The Behavior System

Abstract

Action selection in the artificial fish is controlled by its behavior system. The behavior system consists of the habits and mental state of the fish, an intention generator and a set of behavior routines (Fig. 7.1). The behavior system runs continuously within the fish’s simulation loop. At each time stepthe intention generator issues an intention based on the fish’s habits, mental state, and incoming sensory information. It then chooses and executes a behavior routine which in turn selects and runs the appropriate motor controllers. It is important to note that the behavior routines are incremental by design. Their job is to get the artificial fish one stepclo ser to fulfilling its intention during the current time step. Moreover, at any given moment in time, there is only one intention or one active behavior in the artificial fish’s behavior system. This hypothesis is commonly made by ethologists when analyzing the behavior of fishes, birds and four-legged animals of or below intermediate complexity (e.g. dogs, cats) [94, 16].