scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

Software agents: an overview

01 Sep 1996-Knowledge Engineering Review (Cambridge University Press)-Vol. 11, Iss: 03, pp 205-244
TL;DR: This overview paper presents a typology of agents, places agents in context, defines them and goes on, inter alia, to overview critically the rationales, hypotheses, goals, challenges and state-of-the-art demonstrators of the various agent types in this typology.
Abstract: Agent software is a rapidly developing area of research. However, the overuse of the word ‘agent’ has tended to mask the fact that, in reality, there is a truly heterogeneous body of research being carried out under this banner. This overview paper presents a typology of agents. Next, it places agents in context, defines them and then goes on, inter alia, to overview critically the rationales, hypotheses, goals, challenges and state-of-the-art demonstrators of the various agent types in our typology. Hence, it attempts to make explicit much of what is usually implicit in the agents literature. It also proceeds to overview some other general issues which pertain to all the types of agents in the typology. This paper largely reviews software agents, and it also contains some strong opinions that are not necessarily widely accepted by the agent community.

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

Citations
More filters
Book
31 Jul 2000
TL;DR: This is the first comprehensive introduction to multiagent systems and contemporary distributed artificial intelligence and will be a useful reference not only for computer scientists and engineers, but for social scientists and management and organization scientists as well.
Abstract: From the Publisher: This is the first comprehensive introduction to multiagent systems and contemporary distributed artificial intelligence. The book provides detailed coverage of basic topics as well as several closely related ones and is suitable as a textbook. The book can be used for teaching as well as self-study, and it is designed to meet the needs of both researchers and practitioners. In view of the interdisciplinary nature of the field, it will be a useful reference not only for computer scientists and engineers, but for social scientists and management and organization scientists as well.

3,090 citations

Book
02 Apr 2007
TL;DR: JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) is a software framework to make easy the development of multi-agent applications in compliance with the FIPA specifications and can be considered a middle-ware that implements an efficient agent platform and supports theDevelopment of multi agent systems.
Abstract: JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) is a software framework to make easy the development of multi-agent applications in compliance with the FIPA specifications. JADE can then be considered a middle-ware that implements an efficient agent platform and supports the development of multi agent systems. JADE agent platform tries to keep high the performance of a distributed agent system implemented with the Java language. In particular, its communication architecture tries to offer flexible and efficient messaging, transparently choosing the best transport available and leveraging state-of-the-art distributed object technology embedded within Java runtime environment. JADE uses an agent model and Java implementation that allow good runtime efficiency, software reuse, agent mobility and the realization of different agent architectures.

2,353 citations


Cites background from "Software agents: an overview"

  • ...It is because they offer the high-level software abstractions needed to manage complex applications and because they were invented to cope with distribution and interoperability [2,9,12,19,24,36]....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The goal in this paper is to introduce and motivate a methodology, called Tropos, for building agent oriented software systems, based on the notion of agent and all related mentalistic notions, formalized in a metamodel described with a set of UML class diagrams.
Abstract: Our goal in this paper is to introduce and motivate a methodology, called Tropos,1 for building agent oriented software systems. Tropos is based on two key ideas. First, the notion of agent and all related mentalistic notions (for instance goals and plans) are used in all phases of software development, from early analysis down to the actual implementation. Second, Tropos covers also the very early phases of requirements analysis, thus allowing for a deeper understanding of the environment where the software must operate, and of the kind of interactions that should occur between software and human agents. The methodology is illustrated with the help of a case study. The Tropos language for conceptual modeling is formalized in a metamodel described with a set of UML class diagrams.

1,852 citations


Cites methods from "Software agents: an overview"

  • ...While we assume the classical AI definition of software agent, that is, a software having properties such as autonomy, social ability, reactivity, proactivity, as given, for instance in [24], in Tropos we define a role as an abstract characterization of the behavior of a social actor within some specialized context or domain of endeavor, and a position BRESCIANI ET AL....

    [...]

