Embodied AI and the Multiple Drafts Model

In "Intelligence without Representation" (1991), Rodney Brooks lays out his vision for an alternative AI project that focuses on creating embodied "Creatures" that can move and interact in real-world environments, rather than the simplified and idealised scenarios that dominated AI research in the 60s and 70s. Essential to this project is the idea of moving away from centralised information processing models and towards parallel, task-focused subsystems. For instance, he describes a simple Creature that can avoid hitting objects whilst moving towards "distant visible places" (1991: 143). Rather than attempting to construct a detailed internal representation of its environment, this Creature simply consists of two subsystems, one which moves it towards distant objects and another that moves it away from nearby objects. By decomposing this apparently complex task into two simple ones, Brooks is able to find an elegant solution to a difficult problem.

Brooks and a robot having a hug

His description of this process is particularly interesting:

Just as there is no central representation there is not even a central system. Each activity producing layer connects perception to action directly. It is only the observer of the Creature who imputes a central representation or central control. The Creature itself has none; it is a collection of competing behaviors. Out of the local chaos of their interactions there emerges, in the eye of an observer, a coherent pattern of behavior. There is no central purposeful locus of control. (1991: 145)

It is strikingly similar to Dennett's account of consciousness and cognition under the Multiple Drafts Model (see his 1991). Maybe not so surprising when you consider that both Dennett and Brooks were inspired by Marvin Minsky, but it does lend some theoretical credence to Brooks' work...as well as perhaps some practical clout to Dennett's.

• Brooks, R. 1991. “Intelligence without representation.” Artificial Intelligence, 47: 139-59.
• Dennett, D. 1991. Consciousness Explained. Little, Brown and Company.