Behavior-Based Robotics (Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Perhaps the best way to begin our study is with a question: If we could create intelligent robots, what should they be like, and what..." (more)
Key Phrases: reactive robotic systems, lightweight vision, behavioral controller, Carnegie-Mellon University, Behavior Language, Georgia Tech (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Arkin's style is friendly and concise with suitable academic depth and tone... This book presents a technical history that is explained in a clear, well-illustrated fashion that should help a new generation of researchers understand why philosophical issues are as important as engineering theory when building robots to navigate the real world." -- Simon Shurville,The Times Higher Education Supplement, February 5, 1999

"Hard to put down and necessary to know—Arkin's book provides a comprehensive intellectual history of robots and a thorough compilation of robotic organizational paradigms from reflexes through social interaction."
—Chris Brown, Professor of Computer Science, University of Rochester

Product Description

foreword by Michael Arbib

"Hard to put down and necessary to know -- Arkin's book provides a comprehensive intellectual history of robots and a thorough compilation of robotic organizational paradigms from reflexes through social interaction." -- Chris Brown, Professor of Computer Science, University of Rochester

This introduction to the principles, design, and practice of intelligent behavior-based autonomous robotic systems is the first true survey of this robotics field. The author presents the tools and techniques central to the development of this class of systems in a clear and thorough manner. Following a discussion of the relevant biological and psychological models of behavior, he covers the use of knowledge and learning in autonomous robots, behavior-based and hybrid robot architectures, modular perception, robot colonies, and future trends in robot intelligence.

The text throughout refers to actual implemented robots and includes many pictures and descriptions of hardware, making it clear that these are not abstract simulations, but real machines capable of perception, cognition, and action.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 491 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (May 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262011654
• ISBN-13: 978-0262011655
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #777,147 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellence Summary of The Field, a great starting place., September 1, 1999

By A Customer

The first thing to realize is this book is a survery of Behavioral Robotics. It does a great job of explaining the various aspects of Beharioral methology, but it is not a colledge textbook. There aren't sets of problems, but there is a whole lot of basic knowledge. I don't have a lot of AI experience, but I was never at a lost reading this book. The book is a great starting point to learn the field. When you finish the book you will have a basic understanding of the different branches of the field, and the Bibliography is truly top notch. With this book you will know which method will best suit you task.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overpriced and explains the obvious, March 2, 2006

By	calvinnme "Texan refugee" (Fredericksburg, Va) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

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The only reason I am giving this book three stars is that no other serious publication I know of discusses behavior based robotics. However, that being said, this book uses a lot of pages and costs a lot of dollars to explain a rather simple concept. It is an elegant concept, and I do take my hat off to Mr. Arkin for getting to the heart of the matter clearly and with good illustrations. But is it a concept that requires almost 500 pages? I don't really think so. Simply put, behavior-based robotics does not use an internal model of its environment. For instance, there is no programming in the robot of what a chair looks like, or what kind of surface the robot is moving on - all the information is gleaned from the input of the robot's sensors. The robot uses that information to react to the changes in its environment as those changes occur. State machines are at the heart of the design of any behavior-based robot. For example, a foraging robot would probably have four states describing its behavior in response to its sensors: wandering and looking for food, picking up food, homing towards the nest, and avoiding obstacles.
This book is a very easy read, although at times it seems repetitive. It does not really require any particular technical background in order to understand it, although to really appreciate the concept you should already be familiar with robotic design concepts.
Some really good implementations of the concepts in this book are at a website authored by Craig Reynolds. To find it, type "Steering behaviors for autonomous characters" into Google, and it should be the first address listed. Mr. Reynolds' site has a paper on his extensions of behavior-based concepts, as well as some Java applets demonstrating his methods.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the best single text on behaviour-based robotics, February 7, 2002

By	"andrei_r_" (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

Outstanding introduction to the field of behaviour-based robot control. Completely accessible to the non-expert. It starts off with a good treatment of perception and action in animals as motivation. Goes on to discuss different aspects of behavioural control, including formal methods, architectures, various implementations, theoretical limitations, and so on.

I use this book as a reference, to help me with my own research into control architectures. Arkin is a leader in this field. Many (most!) of the recent research papers that I've seen cite this book. I think it should be on your bookshelf if you're a researcher or practitioner of AI.