Book
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: This second edition has been completely revised, capturing the tremendous developments in multiagent systems since the first edition appeared in 1999.
Abstract: Multiagent systems are made up of multiple interacting intelligent agents -- computational entities to some degree autonomous and able to cooperate, compete, communicate, act flexibly, and exercise control over their behavior within the frame of their objectives They are the enabling technology for a wide range of advanced applications relying on distributed and parallel processing of data, information, and knowledge relevant in domains ranging from industrial manufacturing to e-commerce to health care This book offers a state-of-the-art introduction to multiagent systems, covering the field in both breadth and depth, and treating both theory and practice It is suitable for classroom use or independent study This second edition has been completely revised, capturing the tremendous developments in multiagent systems since the first edition appeared in 1999 Sixteen of the book's seventeen chapters were written for this edition; all chapters are by leaders in the field, with each author contributing to the broad base of knowledge and experience on which the book rests The book covers basic concepts of computational agency from the perspective of both individual agents and agent organizations; communication among agents; coordination among agents; distributed cognition; development and engineering of multiagent systems; and background knowledge in logics and game theory Each chapter includes references, many illustrations and examples, and exercises of varying degrees of difficulty The chapters and the overall book are designed to be self-contained and understandable without additional material Supplemental resources are available on the book's Web site Contributors:Rafael Bordini, Felix Brandt, Amit Chopra, Vincent Conitzer, Virginia Dignum, Jurgen Dix, Ed Durfee, Edith Elkind, Ulle Endriss, Alessandro Farinelli, Shaheen Fatima, Michael Fisher, Nicholas R Jennings, Kevin Leyton-Brown, Evangelos Markakis, Lin Padgham, Julian Padget, Iyad Rahwan, Talal Rahwan, Alex Rogers, Jordi Sabater-Mir, Yoav Shoham, Munindar P Singh, Kagan Tumer, Karl Tuyls, Wiebe van der Hoek, Laurent Vercouter, Meritxell Vinyals, Michael Winikoff, Michael Wooldridge, Shlomo Zilberstein

1,692 citations

Book
01 Jan 2001
TL;DR: This second editionsystematically introduces the notion of ontologies to the non-expert reader and demonstrates in detail how to apply this conceptual framework for improved intranet retrieval of corporate information and knowledge and for enhanced Internet-based electronic commerce.
Abstract: This second editionsystematically introduces the notion of ontologies to the non-expert reader and demonstrates in detail how to apply this conceptual framework for improved intranet retrieval of corporate information and knowledge and for enhanced Internet-based electronic commerce He also describes ontology languages (XML, RDF, and OWL) and ontology tools, and the application of ontologies In addition to structural improvements, the second edition covers recent developments relating to the Semantic Web, and emerging web-based standard languages

1,469 citations

References
More filters
Book
01 Jun 1991
TL;DR: A new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described, building a robust and flexible robot control system that has been used to control a mobile robot wandering around unconstrained laboratory areas and computer machine rooms.
Abstract: A new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described. Layers of control system are built to let the robot operate at increasing levels of competence. Layers are made up of asynchronous modules that communicate over low-bandwidth channels. Each module is an instance of a fairly simple computational machine. Higher-level layers can subsume the roles of lower levels by suppressing their outputs. However, lower levels continue to function as higher levels are added. The result is a robust and flexible robot control system. The system has been used to control a mobile robot wandering around unconstrained laboratory areas and computer machine rooms. Eventually it is intended to control a robot that wanders the office areas of our laboratory, building maps of its surroundings using an onboard arm to perform simple tasks.

7,759 citations


"Software agents: an overview" refers background or methods in this paper

  • ..., 1990), the contract network coordination approach (Smith, 1980; Davis & Smith, 1983), MAS/DAI planning and game theories (Rosenschein, 1985; Zlotkin & Rosenschein, 1989; Rosenschein & Zlotkin, 1994). These ‘macro’ aspects of agents as Gasser (1991) terms them, emphasises the society of agents over individual agents, while micro issues relate specifically to the latter. In any case, such issues are well summarised in Chaib-draa et al. (1992), Bond & Gasser (1988) and Gasser & Huhns (1989)....

    [...]

  • ...Hayes-Roth, B. (1995), “An Architecture for Adpative Intelligent Systems” , Artificial Intelligence 72 (1-2), 329-365....

    [...]

