Reasoning Robots

The Art and Science of Programming Robotic Agents

By: Michael Thielscher

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eText | 15 December 2005

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The book provides an in-depth and uniform treatment of a mathematicalmodel for reasoning robotic agents. The book also contains an introductionto a programming method and system based on this model.The mathematical model, known as the "Fluent Calculus,'' describes howto use classical first-order logic to set up symbolic models of dynamicworlds and to represent knowledge of actions and their effects. Roboticagents use this knowledge and their reasoning facilities to make decisionswhen following high-level, long-term strategies. The book coversthe issues of reasoning about sensor input, acting under incompleteknowledge and uncertainty, planning, intelligent troubleshooting, and manyother topics.The mathematical model is supplemented by a programming method whichallows readers to design their own reasoning robotic agents. The usage ofthis method, called "FLUX,'' is illustrated by many example programs. Thebook includes the details of an implementation of FLUX using the standardprogramming language PROLOG, which allows readers to re-implement orto modify and extend the generic system.The design of autonomous agents, including robots, is one of the mostexciting and challenging goals of Artificial Intelligence. Reasoning roboticagents constitute a link between knowledge representation and reasoning onthe one hand, and agent programming and robot control on the other. Thebook provides a uniform mathematical model for the problem-driven,top-down design of rational agents, which use reasoning for decisionmaking, planning, and troubleshooting. The implementation of themathematical model by a general PROLOG program allows readers topractice the design of reasoning robotic agents. Since all implementationdetails are given, the generic system can be easily modified and extended.