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The PhD thesis  described in this posting is available at the coordinates
given below.

TITLE PAGE:

A thesis submitted to the
Faculty of Science
of the
University of Birmingham
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

School of Computer Science (Cognitive Science Research Centre).
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT
England

August 1994


ABSTRACT:

The objective of this thesis is to elucidate goal processing in
autonomous agents from a design-stance. A. Sloman's theory of autonomous
agents is taken as a starting point (Sloman, 1987; Sloman, 1992b). An
autonomous agent is one that is capable of using its limited resources
to generate and manage its own sources of motivation. A wide array of
relevant psychological and AI theories are reviewed, including theories
of motivation, emotion, attention, and planning. A technical yet rich
concept of goals as control states is expounded. Processes operating on
goals are presented, including vigilational processes (goal generation,
goal activation, insistence assignment and goal filtering) and
management processes (e.g., planning, scheduling, deciding,
meta-management). Reasons for limitations on management parallelism are
discussed. A broad design of an autonomous agent that is based on M.
Georgeff's (1986) Procedural Reasoning System is presented. The agent is
meant to operate in a microworld scenario. The strengths and weaknesses
of both the design and the theory behind it are discussed. The thesis
concludes with suggestions for studying both emotion ("perturbance") and
pathologies of attention as consequences of autonomous goal processing.



NB The thesis was successfully defended in July 1994 (minor mods) with
Mike Harris (Birmingham) and Margaret Boden (Sussex) as examiners.
Aaron Sloman served as my supervisor.


To obtain this thesis:


ftp://ftp.cs.bham.ac.uk//pub/dist/papers/cog_affect/Luc.Beaudoin_thesis.ps.Z
or in the same directory:
Luc.Beaudoin_thesis.rtf.Z

Note that the directory contains many related papers.

This thesis is also available on paper  as CSRP No. 91-6 From School of
Computer Science, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, B15 2TT
The cost is 4 pounds plus postage.
--
Luc Beaudoin
E-mail: L.P.Beaudoin@cs.bham.ac.uk