Computational, Cognitive and Complete Agents

This research using computational agents addresses a number of issues. For example, to relate activities in Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science and Artificial Life using the Concept of Agenthood. One of the big ideas is the use of architectures, at a theoretical, design and implementation level, to further theories of motivation, cognition and affect. The papers and articles listed below cover published work in this area since 1995. It incorporates a number of pieces by research students (Obvious from the author list). The overall picture is consistent but there will be differences across the principal authors and over time for any specific theme (for example the AAAI04 paper confronts and disagrees with the thesis presented in AISB00. The AISB04 paper attempts to resolve this). One objective of this research is to produce a useable taxonomy of agents (architectures , design, niche spaces and methodologies) that allows comparisons of agents across applications and different philosophical stances. See Knowledge Engineering, Robot and Machine Vision sections for more on agent applications.

Recently we have started to use Robots to investigate how the CAMAL architectures (a synthesis of ideas including CogAff and CRIBB) map onto robotic control architectures. CRIBB is a BDI Psychological Model of the reasoning performed by a five year old child. Peregrine (so named by my AI undergraduates) plays with robots, reasons about the playpen he is in and what he can do in any of them with a mixture of tools, (balls and robots, tiles and holes, scent worlds, and fungus worlds to date), learn to control his reasoning models paint and soon play music. He can play Go too, but easily beaten. One day he may even learn to communicate using language, rather than with images, sounds and actions. Perhaps then he can explain the difference between emotion and affect!

