Principles of
Autonomy and Decision Making
1
Brian C. Williams
16.410/16.413
December 10
th
, 2003
Outline
? Objectives
? Agents and Their Building Blocks
? Principles for Building Agents:
– Modeling Formalisms
– Algorithmic Principles
? Building an Agent:
The Mars Exploration Rover
Course Objective 1:
Principles of Agents
16.410/13: To learn the modeling and
algorithmic building blocks for creating
reasoning and learning agents:
? To formulate reasoning problems.
? To describe, analyze and demonstrate
reasoning algorithms.
? To model and encode knowledge used by
reasoning algorithms.
Course Objective 2:
Building Agents
16.413: To appreciate the challenges of building a
state of the art autonomous explorer:
? To model and encode knowledge needed to solve
a state of the art challenge.
? To work through the process of autonomy systems
integration.
? To assess the promise, frustrations and challenges
of using (b)leading art technologies.
Outline
? Objectives
? Agents and Their Building Blocks
? Principles for Building Agents:
– Modeling Formalisms
– Algorithmic Principles
? Building an Agent:
The Mars Exploration Rover
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov.
``Our vision in NASA is to open the Space Frontier . . . We must
establish a virtual presence, in space, on planets, in aircraft and
spacecraft.’’ - Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator, May 29, 1996
Mission-Oriented Agents
Agent Building Blocks
? Activity Planning
? Execution/Monitoring
Cassini Maps Titan
? 7 year cruise
? ~ 150 - 300
ground
operators
?~ 1 billion $
? 7 years to
build
1. Engineering Agents
?150 million $
?2 year build
? 0 ground
ops
Affordable Missions
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov.
Houston, we have a problem ...
Image taken from NASA’s web site: http://www.nasa.gov.
? Quintuple fault occurs
(three shorts, tank-line and
pressure jacket burst, panel
flies off)
– Diagnosis.
? Mattingly works in ground
simulator to identify new
sequence handling severe
power limitations.
– Planning & Resource Allocation
? Mattingly identifies novel
reconfiguration, exploiting
LEM batteries for power.
– Reconfiguration and Repair
? Swaggert & Lovell work on
Apollo 13 emergency rig
lithium hydroxide unit.
– Execution
Agent Building Blocks
? Activity Planning
? Execution/Monitoring
? Diagnosis
? Repair
? Scheduling
? Resource Allocation
2. Mobile Agents
Target
Day 4
During the Day
Science Activities
Day 1
Long-Distance Traverse
(<20-50 meters)
Day 2
Initial Position;
Followed by
“Close Approach”
During the Day
Autonomous On-
Board Navigation
Changes, as needed
Day 2 Traverse Estimated
Error Circle
Day 3
Science Prep
(if Required)
Day 2 Traverse
Estimated Error Circle
Courtesy Kanna Rajan, NASA Ames. Used with permission.
Cooperative Vehicle Planning
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov.
Agent Building Blocks
? Activity Planning
? Execution/Monitoring
? Diagnosis
? Repair
? Scheduling
? Resource Allocation
? Global Path Planning
? Task Assignment
3. Agile Agents
Courtesy of Eric Feron. Used with permission.
Agent Building Blocks
? Activity Planning
? Execution/Monitoring
? Diagnosis
? Repair
? Scheduling
? Resource Allocation
? Global Path Planning
? Task Assignment
? Trajectory Design
? Policy Construction
Agent Paradigms
?
Agent
Environment
Sensors
Actions
Percepts
Effectors
Figure adapted from Russell and Norvig.
Model-based Agents
En
vir
onment
A
gent
Sensors
Effectors
What the world
is like now
What action I
should do now
What my
actions do
How the world
evolves
State
World Model
Figure adapted from Russell and Norvig.
Reflexive Agents
En
vir
onment
A
gent
Sensors
Effectors
What the world
is like now
What action I
should do now
Condition-
action rules
Figure adapted from Russell and Norvig.
