Reactive Systems

• [Brooks1986] A robust layered control system for a mobile robot.
  Brooks presents his subsumption architecture for building mobile robots. Much recent work at MIT has followed this approach.
• [Boddy and Dean1989] "Solving time-dependent planning problems".
  A framework for constructing solutions to planning problems in which time spent on planning affects the utility of the system's performance. The motivation is important. Ignore the details.
• [Drummond1989] Situated Control Rules.
  Situated control rules act to reduce the nondeterministic choice of control programs. They are computed as time becomes available for planning.

• [Agre and Chapman1987] Pengi: An Implementation of a Theory of Activity.
  Acting through improvisation and without planning. Pengi is a program that engages in a complex, apparently planful activity without requiring explicit models of the world. Pengi uses indexical functions to cope with the active world. The claim that complex behavior can result from a simple system interacting with a complex environment was given earlier by Herb Simon ([Simon1969]) in Sciences of the Artificial, pages 63-66.