Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Toward anticipatory agents

Ekdahl, Bertil ; Astor, Eric LU and Davidsson, Paul (1994) p.191-202
Abstract
This paper presents a novel approach to the problem of designing autonomous agents that is based on the idea of anticipatory systems. An anticipatory system has a model of itself and of the relevant

part of its environment and will use this model to predict the future. The predictions are then utilised to determine the agent’s behaviour, i.e. it lets future states affect its present states. We argue that systems based on causal reasoning only, are too limited to serve as a proper base for designing autonomous agents. An anticipatory agent, on the other hand, will use reasoning from final cause to guide its current actions. We then discuss towhat extent an anticipatory agent can be constructed from computable functions and we... (More)
This paper presents a novel approach to the problem of designing autonomous agents that is based on the idea of anticipatory systems. An anticipatory system has a model of itself and of the relevant

part of its environment and will use this model to predict the future. The predictions are then utilised to determine the agent’s behaviour, i.e. it lets future states affect its present states. We argue that systems based on causal reasoning only, are too limited to serve as a proper base for designing autonomous agents. An anticipatory agent, on the other hand, will use reasoning from final cause to guide its current actions. We then discuss towhat extent an anticipatory agent can be constructed from computable functions and we conclude that this problem is best expressed and analysed in linguistic terms. This discussion points out howsuch an agent should be designed and results in a proposal of an appropriate architecture. However, as the meta-linguistic problems involved are very hard to solve, a simpler architecture is also proposed. This is also a hybrid architecture that synthesizes reactive behaviour and deliberative reasoning, which, we believe, still has its merits compared to previous approaches to the design of autonomous agents. Finally, we discuss introspection and reflection, and show that the underlying concepts are easy to comprehend in the context of anticipatory systems. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
anticipatory systems, autonomous agents
host publication
Intelligent agents : proceedings / ECAI-94, Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages
pages
191 - 202
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:35248869002
ISBN
354058855
DOI
10.1007/3-540-58855-8_12
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
59fbe383-70bf-4c5b-9342-82c338ee9477 (old id 526544)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 11:17:07
date last changed
2021-09-26 05:09:15
@inproceedings{59fbe383-70bf-4c5b-9342-82c338ee9477,
  abstract     = {{This paper presents a novel approach to the problem of designing autonomous agents that is based on the idea of anticipatory systems. An anticipatory system has a model of itself and of the relevant<br/><br>
part of its environment and will use this model to predict the future. The predictions are then utilised to determine the agent’s behaviour, i.e. it lets future states affect its present states. We argue that systems based on causal reasoning only, are too limited to serve as a proper base for designing autonomous agents. An anticipatory agent, on the other hand, will use reasoning from final cause to guide its current actions. We then discuss towhat extent an anticipatory agent can be constructed from computable functions and we conclude that this problem is best expressed and analysed in linguistic terms. This discussion points out howsuch an agent should be designed and results in a proposal of an appropriate architecture. However, as the meta-linguistic problems involved are very hard to solve, a simpler architecture is also proposed. This is also a hybrid architecture that synthesizes reactive behaviour and deliberative reasoning, which, we believe, still has its merits compared to previous approaches to the design of autonomous agents. Finally, we discuss introspection and reflection, and show that the underlying concepts are easy to comprehend in the context of anticipatory systems.}},
  author       = {{Ekdahl, Bertil and Astor, Eric and Davidsson, Paul}},
  booktitle    = {{Intelligent agents : proceedings / ECAI-94, Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages}},
  isbn         = {{354058855}},
  keywords     = {{anticipatory systems; autonomous agents}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{191--202}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  title        = {{Toward anticipatory agents}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58855-8_12}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/3-540-58855-8_12}},
  year         = {{1994}},
}