Autonomous Cognitive Agents

Autonomy and Desire in Machines and Cognitive Agent Systems

by Kevin Magill

Co-authored with Yasemin J. Erden, published 'Online First' in 'Cognitive Computation', 2012, DOI DOI 10.1007/s12559-012-9140-9. Available through subscribing institutions. Drop me a line if you can't access.
Substantially revised from 2011 paper of same title.

The development of cognitive agent systems relies on theories of agency, within which the concept of desire is key.... more The development of cognitive agent systems relies on theories of agency, within which the concept of desire is key. Indeed, in the quest to develop increasingly autonomous cognitive agent systems, desire has had a significant role. We argue, however, that insufficient attention has been given to analysis and clarification of desire as a complex concept. Accordingly, in this paper, we will draw on some key philosophical accounts of the nature of desire, including what distinguishes it from other mental and motivational states, in order to identify some key characteristics of desire as a complex concept. We will then draw on these in order to investigate the role, definition and adequacy of concepts of desire within applied theoretical models of agency and agent systems.

The Machine Question: Ethics, Alterity and Technology

by David Gunkel

Chapter 6 of "Thinking Otherwise: Philosophy, Communication, Technology" (Purdue University Press, 2007)

This chapter, published in "Thinking Otherwise: Philosophy, Communication, Technology" (2007) represents... more This chapter, published in "Thinking Otherwise: Philosophy, Communication, Technology" (2007) represents something like a manifesto for the rights of machines. It considers the machine (AIs, robots, autonomous systems, etc.) as both moral agent and moral patient and argues for the ethical standing and appropriate treatment of artificial entities. The title refers to and expands on the "animal question," which has had considerable influence in moral philosophy during the later half of the 20th century. The machine question takes this moral innovation one step further by demonstrating that the machine, the other of the animal other, remains one of the last socially acceptable moral prejudices and arguing for a thinking of ethics that is able to proceed otherwise.

Controladores Fuzzy para o Posicionamento Sem Bola do Goleiro no Futebol de Robôs Simulado 2D.

by Jessica Meyer

In: 5th WTICG-BASE - 5th Workshop de Trabalhos de Iniciação Científica e Graduação Bahia, Alagoas e Sergipe, 2008, Vitória da Conquista. Proceedings of the 8th Escola Regional de Computação Bahia, Alagoas e Sergipe (ERBASE), 2008. Sociedade Brasileira de Computação (SBC), Porto Alegre, 2008, vol. 1.

This paper describes a research about fuzzy controllers for the positioning of the goalkeeper without the ball in the... more This paper describes a research about fuzzy controllers for the positioning of the goalkeeper without the ball in the 2d simulated robot soccer. The goal of this research was to improve the behavior of the goalkeeper, raising the number of catches and decreasing the number of goals, improving its positioning to catch the ball. To validate the research, 30 matches were simulated against some of the best teams of the world that participate of the RoboCup. The achieved results are presented, the conclusions are discussed and future works are suggested.

Bahia2D: Descrição do Time

by Jessica Meyer

In: CBR - Competição Brasileira de Robótica, 2007, Florianópolis. Proceedings of the 8th Simpósio Brasileiro de Automação Inteligente (SBAI). Sociedade Brasileira de Automática (SBA), Florianópolis, 2007, vol. 1.

Bahia-PV: O Time de Futebol de Robôs em Ambiente de Realidade Aumentada.

by Jessica Meyer

In: CBR - Competição Brasileira de Robótica, 2007, Florianópolis. Proceedings of the 8th Simpósio Brasileiro de Automação Inteligente (SBAI). Sociedade Brasileira de Automática (SBA), Florianópolis, 2007, vol. 1.

This paper describes the activities of the research group Bahia Robotics Team (BRT) in preparation of the Bahia-PV... more This paper describes the activities of the research group Bahia Robotics Team (BRT) in preparation of the Bahia-PV team for the Physical Visualization(PV) Sub-League, disputed for the first time in RoboCup 2007 at Atlanta. In this paper we give an overview of this new sub-league, and present the proposal for the architecture and strategies of a robotic soccer team in PV environment. We also present new applications that explores the potentiality of the PV environment.

