1 / 17

Processes

Processes. Chapter 3. Part IV Software Agents. Software Agents. There is a lot of controversy on what a software agent is Getting increasingly important in distributed systems. Broad Definition. A software agent is an autonomous process that can: React to and Initiate changes in

caroline-lukas
Download Presentation

Processes

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Processes Chapter 3 Part IV Software Agents

  2. Software Agents • There is a lot of controversy on what a software agent is • Getting increasingly important in distributed systems

  3. Broad Definition • A software agent is an autonomous process that can: • React to and • Initiatechanges in • its environment (possibly) by collaboration with other agents or users

  4. Characterization of Agents - Collaborative • Multi-agent systems: a collection of agents that collaborate to a achieve a common goal • Collaborative agent: part of a multi-agent system • Cooperation and autonomy • Examples: • Agents for meeting arrangements • Agents for contract negotiation

  5. Characterization of Agents - Mobile • Mobile agent: can move between different places • Mainly require strong mobility • Can also be useful with weak mobility • Examples: • Agents that travel to extract information • BOTs

  6. Characterization of Agents - Interface • Interface agent: assists a user in the use of applications • Can learn through interaction with users • Examples: • Agents for contract negotiation • Agents for match-making

  7. Characterization of Agents - Information • Information agent: manages information from different resources • Order, filter, can collate information • Examples: • email agent • Agents for monitoring Web sites

  8. Software Agents in Distributed Systems • Some important properties by which different types of agents can be distinguished.

  9. Agent Technology • Separate general (common) components between different agents into a separate layer • FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents) is working on such a generic model

  10. FIPA agent platform • The general model of an agent platform (adapted from [fipa98-mgt]).

  11. Management Component • Keeps track of agents • Provides facilities for managing agents: • Create • Delete • Lookup (naming and locating agents)

  12. Directory Service • Yellow pages for agents: • Lookup agents by attributes • Can be accessed by remote agents (those sitting on a different platform)

  13. Agent Communication Channel • Agents (mainly) communicate by messages • ACC looks after (inter-platform) communication between agents • Can be implemented as a communication server

  14. Agent Communication Language • Agents communicate through an application-level communication protocol, called ACL • ACL separates the purpose and content of a messages

  15. Purpose and Content of Messages • Examples of different message types in the FIPA ACL [fipa98-acl], giving the purpose of a message, along with the description of the actual message content.

  16. Application-Level Protocol • Agents must agree on an understanding of message purpose • Purpose of a message determines the reaction of the receiver

  17. Example Message • A simple example of a FIPA ACL message sent between two agents using Prolog to express genealogy information.

More Related