A Behavior-based Approach to Reactivity and Coordination: a Preliminary Report

. This paper gives a preliminary account for a system for developing autonomous agents. The decision-mechanism of an agent is specified in terms of behaviors. Behaviors specify what actions and subbehaviors should be executed and under what conditions to fulfill some specific aims or purposes. Behaviors can be executed simultaneously if they are compatible, allowing the agents to perform several tasks at the same time. The coordination between agents is mainly obtained through common tactics, strategies, and observations of actions of team members, rather than explicit communication. Agents act and coordinate with other agents depending on their roles. Keywords: agent architectures, reactivity, coordination, behavior, roles 1 Introduction This paper is a preliminary report on an effort to develop means for specifying the behaviors of autonomous agents that combine reactivity to an uncertain and rapidly changing environment with commitment to long term courses of actions (behaviors). ..