  • ...television, and retail firms would like to exploit agents to capture our program viewing and buying patterns respectively; computer firms are building the software and hardware tools and interfaces which would harbour numerous agents; Reinhardt (1994) reports that IBM plans (or may have already done) to launch a system, the IBM Communications Systems (ICS), which would use agents to deliver messages to mobile users in the form they want it, be it fax, speech or text, depending on the equipment the user is carrying at the time, e....

    [...]

  • ...Hayes-Roth, B. Brownston, L. & van Gent, R. (1995), “Multiagent Collaboration in Directed Improvisation” , In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS-95), San Francisco, USA, June, 148-153....

    [...]

  • ...Hayes-Roth’s (1995) integrated architecture for intelligent agents consists of two layers: the physical layer which performs perception-action coordination, i.e. it senses, interprets, filters and reacts to the dynamic environment in which the agent is embedded; the cognitive layer receives perceptual input from the physical controller to construct an evolving model, and to perform interpretation, reasoning and planning....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Mar 1986
TL;DR: In this paper, a new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described, which is made up of asynchronous modules that communicate over low-bandwidth channels, each module is an instance of a fairly simple computational machine.
Abstract: A new architecture for controlling mobile robots is described. Layers of control system are built to let the robot operate at increasing levels of competence. Layers are made up of asynchronous modules that communicate over low-bandwidth channels. Each module is an instance of a fairly simple computational machine. Higher-level layers can subsume the roles of lower levels by suppressing their outputs. However, lower levels continue to function as higher levels are added. The result is a robust and flexible robot control system. The system has been used to control a mobile robot wandering around unconstrained laboratory areas and computer machine rooms. Eventually it is intended to control a robot that wanders the office areas of our laboratory, building maps of its surroundings using an onboard arm to perform simple tasks.

7,291 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Agent theory is concerned with the question of what an agent is, and the use of mathematical formalisms for representing and reasoning about the properties of agents as discussed by the authors ; agent architectures can be thought of as software engineering models of agents; and agent languages are software systems for programming and experimenting with agents.
Abstract: The concept of an agent has become important in both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and mainstream computer science. Our aim in this paper is to point the reader at what we perceive to be the most important theoretical and practical issues associated with the design and construction of intelligent agents. For convenience, we divide these issues into three areas (though as the reader will see, the divisions are at times somewhat arbitrary). Agent theory is concerned with the question of what an agent is, and the use of mathematical formalisms for representing and reasoning about the properties of agents. Agent architectures can be thought of as software engineering models of agents;researchers in this area are primarily concerned with the problem of designing software or hardware systems that will satisfy the properties specified by agent theorists. Finally, agent languages are software systems for programming and experimenting with agents; these languages may embody principles proposed by theorists. The paper is not intended to serve as a tutorial introduction to all the issues mentioned; we hope instead simply to identify the most important issues, and point to work that elaborates on them. The article includes a short review of current and potential applications of agent technology.

6,714 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Lucy Suchman1
TL;DR: This paper presents a meta-modelling architecture for human-machine communication that automates the very labor-intensive and therefore time-heavy and therefore expensive and expensive process of designing and implementing communication systems.
Abstract: Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Interactive artefacts 3. Plans 4. Situated actions 5. Communicative resources 6. Case and methods 7. Human-machine communication 8. Conclusion References Indices.

5,784 citations

01 Jan 1988
TL;DR: Brooks et al. as mentioned in this paper decompose an intelligent system into independent and parallel activity producers which all interface directly to the world through perception and action, rather than interface to each other particularly much.
Abstract: Brooks, R.A., Intelligence without representation, Artificial Intelligence 47 (1991) 139159. Artificial intelligence research has foundered on the issue of representation. When intelligence is approached in an incremental manner, with strict reliance on interfacing to the real world through perception and action, reliance on representation disappears. In this paper we outline our approach to incrementally building complete intelligent Creatures. The fundamental decomposition of the intelligent system is not into independent information processing units which must interface with each other via representations. Instead, the intelligent system is decomposed into independent and parallel activity producers which all interface directly to the world through perception and action, rather than interface to each other particularly much. The notions of central and peripheral systems evaporateeverything is both central and peripheral. Based on these principles we have built a very successful series of mobile robots which operate without supervision as Creatures in standard office environments.

4,202 citations