Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
1.5.3
Behavioral School
Most AI research is based on too abstract and simple models for the real world.
Rodney Brooks argued that it is necessary to go beyond this ivory tower of
abstract models, and take the complex real world as the background instead, so
that AI theories and technologies can be tested in real world problem solving, and
improved in these tests.
In 1991 Brooks brought forward theories of intelligence without
representation and intelligence without reason, and stated that intelligence is
determined by the dynamics of interaction with the world. He simply called this
work as “robots” or “behavior-based robots”. There are a number of key aspects
characterizing this style of work as follows (Brooks, 1991b):
Situatedness: The robots are situated in the world and the world directly
influences the behavior of the system.
Embodiment: The robots have bodies and experience the world directly.
Intelligence: The source of intelligence is not limited to just the computational
engine. It also come from the situation in the world.
Emergence: The intelligence of the system emerges from the system's
interactions with the world and sometimes indirect interactions between its
components.
Based on these ideas, Brooks programmed autonomous mobile robots, based
on layered, asynchronous and distributed networks of augmented finite-state
machines, each one being a comparatively independent unit for functionalities of
advance, balance, prowl, etc. The robot walked successfully, and thus initiated a
new approach to Robotics.
Different academic schools of AI research have different answers to the five
foundational cognitive questions introduced in section 1.2. The logical school
(represented by Nils Nilsson) holds positive answers to questions 1-4, and
neutral answer to question 5; the cognitive school (represented by Allen Newell)
holds positive answers to questions 1, 3 and 5; while the behavioral school
(represented by Rodney Brooks) holds negative answers to all question of 1-5.
