JPH05324009A - Agent control method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide an agent control method in which the meaning of communication operation data is clear and the description of program data can be simplified. [Structure] The action definition database 4 by the action interpreting unit 5
Outputs the internal state data described in the operation definition data in which the communication operation data of the input buffer 3 and the name data match each other, and the internal state update unit 6 outputs the above internal state from the internal state database 1. The internal state data contradictory to the data is removed, the output internal state data is stored, and the program interpretation unit 7
From the program database 2, the operation data described is output to the program data in which the internal state data described therein matches the updated internal state data. [Effect] The communication operation data is clearly defined, the meaning of the communication operation is clarified, it is not necessary to describe the communication operation data in the program data, and the description of the program data is simplified.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an agent control system for controlling an agent such as an autonomous robot by a computer system capable of operating autonomously while interacting with the outside so as to operate while communicating with the outside. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, AGENTO (Y.Sho
ham, AGENTO: A Simple Agent Language and its Int
erpreter. In Proceedings of AAAI-91, pp704-709,199
1) is proposed. The agent control method used in AGENTO temporarily stores the internal state database that stores the internal state data that indicates the knowledge and beliefs of the agent, and the communication operation data that is communicated from other agents. When a certain communication operation data is communicated from the input buffer that is
A program database that stores program data that describes an operation to be executed when the agent has a certain internal state, and an internal state update unit that extracts communication operation data from an input buffer and updates the internal state database according to a certain rule. And among the program data stored in the program database, the communication operation data described in the program data matches the communication operation data retrieved from the input buffer, and the internal state described in the program data The control method includes: a program interpreting unit that takes out program data whose data matches the internal state data stored in the internal state database and outputs operation data described in the program data.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional agent control method, since the communication operation data communicated from the outside is described in the program data, the meaning of the communication operation data is unclear. However, there is a problem that the description of program data becomes complicated.

An object of the present invention is to provide an agent control system in which the meaning of communication operation data is clear and the description of program data can be simplified.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an internal state database in which internal state data indicating knowledge and beliefs of the agent are stored, and an internal state in which the agent is present. The program database that stores the program data that describes the operation to be executed when there is an input buffer, the input buffer that temporarily stores the communication operation data that is communicated from another agent, and the name data of the communication operation And an operation definition database that stores operation definition data that describes the internal state data that represents the effect of the communication operation, and the operation definition data that is extracted from the input buffer and the communication operation data is stored in the operation definition database. Of the action definition data whose name data matches the communication action data Among the internal state data stored in the internal state database, the internal state data stored in the internal state data stored in the internal state database, and the internal state data inconsistent with the internal state data output from the internal state database. The internal state data output from the operation interpreting unit and stored in the internal state database, and the program data stored in the program database. The control system has a program interpreting unit that takes out program data whose internal state data matches the internal state data stored in the internal state database and outputs the operation data described in the program data.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the action interpreting unit retrieves the communication action data from the outside from the input buffer and, out of the action definition data stored in the action definition database, the name data of the action definition data is the communication action data. The internal state data described in the action definition data that matches the data is output. Then, the internal state update unit removes internal state data stored in the internal state database, which is inconsistent with the internal state data output from the operation interpreting unit, from the internal state database. The internal state data output from the operation interpreting unit is stored in the internal state database. Then, by the program interpreting unit, among the program data stored in the program database, the internal state data described in the program data matches the updated internal state data stored in the internal state database. The program data is extracted, and the operation data described in the program data is output as the operation data to be executed.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an agent control system showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the solid line represents the flow of processing, and the broken line represents the flow of data.

An internal state database 1 stores internal state data indicating knowledge and beliefs possessed by the agent.

A program database 2 stores program data in which an operation to be executed when the agent has a certain internal state is stored.

An input buffer 3 temporarily stores communication operation data transmitted from another agent.

An operation definition database 4 stores name data of communication operation and operation definition data describing internal state data representing the effect of the communication operation.

Reference numeral 5 denotes an operation interpreting unit 5 which extracts communication operation data from the input buffer 3 and matches the name data of the operation definition data with the communication operation data among the operation definition data stored in the operation definition database 4. The internal state data described in the action definition data is output.

