Designing agent behavior with the extensible agent behavior specification language XABSL

Abstract

Specific behavior description languages prove to be suitable replacements to native programming language like C++ when the number and complexity of behavior patterns of an agent increases. The XML based Extensible Agent Behavior Specification Language (XABSL) also simplifies the process of specifying complex behaviors and supports the design of both very reactive and long term oriented behaviors. XABSL uses hierarchies of behavior modules called options that contain state machines for decision making. In this paper we introduce the architecture behind XABSL, the formalization of that architecture in XML and the software library XabslEngine that runs the formalized behavior on an agent platform. The GermanTeam [9] employed XABSL in the RoboCup Sony Four Legged League competitions in Fukuoka.