I run a robotics company and we tend to do the same, namely using agent terminology.<p>This does indeed not preclude new methods. SLAM is of course what everybody uses in autonomous robotics. But you also have reinforcement learning and imitation learning and a wide diversity of representations and models from DEC-POMDPs to Bayesian models to neural nets. Each time you&#x27;ll need somehow to decompose into modules, units, etc. Agents represent something in the real world and are often the right term for a module that has (virtual) sensors and actuators.<p>Apart from that I would recommend to focus on something, so you can really excel in that part of AI.<p>We have chosen &quot;understanding where an AI is located in the real world&quot; as our main goal. I can imagine there is something similar you would like to achieve for AI.<p>Just my two cents! Good luck!!!