Experimenting with Control in the DVMT

IN ORDER TO OPERATE EFFECTIVELY IN REAL-TIME SITUATIONS, OR TO INTEGRATE INTO A SINGLE CONTROL ARCHITECTURE A VARIETY OF CONTROL REGIMES APPROPRIATE FOR DIFFERENT CLASSES OF PROBLEMS OR STAGES OF A PROBLEM, THE LOW-LEVEL CONTROL LOOP OF A BLACKBOARD-BASED PROBLEM SOLVER MUST CHANGE SIGNIFICANT- LY. FOR EXAMPLE, IN A REAL-TIME SYSTEM THE LOW-LEVEL CONTROL LOOP MUST SUPPORT THE ABILITY NOT TO DO EXHAUSTIVE ANALYSIS OF BLACKBOARD DATA AND NOT TO APPLY ALL APPLICABLE KNOWLEDGE. SIMILARLY, AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF PROBLEM SOLVING, IT MAY BE APPROPRIATE FOR A SYSTEM TO OPERATE WITH DATA-, GOAL-, OR PLAN-BASED CONTROL REGIMES. A MODULAR CONTROL ARCHITECTURE IS PROPOSED TO ANSWER ALL OF THESE NEEDS. ITS APPROACH IS BASED ON RE-ENGINEERING THE BASIC BLACKBOARD CONTROL LOOP TO BE HIGHLY PARAMETERIZED--NOT JUST IN THE AREA OF AGENDA MANAGEMENT, BUT IN EACH AREA OF THE BASIC CONTROL CYCLE. THE DETAILS OF THIS PARAMETERIZA- TION WILL BE PRESENTED ALONG WITH EXAMPLES OF HOW THIS CONTROL ARCHITECTURE ALLOWS THE EXPRESSION OF A RANGE OF CONTROL REGIMES AND THE REDUCTION OF OVERHEAD FOR REAL-TIME PROBLEM SOLVING.