Goal-Oriented Agents
En
vir
onment
A
gent
Sensors
Effectors
What the world
is like now
What it will be like
if I do action A
What action I
should do now
What my
actions do
Goals
How the world
evolves
State
Figure adapted from Russell and Norvig.
Utility-Based Agents
En
vir
onment
A
gent
Sensors
Effectors
What the world
is like now
What it will be like
if I do action A
What action I
should do now
How happy I will
be in such a state
What my
actions do
Utility
How the world
evolves
State
Figure adapted from Russell and Norvig.
16.413 Project:
Example of a Model-based Agent:
? Goal-directed
? First time correct
? projective
? reactive
? Commonsense models
? Heavily deductive
Scripts
component models
Goals
Titan
Diagnosis
& Repair
Mission
Description
Kirk
Executive
Europa
Planner/
Scheduler
Mission-level
actions &
resources
Outline
? Objective
? Agents and Their Building Blocks
? Principles for Building Agents:
– Modeling Formalisms
– Algorithmic Principles
? Building an Agent:
The Mars Exploration Rover
Building Blocks to Models
? Activity Planning
? Execution/Monitoring
? Diagnosis
?Repair
? Scheduling
? Resource Allocation
? Global Path Planning
? Task Assignment
? Trajectory Design
? Policy Construction
Goal and Feasibility-based:
? State Space Search
? Rules, First Order Logic
? Strips Operators
? Constraint Satisfaction
Problems
? Propositional Logic
Utility-based:
? Weighted Graphs
? Linear Programs
? Mixed Integer Programs
? Markov Decision
Processes
Building Blocks from Models
? Activity Planning
– Graphplan, SatPlan, Partial
Order Planning
? Execution/Monitoring
? Diagnosis
– Constraint Suspension
?Repair
– Rule-based
? Scheduling
– CSP-based
? Resource Allocation
–LP-based
? Global Path Planning
– Roadmap
? Task Assignment
? Trajectory Design
–MILP
? Policy Construction
–MDP
– Reinforcement Learning
Models to Core Algorithms
Uninformed Search:
? Depth First, Breadth First
? Iterative Deepening.
? Backtrack Search
? Backtrack w Forward checking
? Conflict-directed Search
Informed Search:
? Single Source Shortest Bath
? Best First Search
(A*, Hill Climbing, …)
?Simplex
? Branch and Bound
Goal and Feasibility-based:
? State Space Search
? Rules, First Order Logic
? Strips Operators
? Constraint Satisfaction
? Propositional Logic
Utility-based:
? Weighted Graphs
? Linear Programs
? Mixed Integer Programs
? Markov Decision Processes
Algorithms to Principles
Deduction:
? Unification
? Unit Clause Resolution
? Arc Consistency.
? Gaussian Elimination
Relaxation
? Value Iteration
? Reinforcement Learning
Divide and Conquer
? Branching
? Sub-goaling
? Variable Splitting
? Dynamic Programming
? Uninformed & Informed
Abstraction:
? Conflicts
? Bounding
Goal and Feasibility-based:
? State Space Search
? Rules, First Order Logic
? Strips Operators
? Constraint Satisfaction
? Propositional Logic
Utility-based:
? Weighted Graphs
? Linear Programs
? Mixed Integer Programs
? Markov Decision Processes
Outline
? Objectives
? Agents and Their Building Blocks
? Principles for Building Agents:
– Modeling Formalisms
– Algorithmic Principles
? Building an Agent:
The Mars Exploration Rover
Mars Exploration Rovers – Jan. 2004
Mission Objectives:
? Learn about ancient water and climate on Mars.
? For each rover, analyze a total of 6-12 targets
– Targets = natural rocks, abraded rocks, and soil
? Drive 200-1000 meters per rover
? Take 1-3 panoramas both with Pancam and mini-TES
? Take 5-15 daytime and 1-3 nightime sky observations with
mini-TES
Mini-TES
Pancam
Navcam
Rock Abrasion Tool
Microscopic Imager
Mossbauer spectrometer
APXS
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov.