A Review of Software Agents: An Empirical Study

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2002

As the field of agent-based computing has continued to develop, there have been several contributions to its theoretical underpinnings, and several others to supporting the efforts of practical systems development. Yet the connection between the two has been limited at best. In this paper we aim to address these limitations through a consideration of appropriate agent infrastructure that can support principled development of agent systems based on a strong conceptual framework. As well as a general discussion of infrastructure requirements in this context, we also describe the PARADIGMA implementation environment, based on the SMART agent framework, which represents our initial efforts in this direction.

This paper presents a practical application of an agent-based architecture which has been developed using the methodological framework defined by case-based reasoning systems. The deliberative agents developed within the framework of this research have been used to construct a multi-agent architecture used in an industrial application. The developed architecture is presented together with the results obtained.

Autonomous agents and multi- …, 1998

This paper provides an overview of research and development activities in the field of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. It aims to identify key concepts and applications, and to indicate how they relate to one-another. Some historical context to the field of agent-based computing is given, and contemporary research directions are presented. Finally, a range of open issues and future challenges are highlighted.

IEEE Distributed Systems Online, 2000

Intelligent agent and multiagent systems are an interesting, dynamic area of information technology. The usual focus of interest in MASs is their perceived high-level conceptual capabilities. However, many agent-related research projects, both academic and commercial, focus on software tools and their applications, and their number is growing. Software Agent-Based Applications, Platforms and Development Kits appeared just in time to provide a comprehensive overview of existing software agent development kits and environments and their applications.

Multiagent and Grid Systems, 2011

2001

ABSTRACT It is clear by now that the take-up of agent technologies and the wide use of such technologies in open environments depends on the provision of appropriate infrastructure to support the rapid development of applications. In this paper, we argue that the elements required for the development of infrastructure span three different fields, which, nevertheless, have a great degree of overlap.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2007

This paper presents a hybrid agents based architecture that uses casebased reasoning and case-based planning systems as reasoning mechanism in deliberative BDI agents to manage daily tasks and hardware devices on dynamic environments. This architecture is also founded on Ambient Intelligence, joining a set of technologies, such as radio frequency identification, wireless networks and wireless control devices, which can be implemented on a wide diversity of environments.

2000

is one of six departments that make up the School of Business at the University of Otago. The department offers courses of study leading to a major in Information Science within the BCom, BA and BSc degrees. In addition to undergraduate teaching, the department is also strongly involved in postgraduate research programmes leading to MCom, MA, MSc and PhD degrees. Research projects in spatial information processing, connectionist-based information systems, software engineering and software development, information engineering and database, software metrics, distributed information systems, multimedia information systems and information systems security are particularly well supported. The views expressed in this paper are not necessarily those of the department as a whole. The accuracy of the information presented in this paper is the sole responsibility of the authors. Copyright remains with the authors. Permission to copy for research or teaching purposes is granted on the condition that the authors and the Series are given due acknowledgment. Reproduction in any form for purposes other than research or teaching is forbidden unless prior written permission has been obtained from the authors. This paper represents work to date and may not necessarily form the basis for the authors' final conclusions relating to this topic. It is likely, however, that the paper will appear in some form in a journal or in conference proceedings in the near future. The authors would be pleased to receive correspondence in connection with any of the issues raised in this paper, or for subsequent publication details. Please write directly to the authors at the address provided below. (Details of final journal/conference publication venues for these papers are also provided on the Department's publications web pages: ). Any other correspondence concerning the Series should be sent to the DPS Coordinator.

2008

Many modern artificial intelligence (AI) systems, including both real physical robots and animat-based models are structured using intelligent agents. A key challenge for building large and complex AI systems is to manage the agent interactions in an appropriate architecture that supports complexity in a scalable and hierarchical manner. In this article we review various agent architectures for both physical and simulated robot systems, and show how appropriate agent communications protocols can be developed to support artificially intelligent systems based on communities of interacting agents. As well as reviewing some of the architectures and supporting software tools and technologies, we present our own ideas for a software architecture for managing intelligent agents. We emphasise the importance of being able to incrementally augment the set of agents as new ideas are developed. We describe how key activities such as agent navigation in physical and simulated spaces; agent communication; world state management and sensory integration all need to be managed in an appropriate framework to support individual agents that will take responsibility for tasks and goals.

2006

Envisions of future network enabled socio-technical systems are in focus of several international ongoing efforts by industry and academia. Different interest groups, e.g., the agent and the Grid computing communities, have to that end put forward several roadmaps. However, those roadmaps by and large presuppose a key role to be played by their favorite technologies. We propose another complementary approach with a focus on the requirements on the goal system (Network Enabled Capabilities) and a generic configurable framework to support design, implementation, monitoring, and maintenance of future dependable and secure sociotechnical systems. Our methodological approach is grounded on IEEE standards on software intensive systems and on own experiences in development of such systems. We propose the use of agent technologies foremost in requirement engineering and high-level design whence the implementation platform is in our cases preferably based on Service Oriented Architectures as in Grid computing.