Bahia2D: Team Description

by Jessica Meyer

In Proceedings of Robocup 2007, Atlanta. Robocup Federation, Zurich, 2007, vol. 1.

Contribution a l'etude des mecanismes de coordination dans les systemes d'agents autonomes

by Feliz Gouveia

Integrating orientation constraints into the attractor dynamics approach for autonomous manipulation

by Hendrik Reimann

Modeling Human Behaviour in Emergency: A Research Agenda for the Creation of a Rescue Robot

by Nicla Rossini

co-autored with Anna Esposito.
In Apolloni, B., Bassis, S., Esposito, A., Morabito, C.F. (Eds): Neural Nets WIRN11, Vol. 234, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, pp. 235-46, ISBN 978-1-60750-971-4, IOSpress, 2011.
N.B.: THIS IS A PRE-PUBLICATION DRAFT. IT MAY CONTAIN ERROS AND DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY FROM THE PUBLISHED VERSION. FOR QUOTATION PLEASE ASK US A COPY OF THE PUBLISHED VERSION.

Towards an Evolution Model of Expressive Music Performance

by Prof Eduardo R. Miranda

Towards Trust-Based Acquisition of Unverifiable Information

by Eugen Staab

At the Nexus: Augmented Cogntion, Health Care and the Law

by Linda MacDonald Glenn

Co-authored with Dr. Jeanann S. Boyce

Augmented cognition, like so many new technologies, has its promises and its perils. Whereas recent literature in... more Augmented cognition, like so many new technologies, has its promises and its perils. Whereas recent literature in ethics focuses on the military origins and applications of augmented cognition and harnessing the power of a symbiotic brain-nervous system-computer system for warfare, this article analyzes this technology for applications in health care settings and research. Additionally, a delineation of how law and policy makers might respond to issues in shared culpability and responsibility is proposed.

A Reasoning Module for Long-Lived Cognitive Agents (PhD 2009)

by Stavros Vassos

Ph.D. Thesis, University of Toronto Computer Science Department, Toronto, Canada, Supervisor: Hector J. Levesque, 2009.

In this thesis we study a reasoning module for agents that have cognitive abilities, such as memory, perception,... more In this thesis we study a reasoning module for agents that have cognitive abilities, such as memory, perception, action, and are expected to function autonomously for long periods of time. The module provides the ability to reason about action and change using the language of the situation calculus and variants of the basic action theories. The main focus of this thesis is on the logical problem of progressing an action theory.
First, we investigate the conjecture by Lin and Reiter that a practical first-order definition of progression is not appropriate for the general case. We show that Lin and Reiter were indeed correct in their intuitions by providing a proof for the conjecture, thus resolving the open question about the first-order definability of progression and justifying the need for a second-order definition.
Then we proceed to identify three cases where it is possible to obtain a first-order progression with the desired properties: i) we extend earlier work by Lin and Reiter and present a case where we restrict our attention to a practical class of queries that may only quantify over situations in a limited way; ii) we revisit the local-effect assumption of Liu and Levesque that requires that the effects of an action are fixed by the arguments of the action and show that in this case a first-order progression is suitable; iii) we investigate a way that the local-effect assumption can be relaxed and show that when the initial knowledge base is a database of possible closures and the effects of the actions are range-restricted then a first-order progression is also suitable under a just-in-time assumption.
Finally, we examine a special case of the action theories with range-restricted effects and present an algorithm for computing a finite progression. We prove the correctness and the complexity of the algorithm, and show its application in a simple example that is inspired by video games.

Agentized, Contextualized Filters for Information Management

by Gregory Grefenstette

David A. Evans, Gregory Grefenstette, Yan Qu, James G. Shanahan, Victor Sheftel "Agentized, Contextualized Filters for Information Management" Agent Mediated Knowledge Management, International Symposium AMKM 2003, Stanford, CA, USA, March 24-26, 2003, Revised and Invited Papers 2004

Every time a user engaged in work reads or writes, the user spontaneously generates new information needs: to... more Every time a user engaged in work reads or writes, the user spontaneously generates new information needs: to understand the text he or she is reading or to supply more substance to the arguments he or she is creating. Simultaneously, each Information Object (IO) (i.e., word, entity, term, concept, phrase, proposition, sentence, paragraph, section, document, collection, etc.) encountered or produced creates context for the other IOs in the same discourse. We present a conceptual model of Agentized, Contextualized Filters (ACFs)—agents that identify an appropriate context for an information object and then actively fetch and filter relevant information concerning the information object in other information sources the user has access to. We illustrate the use of ACFs in a prototype knowledge management system called ViviDocs.

