- No Global Representation of State
With control distributed throughout the entire system, there is
no global representation of state. In fact, different parts of a
system may believe inconsistent things about the world. However, the
net behavior of the system emerges as what Subsumption calls "salient, coherent,
and adequate."
- No symbols
In addition to having no global representation of state, the subsumtion architecture
contains no symbols. This makes tasks such as natural language, which is pure
symbol manipulation, seemingly impossible for this architecture.
- Quick Reaction Speed
The
augmented finite state machines provide close connections between the sensors and actuators
of a Subsumption system, giving the system the ability to quickly react
to dynamic environments. This property is very useful in the navigation of dynamic,
people-populated worlds. This also eliminates the need for an
internalized world model for many tasks.
- Asynchronous operation
The different modules or layers
of the subsumption architecture operate
asynchronously. Each layer has its own goal, and it reacts to the
environment accordingly, regardless of the operations of the other
layers. The actual output of the layers can be inhibited, however,
when a higher level layer's goal conflicts with that of a lower
layer. This allows actions such as having one of the creatures chase
a remote control car while still avoiding obstacles.
- Prewired Patterns of Behavior
Prewired behaviors are activated by sensory input.
This property is inspired by biological models.
