XABSL - A Pragmatic Approach to Behavior Engineering

This paper introduces the Extensible Agent Behavior Specification Language (XABSL) as a pragmatic tool for engineering the behavior of autonomous agents in complex and dynamic environments. It is based on hierarchies of finite state machines (FSM) for action selection and supports the design of longterm and deliberative decision processes as well as of short-term and reactive behaviors. A platform-independent execution engine makes the language applicable on any robotic platform and together with a variety of visualization, editing and debugging tools, XABSL is a convenient and powerful system for the development of complex behaviors. The complete source code can be freely downloaded from the XABSL website (http://www.informatik.huberlin.de/ki/XABSL/). The language has been successfully applied on many robotic platforms, mainly in the domain of RoboCup robot soccer. It gave the GermanTeam the crucial advantage over other teams to become the 2004 and 2005 world champion in the four-legged league and helped the team CoPS Stuttgart to become third in the Middle Size League in 2004