Ph.D. Dissertation Proposal Defense Complex Interactions between Multiple Goal Operations in Cognitive Architectures By Sravya Kondrakunta

Ph.D. Committee:  Drs. Mateen Rizki (advisor), Michael Cox (co-advisor), Michael Raymer, John Gallagher, and Matthew Molineaux (WSRI)

ABSTRACT:

A significant issue in cognitive systems research is to make an agent formulate and manage its own goals. To support this issue, some cognitive scientists have implemented a number of goal operations, but no one has implemented more than a couple of goal operations within a single agent. One of the reasons for this limitation is the lack of knowledge about how various goals operations interact with one another. This thesis addresses this knowledge gap by implementing multiple goal operations including goal formulation, goal change, goal selection and designing an algorithm to manage any positive or negative interaction between them. These are integrated in a cognitive architecture called MIDCA and applied in five different test domains. We will compare and contrast the performance of the architecture with smart management of interactions with that of a randomized linearization of goal operations.