Construction by autonomous agents in a simulated environment

Abstract

A connectionist behavior-based architecture enables a society of agents to navigate efficiently and construct specified structures within a simulated environment. The architecture incorporates both reactive and planning behaviors so that agents can manage multiple goals. The agents use cognitive maps to internally represent the environment for navigational planning. Simulations within a continuous 2-D environment demonstrate the abilities of the group of agents to construct structures. The effect of various placement strategies on the time to complete the construction task are studied.