A Modular Hierarchical Behavior-Based Architecture

This paper describes a highly modular hierarchical behaviorbased control system for robots. Key features of the architecture include: easy addition/removal of behaviors, easy addition of specialized behaviors, easy to program hierarchical structure, and ability to execute nonconflicting behaviors in parallel. The architecture uses a unique reward based combinator to arbitrate amongst competing behaviors such as to maximize reward. This behavior system was successfully used in our Sony legged league entry in RoboCup 2000 where we came in third losing only a single game. The system was also tested in another domain where it performed on par with a human operator.