Reference numeral 6 denotes an internal state updating unit, which is an operation interpreting unit 5 of the internal state data stored in the internal state database 1.
The internal state data contradictory to the internal state data output from the internal state database 1 is removed from the internal state database 1, and the internal state data output from the operation interpreting unit 5 is stored in the internal state database 1 instead.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a program interpreting unit, of the program data stored in the program database 2, the internal state data described in the program data matches the internal state data stored in the internal state database 1. The program data is taken out and the operation data described in the program data is output.

Next, the processing in each part of FIG. 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 6.

FIG. 2 shows a description example of the internal state database 1,
FIG. 3 is a description example of the program database 2.

Each of these figures is intended for the control of the document delivery robot "Robotai" which is the agent. In FIG. 2, the internal state data 11 describes the duty that Robota has, and is “the duty to realize that the document is in the conference room (described as At (document, conference room)). (Abbreviation of CMT: commitment), Robota has for Ichiro. ” The internal state data 12 describes the belief that Robo Futoshi has. It is the belief that a document is in the library (described as At (document, library)) (B: belief) I have something to say. ” Similarly, internal state data 13
Is a description of Robo Tai's belief regarding another document delivery robot, "Robin," that says "Robin is in the office (A
Robota believes in t (described as Robin, office) ”.

The program database 2 shown in FIG. 3 stores program data describing the operation to be executed when the robot has a certain internal state. The program data is described as a set of internal state data including variables and operation data. In FIG. 3, a, b, x, y, z represent variables. The program data 21 in FIG. 3 has "the responsibility that Robo-tai realizes that x is in y to agent a", and "Robo-tai believes that x is in z". When "Robo-tai doesn't believe agent b is in z," he said, "Robo-tai moves to z.
It represents a program that executes the operation "do". Similarly, the program data 22 is
Agent a has a duty to realize that x is in y, and he says, "Robota believes that x is in z" and "Robota believes that agent b is in z." Represents a program that executes the operation (this is a communication operation) that "Robota requests b to" realize that x is in y "". There is.

FIG. 4 shows a description example of the input buffer 3, and FIG. 5 shows a description example of the operation definition database 4.

In FIG. 4, the input buffer 3 temporarily stores communication operation data transmitted from another agent. The operation data 31 is communication operation data transmitted from Robin, and represents the communication operation that "Robin has informed Robotai that" the document is in the office "."

The action definition database 4 of FIG. 5 stores action definition data in which the name and effect of a communication action are described. In FIG. 5, a, b, p represent variables. The operation definition data 41 describes the definition of the communication operation of “notify (Inform)”, and the communication operation of the name “a notifies b to p that it is p”
, But I believe that it is p ”. Similarly, the action definition data 42 is “request”.
(Request) ”is a description of the communication operation definition.
The communication action named "a requests b to realize p" means that "b has the responsibility of realizing p to a". ..

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the processing of each part in FIG. The solid line represents the processing flow, and the broken line represents the data flow.

The operation interpreting unit 5 first takes out communication operation data from the input buffer 3 (process 501). Next, of the behavior definition data stored in the behavior definition database 4, an appropriate value is substituted for a variable, and the name data of the behavior definition data matches the communication behavior data extracted in the process 501. The definition data is searched (process 502). Further, the internal state data described in the effect column of the action definition data retrieved in the process 502 is output (process 503).
The operation interpretation unit 5 will be described below using the specific examples of FIGS. 4 and 5.
An example of processing by will be described. First, the communication operation data 31 is fetched from the input buffer 3 of FIG. 4 (process 501).
Next, of the action definition data 41, 42 stored in the action definition database 4 of FIG. 5, by substituting an appropriate value for a variable, the name data of the action definition data and the communication action data extracted in the process 501 are stored. The matching action definition data is searched (process 502). In this example, by substituting "robin" for the variable a, "robot thick" for the variable b, and "At (document, office)" for the variable p for the action definition data 41 of FIG. Since the name data of the data 41 matches the communication operation data 31, the operation definition data 41 is searched. Further, the internal state data described in the effect column of the action definition data retrieved in the process 502 is output (process 503). In this example, the action definition data 4 of FIG.
For the internal state data described in the effect column of 1, the variable b
"Robota, At (Documents, Documents, Office)" into the variable p and "At (Documents, Office)"
The internal state data “B (Robotai, At (Documents, Office))” in which each of “Office” is substituted is output. The internal state data indicates that "Robota believes that the document is in the office".