Cognition, Affect, Agent Theories and Agent Architectures

Cognitive Architectures for Affect and Motivation
   D.N. Davis    Early draft of paper under review for International Journal. 2010.
robo-CAMAL: A BDI Motivational Robot
   D.N. Davis & J. Gwatkin    Early draft of paper under review for International Journal. 2010.
A "Society of Mind" Cognitive Architecture based on the Principles of Artificial Economics.
   D.N. Davis & Vijayakumar M V    International Journal of Artficial Life Research, Volume 1(1): 51-71, January-March 2010.
Soft Artificial Life, Artificial Agents and Artificial Economics
   Vijayakumar M V & D.N. Davis    Paper under review for International Journal. 2009.
Design of Micro-agents based on the Artificial Economics
   Vijayakumar M V & D.N. Davis    The 2009 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ICAI'09: July 13-16, 2009, USA)
Design of Metacontrol and Metacognition mechanisms in SMCA Using Norms and Affect rules
   Vijayakumar M V, D.N. Davis, and K.R. Shylaja    International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition (AIPR-09), Orlando, FL, USA, July 13-16 2009
Linking perception and action through motivation and affect
   Darryl N. Davis    Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 20, 1, March 2008 , pages 37 - 60.
   Author Posting. (c) 'Copyright Holder', 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of 'Copyright Holder' for personal use, not for redistribution.   
   The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, Volume 20 Issue 1, March 2008. doi:10.1080/09528130701472424
A Society of Mind Approach to Cognition and Metacognition in a Cognitive Architecture (PhD Thesis - zipped PDF)
    Vijayakumar Maragal Venkatamuni, PhD, Computer Science, University of Hull, August 2008.
Development of a "Society of Mind" Cognitive Architecture based on the Principles of Artificial Economics.
   Vijayakumar M V & D.N. Davis    Paper under review for International Journal. 2008.
Society of Mind Cognitive Architecture (SMCA)
   Vijayakumar M V & D.N. Davis    Paper accepted for ICAI'08 - The 2008 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Monte Carlo Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (July 14-17, 2008).
Principles of Artificial Economics In Animal Minds
   Vijayakumar M V & D.N. Davis    Paper accepted for AIPR-08, International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Pattern Recognition, Orlando, FL, USA, July 2008.
Metacognition in a "Society of Mind"
   Vijayakumar M V & D.N. Davis    The IASTED International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Applications (AIA 2008), February 11-13, 2008 Innsbruck, Austria
Metacognition, Agents, Animats and the Society of Minds
   Vijayakumar M V & D.N. Davis    AISB 2007, The AISB convention 2007 Artificial and Ambient Intelligence, April 2nd-4th 2007, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Motivated Control of Multiple Reactive Architectures
   J. Gwatkin & D.N. Davis    TAROS 2006, Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, September 2006.
The Visions of Mind Project: (Editor)
   Edited Text of Research Articles. Published 2005, IDEA Group Inc.
Computational Models of Emotion and Affect (PhD Thesis - PDF Zip)
    Suzanne C. Lewis, PhD, Computer Science, University of Hull, July 2004.
Why do anything? Emotion, affect and the fitness function underlying behaviour and thought.
    Affective Computing, AISB 2004, University of Leeds, UK.
Affect and Affordance: Architectures without Emotion
    AAAI 2004 Spring Symposium, Stanford, USA.
Affect-based Multi-Agent Architecture (for a 5-aside football simulation)
    G. Bourgne, MSc Thesis, November, 2003.
Computational Models of Emotion for Autonomy and Reasoning.
    Informatica (Special Edition on Perception and Emotion Based Models of Reasoning), 27(2):159-165, 2003.
Computational Architectures for Intelligence and Motivation
    17th IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, Vancouver, Canada, 2002.
Computational Modelling of Emotion and Reasoning,
   IASTED International Conference Artificial Intelligence and Applications (AIA2002), Spain, September 2002.
Motivations, Drives and Goals
    (Unpublished work)
Architectures for Cognitive and A-Life Agents
    In: Intelligent Agent Software Engineering, V. Plekhanova (eds.), IDEA Group Publishing, 2003.
Investigation of Motivation in Agents Using Five-Aside Football
    H.A. Nunes, MSc Thesis, November, 2001.
Control States and Complete Agent Architectures
    Computational Intelligence, 17(3) 2001.
Cellular Automata, Computational Autonomy and Emotion
    CIMCA01, Las Vegas, USA, July 2001.
Multiple Level Representation of Emotion in Computational Agents
    Emotion, Cognition & Affective Computing, AISB2001-Agents and Cognition, University of York, 2001.
Agents, Emergence, Emotion and Representation,
    Complex Human-Machine Interactions, IEEE-IECON2K, Nagoya, Japan, 2000
Emotion as the basis for computational autonomy in cognitive agents
    ECAI2000 Submission. Modelling Emotion In Computational Agents
Positional Paper On Strong Notion of Autonomy in Cognitive Agents
    ATAL2000 Submission. Emotion as Autonomy
Towards an Architecture for A-Life Agents II
    Chapter, New Frontiers In Computational Intelligence, IOS Press, 2000.
Minds have Personalities - Emotion is the Core
    Designing a Functioning Mind, AISB2000-AI and Society, University of Birmingham, 2000.
Computational Emergence And Computational Emotion
    IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Tokyo, 1999
Agents, Emergence, Emotion and Representation,
    International Workshop on Symbiosis of Human, Artifacts and Environment, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, October 1999.
Towards an Architecture for A-Life Agents
    CIMCA99, Vienna, February 1999.
Synthetic Agents: Synthetic Minds
    IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 1998, San Dego, USA
Reactive and Motivational Agents
    Agent Theory, Architecture and Language (ECAI-96), Budapest, 1996.
    in: Agent Theory, Architecture and Language III, Springer-Verlag, 1997.
Simulating agents and their environments
    AISB Quarterly, Fall 1995.

A list of agent Internet pointers
Checklist of Some Frailities of Human Reasoning

Footnotes: Computational and Cognitive Intelligence (sic). The nature and development of the notion of complete agents. This draws on a number of areas. The investigations into the concept of agency is essentially a multi-discipline endeavour. It looks to, for example, philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, computer science, biology, mathematics and engineering.

So What Is An Agent?