Comparison of Behaviour-Based Architectures for a Collaborative Package Delivery Task

A comparison between behavioural architectures, specifically a BDI architecture and a finite-state machine, for a collaborative package delivery system is presented. The system should assist a user in handling packages in cluttered environments. The entire system is built using open-source solutions for modules including speech recognition, person detection and tracking, and navigation. For the comparison, we use three criteria, namely, a static implementation-based comparison, a dynamic comparison and a qualitative comparison. Based on our results, we provide experimental evidence that supports the theoretical consensus about the domain of applicability for both, BDI architectures and finite-state machines. However, we cannot support or discourage any of the tested architectures for the particular case of the collaborative package delivery scenario, due to the non-overlapping strengths and weakness of both approaches. Finally, we outline future improvements to the system itself as well as the comparison of both behavioural architectures.