Adaptable arbitration of behaviours: some simulation results

Abstract

During the last few years, in an attempt to provide an efficient alternative to classical methods to designing robot control structures, the behaviour-based approach has emerged. Its success has largely been a result of the bottom-up development of a number of fast, tightly coupled control processes. This new approach, however, has some important limitations because of its lack of goal directedness and flexibility. This paper describes a self-improving control system that would deal with some of these problems. The system is based on two levels of arbitration, a local level which enables the robot to survive in a particular real-world situation, and a global level which ensures that the robot reactions be consistent with the required goal. Emphasis is put on the local arbitration level: it is shown how the local priorities can be computed and learnt and some simulation results are presented.