Semiotics and Intelligent Control

Abstract

The overall purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relevance of semiotics concepts to the analysis of intelligent control systems. Semiotics has only a minor impact on research within intelligent control or robotics. These areas are currently dominated by mathematical concepts of control theory and information processing concepts of artificial intelligence. This situation is unfortunate because the understanding of a complex control problem requires an analysis of the sign relations between sensory data and their meanings and the sign relations between the physical result of a control action and the intentions of control agents. These problems of sign interpretation inherent in all control situations are relevant for the design of automated controls and of the interaction between human operators and the automation. The relevance of semiotics to control problems is demonstrated by applying the semiotics of action developed by Charles Morris to various aspects of a control situation. We use Morris’s definition of three dimensions of signifying that arises from a decomposition of an action into perceptual, appraisive and prescriptive stages. These distinctions identify types of knowledge that a control agent must have in order to cope with a control situation in the environment. Selected examples from the domains of robotics and process control are used to demonstrate that Morris semiotics of action is valuable for conceptual analysis of control situations and for systems design.