Also known as intelligent software agents or just agents, this area of AI research deals with simple applications of small programs that aid the user in his/her work. They can be mobile (able to stop their execution on one machine and resume it on another) or static (live in one machine). They are usually specific to the task (and therefore fairly simple) and meant to help the user much as an assistant would. The most popular (ie. widely known) use of this type of application to date are the web robots that many of the indexing engines (eg. webcrawler) use.
This package synthesizes two well-known agent paradigms: Agent-Oriented Programming, Shoham (1990), and the Knowledge Query & Manipulation Language, Finin (1993). The initial implementation of AOP, Agent-0, is a simple language for specifying agent behaviour. KQML provides a standard language for inter-agent communication. Our integration (which we have called Agent-K) demonstrates that Agent-0 and KQML are highly compatible. Agent-K provides the possibility of inter-operable (or open) software agents, that can communicate via KQML and which are programmed using the AOP approach.
The Agent is a prototype for an Information Agent system. It is both platform and language independent, as it stores contained information in simple packed strings. It can be packed and shipped across any network with any format, as it freezes itself in its current state.
A transportable agent is a program that can migrate from machine to machine in a heterogeneous network. The program chooses when and where to migrate. It can suspend its execution at an arbitrary point, transport to another machine and resume execution on the new machine. For example, an agent carrying a mail message migrates first to a router and then to the recipient's mailbox. The agent can perform arbitrarily complex processing at each machine in order to ensure that the message reaches the intended recipient.
An aglet is a Java object that can move from one host on the Internet to another. That is, an aglet that executes on one host can suddenly halt execution, dispatch to a remote host, and resume execution there. When the aglet moves, it takes along its program code as well as its state (data). A built-in security mechanism makes it safe for a computer to host untrusted aglets. The Java Aglet API (J-AAPI) is a proposed public standard for interfacing aglets and their environment. J-AAPI contains methods for initializing an aglet, message handling, and dispatching, retracting, deactivating/activating, cloning, and disposing of the aglet. J-AAPI is simple, flexible, and stable. Application developers can write platform-independent aglets and expect them to run on any host that supports J-AAPI.
Ara is a platform for the portable and secure execution of mobile agents in heterogeneous networks. Mobile agents in this sense are programs with the ability to change their host machine during execution while preserving their internal state. This enables them to handle interactions locally which otherwise had to be performed remotely. Ara's specific aim in comparison to similar platforms is to provide full mobile agent functionality while retaining as much as possible of established programming models and languages.
JAFMAS provides a framework to guide the coherent development of multiagent systems along with a set of classes for agent deployment in Java. The framework is intended to help beginning and expert developers structure their ideas into concrete agent applications. It directs development from a speech-act perspective and supports multicast and directed communication, KQML or other speech-act performatives and analysis of multiagent system coherency and consistency.
Only four of the provided Java classes must be extended for any application. Provided examples of the N-Queens and Supply Chain Integration use only 567 and 1276 lines of additional code respectively for implementation.
JATLite is providing a set of java packages which makes easy to build multi-agent systems using Java. JATLite provides only light-weight, small set of packages so that the developers can handle all the packages with little efforts. For flexibility JATLite provides four different layers from abstract to Router implementation. A user can access any layer we are providing. Each layer has a different set of assumptions. The user can choose an appropriate layer according to the assumptions on the layer and user's application. The introduction page contains JATLite features and the set of assumptions for each layer.
The JAT provides a fully functional template, written entirely in the Java language, for constructing software agents which communicate peer-to-peer with a community of other agents distributed over the Internet. Although portions of the code which define each agent are portable, JAT agents are not migratory but rather have a static existence on a single host. This behavior is in contrast to many other "agent" technologies. (However, using the Java RMI, JAT agents could dynamically migrate to a foreign host via an agent resident on that host). Currently, all agent messages use KQML as a top-level protocol or message wrapper. The JAT includes functionality for dynamically exchanging "Resources", which can include Java classes (e.g. new languages and interpreters, remote services, etc.), data files and information inlined into the KQML messages.
Java-To-Go is an experimental infrastructure that assists in the development and experimentation of mobile agents and agent-based applications for itinerative computing (itinerative computing: the set of applications that requires site-to-site computations. The main emphasis here is on a easy-to-setup environment that promotes quick experimentation on mobile agents.
