Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Design principles for autonomous agents: A case study of classification

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Artificial Life and Robotics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Building artificial lifelike autonomous agents is still considered an art, rather than a science. A generally accepted precise methodology is missing, and—given the properties of the real world—it is doubtful whether such a methodology will ever be developed. Nevertheless, it is possible to define criteria and provide heuristics for good designs. We have developed a number of design principles which, when applied, lead to what we would consider good designs from a cognitive science or artificial life (ALife) perspective. The paper illustrates some of these principles using a case study of classification.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Brooks RA (1991) Intelligence without reason. Proceedings, IJCAI 1991, pp 569–595

  2. Pfeifer R (1995) Cognition—perspectives from autonomous agents. Robotics Autonomous Systems 15:47–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Pfeifer R, Scheier C (1997) Sensory-motor coordination in the metapher and beyond. Robotics Autonomous Systems

  4. Clancey WJ (1997) Situated cognition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (in press)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Dewey J (1981) The reflex arc in psychology. In: McDermott JJ (ed). The philosophy of John Dewey. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 136–148

    Google Scholar 

  6. Milner AD, Goodale MA (1995) The visual brain in action. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  7. Thelen E, Smith L (1994) A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition and action. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass

    Google Scholar 

  8. Braitenberg V (1984) Vehicles: experiments in synthetic psychology. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass

    Google Scholar 

  9. Scheier C, Pfeifer R (1995) Classification as sensory-motor coordination. In: Proceedings, European conference on artificial life, ECAL-95. pp 656–667

  10. Edelman GE (1987) Neural Darwinism. The theory of neuronal group selection. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  11. Pfeifer R, Verschure PFMJ (1992) Distributed adaptive control: a paradigm for designing autonomous agents. Proceedings of the first European conference on artificial life. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 21–30

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AI Lab, Computer Science Department, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057, Zurich, Switzerland

    Rolf Pfeifer

Authors
  1. Rolf Pfeifer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rolf Pfeifer.

About this article

Cite this article

Pfeifer, R. Design principles for autonomous agents: A case study of classification. Artificial Life and Robotics 1, 43–46 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02471112

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02471112

Key words

Search

Navigation