Project title: Hierarchical awareness in distributed agents (start 1 Jan. 2005) Project team members: dr. Bram Bakker (postdoc UvA) dr.ir. Leon Kester (TNO-FEL) prof.dr.ir. Frans Groen (UvA)

Project objective: To develop scalable, theoretically sound methods for constructing and updating hierarchical state representations of complex distributed systems Methods/approach: Criteria for hierarchical state representations: 1) information content for actions is high; 2) Markov property holds; 3) uncertainty is low; 4) … Develop algorithms that enforce/approximate these criteria, based on: MDPs, POMDPs, HPOMDPs, DBNs, Utile Distinction methods

ENVIRONMENT state estimation action selection state estimation action selection state estimation action selection S E N S O R S E F F E C T O R S CONTROL SYSTEM POMDP

Intended project results: Algorithms that automatically construct and maintain a hierarchy of state representations Milestones and intended results 2005: Define desired characteristics of hierarchical representations Develop first algorithm, e.g. based on Utile Distinction Test in simple traffic management simulation Set up collaborations, e.g. within ESA and with CDM