Kafka is yet another agent library designed for constructing multi-agent based distributed applications. Kafka is a flexible, extendable, and easy-to-use java class library for programmers who are familiar with distributed programming. It is based on Java's RMI and has the following added features:
Khepera Simulator is a public domain software package written by Olivier MICHEL during the preparation of his Ph.D. thesis, at the Laboratoire I3S, URA 1376 of CNRS and University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France. It allows to write your own controller for the mobile robot Khepera using C or C++ languages, to test them in a simulated environment and features a nice colorful X11 graphical interface. Moreover, if you own a Khepera robot, it can drive the real robot using the same control algorithm. It is mainly oriented toward to researchers studying autonomous agents.
Mole is an agent system supporting mobile agents programmed in Java. Mole's agents consist of a cluster of objects, which have no references to the outside, and as a whole work on tasks given by the user or another agent. They have the ability to roam a network of "locations" autonomously. These "locations" are an abstraction of real, existing nodes in the underlying network. They can use location-specific resources by communicating with dedicated agents representing these services. Agents are able to use services provided by other agents and to provide services as well.
Odyssey is General Magic's initial implementation of mobile agents in 100% pure Java. The Odyssey class libraries enable you to develop your own mobile agent applications. Use mobile agents to access data, make decisions and notify users. Your agent-enabled applications may also take full advantage of the Java platform and use other third party libraries, for example, to access remote CORBA objects or to access relational databases using JDBC. To see how it's done, take a look at the sample applications included as part of the Odyssey download.
Penguin is a Perl 5 module. It provides you with a set of functions which allow you to:
SimRobot is a program for simulation of sensor based robots in a 3D environment. It is written in C++, runs under UNIX and X11 and needs the graphics toolkit XView.
TclRobots is a programming game, similar to 'Core War'. To play TclRobots, you must write a Tcl program that controls a robot. The robot's mission is to survive a battle with other robots. Two, three, or four robots compete during a battle, each running different programs (or possibly the same program in different robots.) Each robot is equipped with a scanner, cannon, drive mechanism. A single match continues until one robot is left running. Robots may compete individually, or combine in a team oriented battle. A tournament can be run with any number of robot programs, each robot playing every other in a round-robin fashion, one-on-one. A battle simulator is available to help debug robot programs.
The TclRobots program provides a physical environment, imposing certain game parameters to which all robots must adhere. TclRobots also provides a view on a battle, and a controlling user interface. TclRobots requirements: a wish interpreter built from Tcl 7.4 and Tk 4.0.
An agent is a process that may migrate through a computer network in order to satisfy requests made by clients. Agents are an attractive way to describe network-wide computations.
The TACOMA project focuses on operating system support for agents and how agents can be used to solve problems traditionally addressed by operating systems. We have implemented a series of prototype systems to support agents.
TACOMA Version 1.2 is based on UNIX and TCP. The system supports agents written in C, Tcl/Tk, Perl, Python, and Scheme (Elk). It is implemented in C. This TACOMA version has been in public domain since April 1996.
We are currently focusing on heterogeneity, fault-tolerance, security and management issues. Also, several TACOMA applications are under construction. We implemented StormCast 4.0, a wide-area network weather monitoring system accessible over the internet, using TACOMA and Java. We are now in the process of evaluating this application, and plan to build a new StormCast version to be completed by June 1997.
(Tcl/Tk)
The motivation of the Virtual Secretary project is to construct user-model-based intelligent software agents, which could in most cases replace human for secretarial tasks, based on modern mobile computing and computer network. The project includes two different phases: the first phase (ViSe1) focuses on information filtering and process migration, its goal is to create a secure environment for software agents using the concept of user models; the second phase (ViSe2) concentrates on agents' intelligent and efficient cooperation in a distributed environment, its goal is to construct cooperative agents for achieving high intelligence. (Implemented in Tcl/TclX/Tix/Tk)
Vworld is a simulated environment for research with autonomous agents written in prolog. It is currently in something of an beta stage. It works well with SWI-prolog, but should work with Quitnus-prolog with only a few changes. It is being designed to serve as an educational tool for class projects dealing with prolog and autonomous agents. It comes with three demo worlds or environments, along with sample agents for them. There are two versions now. One written for SWI-prolog and one written for LPA-prolog. Documentation is roughly done (with a student/professor framework in mind), and a graphical interface is planned.
WebMate is a personal agent for World-Wide Web browsing and searching. It accompanies you when you travel on the internet and provides you what you want.
Features include: