but they foll ow deterministic algorithms. This makes them vulnerable to prediction. Most roboticists have ignored this problem . This is understandable; determinism and predictability are advantage s because they enable coordination and they simplify synthesis and ana lysis. Unfortunately, predictability is a grave disadvantage in a competative environment. The proposed approach decreases apparent predictability from an opponant's view point, yet maintains all the advantages of determinis tic algorithms for the purpose s of coordination, synthesis, and analysis .