Case-Based Reactive Navigation: A Cased Based Method for On-Line Selection and Adaptation of Reactive Control Parameters in Autonomous Robotics Systems

Abstract

This article presents a new line of research investigating on-line learning mechanisms for autonomous intelligent agents. We discuss a case-based method for dynamic selection and modification of behavior assemblages for a navigational system. The case-based reasoning module is designed as an addition to a traditional reactive control system, and provides more flexible performance in novel environments without extensive high-level reasoning that would otherwise slow the system down. The method is implemented in the ACBARR (A Case-BAsed Reactive Robotic) system, and evaluated through empirical simulation of the system on several different environments, including "box canyon" environments known to be problematic for reactive control systems in general.