This paper describes a design study for a variant of the 'Attention Filter Penetration' (AFP) three layer architecture (Sloman, 2000). In an AFP architecture, the activities of an agent are distributed across three concurrently executing layers: a reactive layer in which detection of internal or external conditions immediately generates new internal or external response, a deliberative layer responsible for 'what if reasoning and planning capabilities, and a meta-management layer which provides self monitoring, self evaluation and self-redirection including control of attention. Our design is based on two main assumptions: that deliberation (and meta-deliberation or management) is the technique of last resort for an agent, and is only used when no reactive behaviour is clearly applicable in a given situation; and deliberation is just something that some reactive systems do. The paper attempts to identify those parts of the design which seem fairly uncontroversial, and to highlight those issues which have yet to be resolved.
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