The internal state updating unit 6 first removes from the internal state database 1 the internal state data stored in the internal state database 1 that is inconsistent with the internal state data output from the operation interpreting unit 5. Yes (Process 6
01). Next, the internal state data output from the operation interpretation unit 5 is stored in the internal state database 1 (process 60).
2). As described above, by the process 503, the internal state data “B (Robo thick, At (document, office))” is output from the operation interpreting unit 5.
Is output, the output data is referred to as internal state data 14 hereinafter. Hereinafter, a processing example by the internal state updating unit 6 will be described using the internal state data 14 and the specific example of FIG. First, the internal state data 11, 12, stored in the internal state database 1 of FIG.
Among the 13 internal state data that is inconsistent with the internal state data output from the operation interpreting unit 5, the internal state database 1
Are removed (process 601). In this example, the internal state data 12 of FIG. 1 (representing “Robota believes that the document is in the library”) is the internal state data 1
4 (indicating that Robota believes that the document is in the office) is removed from the internal state database 1. Next, the internal state data 14 output from the operation interpretation unit 5 is stored in the internal state database 1 (process 602).

The program interpreting section 7 first substitutes appropriate values into variables for all the program data stored in the program database 2, and the internal state data described in the program data becomes the internal state. It is checked whether or not it matches the internal state data stored in the database 1 (process 701). Next, the operation data described in the program data that has passed the inspection of process 701 is output (process 702). Hereinafter, a processing example by the program interpreting unit 7 will be described using the internal state database 1 updated by the above-described internal state update processing and the specific example of FIG. First, with respect to the program data 21 and 22 of FIG. 3, it is checked whether the internal state data of each program data matches the internal state data 11, 13, and 14 stored in the updated internal state database 1. (Process 701). First, for the program data 21, "ichiro" is assigned to the variable a, "robin" is assigned to the variable b, "document" is assigned to the variable x, "meeting room" is assigned to the variable y, and "office" is assigned to the variable z. .. The first and second internal state data of the program data 21 correspond to the internal state data 11 and 14, respectively, but the third internal state data of the program data 21 "~ B (Robota, At (Robin, office)) The check fails because there is no internal state data that matches with. ”Next, the same variable is substituted for the program data 22. The internal state data of the program data 22 is the internal state data 11, 13, Since they match with each other, they are output as the program data that passed the inspection.Next, the operation data described in the program data that passed the inspection in process 701 are output for the operation to be executed (process 702). ). In this example, FIG.
For the motion data described in the program data 22 of, the motion data “Request (robot, robin, At ( Documents, meeting room)) "is output.
The operation data represents a communication operation "Robota requests Robin to" realize that document is in conference room "".

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, a motion definition database and a motion interpretation unit are newly provided to clearly define communication motion data in the motion definition database. The meaning is clarified. Furthermore, since the operation interpreting unit interprets the communication operation data and outputs the internal state data, it is not necessary to describe the communication operation data in the program data, and the description of the program data can be simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an agent control system showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a description example of an internal state database.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a description example of a program database.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a description example of an input buffer.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a description example of a behavior definition database.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of processing of each unit in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Internal state database, 2 ... Program database, 3 ... Input buffer, 4 ... Behavior definition database, 5
... operation interpreting section, 6 ... internal state updating section, 7 ... program interpreting section, 11-13 ... internal state data, 21, 22 ... program data, 31 ... communication operation data, 41, 42 ... operation definition data, 501-503 , 601, 602, 70
1, 702 ... Processing.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An agent control system for controlling an agent such as an autonomous robot by a computer system which can be autonomously operated while interacting with the outside so as to operate while communicating with the outside. The internal state database that stores the internal state data that indicates the knowledge and beliefs that the agent has, and the program database that stores the program data that describes the operation to be executed when the agent has an internal state. And operation definition data describing an input buffer in which communication operation data communicated from another agent is temporarily stored, communication operation name data, and internal state data representing the effect of the communication operation. Communication definition data that is stored and communication operation data from the input buffer Then, among the operation definition data stored in the operation definition database, an operation interpretation unit that outputs internal state data described in the operation definition data in which the name data of the operation definition data matches the communication operation data, Of the internal state data stored in the internal state database, internal state data that is inconsistent with the internal state data output from the action interpreting unit is removed from the internal state database, and the internal state output from the action interpreting unit is removed. An internal state updating unit that stores state data in the internal state database; and an internal state data described in the program data stored in the internal state database among the program data stored in the program database. The program data that matches the status data is extracted, and the program data And a program interpreting unit that outputs the operation data described in 1. The agent control method.