A master chess player makes a move. The choice is informed both by planning—anticipating possible replies and counterreplies—and by immediate, intuitive judgments of the desirability of particular positions and moves.
A mobile robot decides whether it should enter a new room in search of more trash to collect or start trying to find its way back to its battery recharging station. It makes its decision based on the current charge level of its battery and how quickly and easily it has been able to find the recharger in the past.
These examples share features that are so basic that they are easy to overlook:
All involve interaction between an active decision-making agent and its environment, within which the agent seeks to achieve a goal despite uncertainty about its environment.
At the same time, in all these examples the e↵ects of actions cannot be fully predicted; thus the agent must monitor its environment frequently and react appropriately.
In all of these examples the agent can use its experience to improve its performance over time.
examples:
A master chess player makes a move. The choice is informed both by planning—anticipating possible replies and counterreplies—and by immediate, intuitive judgments of the desirability of particular positions and moves.
A mobile robot decides whether it should enter a new room in search of more trash to collect or start trying to find its way back to its battery recharging station. It makes its decision based on the current charge level of its battery and how quickly and easily it has been able to find the recharger in the past.
These examples share features that are so basic that they are easy to overlook:
All involve interaction between an active decision-making agent and its environment, within which the agent seeks to achieve a goal despite uncertainty about its environment.
At the same time, in all these examples the e↵ects of actions cannot be fully predicted; thus the agent must monitor its environment frequently and react appropriately.
In all of these examples the agent can use its experience to improve its performance over time.