Capabilities

Planning

Planning by ATLANTIS-based agents is performed by some operators that are initiated and terminated by the sequencing layer and run in the deliberative layer. This is not an architectural property but the functionality is facilitated by the design of the sequencing layer.

Handling of noise and error conditions

ATLANTIS's extensions to the subsumption architecture of Brooks includes the explicit trapping of errors that occur within primitive actions and the subsequent activation of an alternative or error-correction activity.

An explicit assumption during the design of the ATLANTIS architecture was that sensing is error-prone. This facility of error-correction and invocation of alternative methods facilitates the buffering of errors.

Learning

The PCA architecture of Antonisse and Wechsler supports learning through the modification of schemata.

Supports multiple simultaneous goals

ATLANTIS supports multiple simultaneous goals through mechanisms of deliberation which can select a particular goal and plan actions needed to achieve the goals. During the process of achieving goals, the primary goal can be changed such as occured in the example experiments.

PCA robots are designed to operate in areas such as "package and mail delivery, hazardous waste cleanup, deep sea and space exploration, security and surveillance, and military reconnaisance tasks." The strict requirement of autonomy in these environments (today) forces extension of the Brooksian subsumption architecture, thereby raising integration issues.

Navigation

The motivation of the control layer is to provide operators that can perceive and react to the environment for the purpose of navigation.

Adequacy

< a> ATLANTIS agents extend the putative adequacy provided by the subsumption by adding the feature called cognizant failure.

Coherence

ATLANTIS agents behave coherently in that they are based on subsumption architecture. The extensions to the architecture enhance the coherence by providing default contingency actions and the possibility of deliberation.

Saliency

The features of ATLANTIS seem appropriate for the environment but some the future mechanisms may not be needed. All of the robotic features seem useful.
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