Opening the door to robotic agents

What do agent researchers dream of? The answer is simple-building a general-purpose, robotic agent that works and communicates with human beings in natural settings. Although this goal remains elusive, researchers have made real progress in two important areas: defining clear avenues for advance as they reframe the issues involved in building agents; and the advent of mobile robots with manipulators and computer-vision systems has made possible a meaningful evaluation and comparison of competing agent architectures. Together, these factors are opening the door to rapid advances in the construction of intelligent machines. The paper discusses a new framework in robotic agent research involving planning systems and reactive systems.