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This report describes the results of research during the past four
months on the project, “Application of Intelligent Automata to Reconnaissance.”
The primary goal of this project is to investigate techniques in
artificial intelligence applied to the control of a mobile automaton in
a realistic environment. The main emphasis is on the design of a hierarchy
of computer programs that will accept visual and other sensory information
from the automaton and direct its actions toward the completion of
missions requiring the abilities to plan ahead and to learn from previous
experience.
As of the beginning of March 1967, it is anticipated that the vehicle
and other special hardware will be completed and be ready for preliminary
experiments within two months. The preprocessor is expected to be completed
a few weeks thereafter. Various “Immediate Action” computer programs
are now being written to drive the registers on the vehicle and
thus accomplish simple movements and sensing acts. In addition, maneuvering
tactics designed during previous simulation experiments are being
written into SDS 940 computer programs that will call the immediate action
routines in the proper sequence to accomplish simple missions.
The SDS 940 computer system is now almost fully operational and will
soon be utilized by the automaton project.
Our present status, then, can best be described as having nearly
completed all preparatory work, placing us in a position to begin actual
experiments with the automaton. We have arrived at this stage somewhat
ahead of the schedule outlined at the beginning of the project; consequently,
this opens the possibili ty of exerting a more intensive effort
on programming the actual vehicle.
Appendices are:
- “Display Package for the SDS-940 Scope: Tenative Specifications’” by J.H. Bell
- “Manipulator Arms for the Automaton’” by V. Lieskovsky
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