Artificial Agents Entering Social Networks

by Nikolaos Mavridis

Published in book "The Networked Self: Identity, Community and Culture on Social Network Sites", Routledge, New York, 2010, http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415801812/

Social network sites (SNSs), which have recently become tremendously popular, have so far been exclusively populated... more Social network sites (SNSs), which have recently become tremendously popular, have so far been exclusively populated by human actors. On the other hand, at least part of the functionality of such networks relies on software agents implementing artificial intelligence techniques—for example, in order to implement recommendation systems for friends or other entities. However, such agents were not playing actor roles within the network. Recently, the monopoly of human actors within SNSs has been broken; disembodied or even physically embodied intelligent software agents are just starting to populate SNSs. A huge range of potentialities exists regarding useful roles for such artificial agents, which might furthermore have varying degrees of autonomy. In this chapter, I will start by introducing a concrete example of such an agent: Sarah the FaceBot, a robotically embodied intelligent artificial agent, which carries out natural language interactions with people, physically present or remote, and which utilizes and publishes social information on Facebook—even having her own automatically updated page. Then, five areas of open questions that have arisen will be presented, as well as an exposition of the potentialities for other artificial agents in SNSs, either in actor or in other roles, which are promising to unleash new possibilities and beneficially transform social networks.

Research into Learning in an Intelligent Agent Augmented Multi-user Virtual Environment

by Mark Chavez

Co-authored with Jacobson, M.J.;  Chunyan Miao;  Beaumie Kim;  Zhiqi Shen; This paper appears in: Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology, 2008. WI-IAT '08. IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on

Combining Cognitive and Computational Concepts for Experience-Based Trust Reasoning

by Eugen Staab

Combining Cognitive With Computational Trust Reasoning

by Eugen Staab

New trends in cognitive science: Integrative approaches to learning and development

by Gedeon Deák

A new trend in Cognitive Science is the use of artificial agents and systems to investigate learning and development... more A new trend in Cognitive Science is the use of artificial agents and systems to investigate learning and development of complex organisms in natural environments. This work, in contrast with traditional AI work, takes into account principles of neural development, problems of embodiment, and complexities of the environment. Current and future promises and challenges for this approach are defined and outlined.

Towards a theory of delegation for agent-based systems

by Rino Falcone

co-authored with Cristiano Castelfranchi; published in: Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Special issue on Multi-Agent Rationality, Elsevier Editor, Vol 24, Nos 3-4, , pp.141-157.

In this paper a theory of delegation is presented. There are at least three reasons for developing such a theory.... more In this paper a theory of delegation is presented. There are at least three reasons for developing such a theory. First, one of the most relevant notions of "agent" is based on the notion of "task" and of "on behalf of". In order to found this notion a theory of delegation among agents is needed. Second, the notion of autonomy should be based on different kinds and levels of delegation. Third, the entire theory of cooperation and collaboration requires the definition of the two complementary attitudes of goal delegation and adoption linking collaborating agents.
After motivating the necessity for a principled theory of delegation (and adoption) the paper presents a plan-based approach to this theory. We analyze several dimensions of the delegation/adoption (on the basis of the interaction between the agents, of the specification of the task, of the possibility to subdelegate, of the delegation of the control, of the help levels). The agent's autonomy and levels of agency are then deduced.
We describe the modelling of the client from the contractor's point of view and viceversa, with their differences, and the notion of trust that directly derives from this modelling. Finally, a series of possible conflicts between client and contractor are considered: in particular collaborative conflicts, which stem from the contractor's intention to help the client beyond its request or delegation and to exploit its own knowledge and intelligence (reasoning, problem solving, planning, and decision skills) for the client itself.