Johnson, Michael Boyle. “Build-a-Dude : Action Selection Networks for Computational Autonomous Agents.” Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1991. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/67395.

Abstract

I present the ubiquitous problem of selecting the next appropriate action in a given situation, with an emphasis on its application for a computational autonomous agent in an animation/simulation system. I review the relevant literature. I describe an algorithm for action selection, derived from one originally presented by Maes, describe extensions to this algorithm, with an emphasis on efficient distributed implementations of the algorithm. I present a parallel distributed implementation which encompasses both the original algorithm and many of my proposed extensions. I informally verify that the implementation satisfies the mathematical model, and give several detailed examples of the implementation in use with an emphasis on showing the extensions I have made. I discuss some of the limitations of the current theory, the implementation, and current and future directions of this work toward alleviating some of these problems.