Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Teleo-Reactive Programs Are Reaching Their Goals
Teleo-Reactive Programs (TRPs) help robots and other machine intelligences achieve goals, not just specific behaviors. Most of the robots working today make use of discrete actions (like a welding robot in an automobile plant that makes specific welds in pre-programmed parts of a frame). These robots are extensions of the mechanical automata of the 18th century, in that they have only pre-programmed behavior. (In a purely mechanical system, the "programming" is done in the design of the device itself.)
One way that TRPs can begin to approximate conscious intelligence is by making use of durative actions. The idea is that a durative action is executed until a particular goal is met; for example, "keep moving forward until you meet the wall." A discrete command is a one-time movement that is executed, like "Move forward one yard."
TRSoccerbots is an example of a program that makes use of TRPs. It is a soccer simulation in which the machine tries to score goals by executing a set of rules that encourage goals to happen, rather than a mechanical specification of exactly how to proceed.
(From TRSoccerbots.org)
The bots are programmed by setting rules; here's how the rules work to achieve top-level goals:
"The rules at the top of the list are usually the ones that are relevant when the robot is close to achieving a particular goal, and the bottom rules are relevant when the robot is far from its goal. The idea is that the bottom rules trigger actions that change the world in such a way that the conditions higher in the list become satisfied. For most humans, this way of organizing the rules in a teleo-reactive program is most natural." (From TRSoccerbots.org)
For a good example of a goal-seeking robot in sf, check out the hangman from Roger Zelazny's 1976 novella My Name Is Legion
For more information, see The Age of Purposeful Machines and A Web Page for Teleo-Reactive Programs. Graphics and quote from TRSoccerbots.org. See a brief video clip of soccerbots at http://trsoccerbots.org/downloads/trsoccer.wmv.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/24/2004)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 2 )
Related News Stories - (" Robotics ")
Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.' - Rog Philips, 1950.
Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing Runs With His G1 Robot Army
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
Blue Collar AI Goes To Work To Mine Its Own Crypto
Blue collar bot.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
AI Operates An Excavator
'So far as I could see, the thing was without a directing Martian at all.'
US Army IBEX Exoskeleton Walks Troops Out Of Danger
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
Elon Musk Wants Data Centers In Space
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'
Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
Why Not Move A Warehouse District?
'Did you never see a moving house before?'
Will An AI Found A New Religion?
'You must decide how you will worship Me.'
Terraformer Industries Make Methane
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display
'Usually a spherical display hovered in the centre...'
Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer
It's a computer, but just barely.
'Soft Assembly' Fashions That Fashion Themselves On The Wearer
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
Orwell's Nightmare Of AI-Written Novels Comes To Pass
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
ISS Plagued By Leak - Again!
'There were perhaps a dozen bladder-like objects in the tunnel...'
Ridiculous 'Ghost Murmur' Tech Still Science Fiction
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
