Patent ID: 8078338

Claim:
A vehicle, comprising: a drive control for receiving manual inputs from an operator input device to operate the vehicle in a manual mode; actuators mated to the drive control, each actuator mated to the drive control by a mechanical linkage that disassociates and reassociates the actuator and drive control, each actuator being associated with a plurality of behaviors that each propose at least one action set; an arbiter for: (a) selecting, from amongst proposals provided by the behaviors, (i) the action set having highest priority from amongst the plurality of action sets, each action set characterized by a priority and comprising a plurality of alternative actions ranked according to a corresponding plurality of preferences, and (ii) an alternative action, from the selected action set, having highest corresponding preference, and (b) modifying the selected alternative action based on an environmental condition around the vehicle; and a controller in communication with the arbiter and the actuators for operating the actuators in accordance with the modified selected alternative action.