Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 1999
For a number of years, researchers in AI and robotics have been sharing organisation principles for software development called “architectures” (Arkin, 1998; Hexmoor et al., 1997; Kortenkamp et al., 1998). Most recently, there has been an interest in extending the software architectures originally designed for robotic applications to accommodate autonomous operation beyond robotics (Pell et al., 1998). These architectures attempt to state principles for organising software for intelligent systems that exhibit cognitive functionalities such as natural language understanding, planning and learning, as well as organism-like functionalities to cope in the world such as reflexive and reactive behaviours.