Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Definition 19 (Effector)
An
effector
provides capabilities to an
agent for actively causing state changes. In contrast to sensors, an
effector
may only be triggered by endogenous events
and can trigger endogenous as well as exogenous events.
The sensors are primarily used by an agent for perceiving its en-
vironment. Each sensor may activate effectors of an agent or further
sensors. Effectors may either alter the environment (e.g., picking
up some object), affect an agents embedding within the environment
(e.g., movement of an agent) or change an agents attributes (e.g., due
to a
mental
action like reasoning).
Definition 20 (Action)
An
action
refers to a sensor or effector
which was triggered by an event and is currently active.
In close analogy to the distinction made for event categories (see Sec-
tion 6.5), sensors and effectors may also be distinguished as
exogenous
or
endogenous
:
Exogenous sensors
perceive information from the environment sur-
rounding an agent. Obvious examples are optical sensors of any
kind or an antenna to receive radio transmissions.
Endogenous sensors
may perceive information only from within
an agent. Sensors of this type might be used to model situations
where agents need sensors to monitor their own state (e. g., engine
temperature). The decision whether an agent needs a sensor to
monitor the state of its own properties (represented by the agents'
attributes) depends on the model purpose and is completely up to
the model developer.
Exogenous effectors
affect the environment surrounding an agent.
An exogenous effector may directly alter the environment respect-
ively an agents embedding within the environment (e.g., by a
