Subsumption architecture is an AI concept originating from behavior based robotics. This term was invented by Rodney Brooks and colleagues in the mid to late 1980s. Hondas humanoid robot AI redirects here. ... Behavior-based robotics or behavioural robotics is the branch of robotics that does not use an internal model of the environment. ... Rodney Allen Brooks (b. ...

A subsumption architecture is a way of decomposing complicated intelligent behaviour into many "simple" behaviour modules, which are in turn orgnized into layers. Each layer implements a particular goal of the agent, and higher layers are increasingly more abstract. Each layer's goal subsumes that of the underlying layers, e.g. the decision to move forward by the eat-food layer takes in account the decision of the lowest obstacle-avoidance layer. A module is a self-contained component of a system, which has a well-defined interface to the other components; something is modular if it is constructed so as to facilitate easy assembly, flexible arrangement, and/or repair of the components. ...

For example, a robot's lowest layer could be "avoid an object", on top of it would be the layer "wander around", which in turn lies under "explore the world". The top layer in such a case could be "create a map", which is the ultimate goal. Each of these horizontal layers accesses all of the sensor data and generates actions for the actuators — the main caveat is that separate tasks can inhibit inputs or overrule outputs. This way, the lowest layers can work like fast-adapting mechanisms (reflexes), while the higher layers control the main direction to be taken in order to achieve the overall goal. Feedback is given mainly through the environment. A reflex action or reflex is a biological control system linking stimulus to response and mediated by a reflex arc. ...

Two main disadvantages of this model are the inability to have many layers since the goals begin interfering with each other and the rather low flexibility at runtime.

The first publication mentioning the subsumption architecture is Brooks (1986) --- as of October 2006, Google Scholar shows 3500 citations of that paper.

Key papers include:

• R. A. Brooks (1986) "A Robust Layered Control System For A Mobile Robot", IEEE Journal Of Robotics And Automation, RA-2, April. pp. 14-23.
• R. A. Brooks (1987). "Planning is just a way of avoiding figuring out what to do next", Technical report, MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
• R. Brooks and A. Flynn (1989), "Fast, cheap, and out of control: A robot invasion of the solar system," J. Brit. Interplanetary Soc., vol. 42, no. 10, pp. 478-485, 1989. (The paper later gave rise to the title of the film Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, and the paper's concepts arguably have been seen in practice in the 2003/4 Mars Exploration Rover Mission.)

Fast, Cheap and Out of Control is a 1997 non-fiction film by documentary filmmaker Errol Morris. ... Artists Concept of Rover on Mars NASAs Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission (since 2003) is a unmanned Mars exploration mission that includes sending two Rovers (robots) to explore the Martian surface and geology. ...

See also

• agent architecture
• behavior based AI
• behavior-based robotics
• cognitive architecture
• emergent behavior
• scruffies
• situated

In computer science, agent architecture reveres to the blueprints of software agents and intelligent control systems, depicting the arrangement of components. ... Behavior Based Artificial Intelligence (BBAI) is a methodology for developing AI based on a modular decomposition of intelligence. ... Behavior-based robotics or behavioral robotics or behavioural robotics is the branch of robotics that does not use an internal model of the environment. ... A cognitive architecture is a blueprint for intelligent agents. ... Emergence is the process of deriving some new and coherent structures, patterns and properties in a complex system. ... In artificial intelligence, the labels neats and scruffies used to refer to one of the continuing holy wars in artificial intelligence research. ... In artificial intelligence, the term situated refers to an agent which is embedded in an environment. ...

External links

• Subsumption Behaviors used for a Variety of Real World Tasks
• SB-MASE is a subsumption-based multi-agent simulator.