Agents Habitats and Routine Behavior

Abstract

This paper describes research that characterizes the development of routine behavior based on a model of the historic relation of the agent to his environment. The view developed is that the agent forms a 'habitat ' outside of which his performance degrades. Routine behavior emerges from the history of the relations between the agent and his habitats in the service of recurring goals. Routines are customized to the agent's environment, but so constructed as to support future related activities and the adaptation to new circumstances that extend the agent's range of activity. In this paper we focus on examining quantitatively how this customization reduces the agent's workload.