A layered brain architecture for synthetic creatures

Abstract

This paper describes a new layered brain architecture for simulated autonomous and semi-autonomous creatures that inhabit graphical worlds. The main feature of the brain is its division into distinct systems, which communicate through common access to an internal mental blackboard. The brain was designed to encourage experimentation with various systems and architectures. It has so far proven flexible enough to accommodate research advancing in a number of different directions by a small team of researchers.