intelligent agents: applications mgsc 497 chapter 19 4-22-98

Intelligent Agents: Applications

MgSc 497

Chapter 19

4-22-98

Intelligent Agents: Some Definitions

computer program which helps humans with routine computer tasks

advanced AI programs that function in specific environments to complete tasks

persistent software entity dedicated to a specific purpose

computational systems which inhabit an environment and sense and act autonomously in this environment

Intelligent Agents: “Softbots”

intelligent software robots--concept grew out of robotics

moving from the simulated, symbolic changes in artificial environments to the complexities of interacting with the physical world

software architecture which integrated reactions to the world with goal-based planning

Software Agents

grew out of a desire to develop smaller and more self-reliant code

programs running separately from the host environment, moving across networks to deliver information

JAVA and ActiveX are programming languages in which software could be developed in one place and ported to another

What Kind of Agents Exist in AI?

physical agents (robots) are located in places where humans find it difficult to go– outer space, depths of the ocean, hazardous

situations information agents travel the network or

interactive cyberspace worlds

What is an Autonomous Intelligent Agent?

Capable of acting on its own on the behalf of the user in pursuit of an agenda

will it pass the Turing test? is it software or something else? is it just a Web agent?

Components of an Agent

owner– user name, process name, master agent name

author– development owner, person or process

account– point of origin for the agent

Components of an Agent

goal– clear statement of successful task completion for

the agent subject description

– details of the goal’s attributes creation and duration background intelligent system

Simple vs. Intelligent Agents

a simple agent is given a task to complete and all the rules it needs to complete the task

an intelligent agent has the added capability of learning and the ability to exhibit autonomy (i.e., can take independent action)

Internet-based Software Agents

simple e-mail agents web-browing assistants

– ex: Letizia FAQ agents intelligent search agents (metasearch engines,

spiders, crawlers) network management and monitoring e-commerce agents

Characteristics of Intelligent Agents: Autonomy

goal-oriented– accepts high level requests from humans and decides how and

when to fill the request collaborative

– can modify requests, clarify requests or even refuse requests flexible

– modifies behavior when it encounters obstacles and in response to its environment

self-starting– can start in respsonse to a change in environment

Characteristics of Intelligent Agents

operates in the background designed to accomplish a single task communication with other agents automates repetitive tasks supports conditional processing capable of learning

Characteristics of Intelligent Agents:

reactive to changes in environment proactiveness temporal continuity (running continuously) personality (realistic human interface) mobility (can transport itself across

systems) Sounds like theperfect assistant!

Intelligent Agents: Applications

air traffic control air craft mission analysis control of telecommunications and network

systems transactions management in banks and

insurance companies supervision and control of manufacturing

environments

Intelligent Agents: Applications

provision and monitoring of medical care monitoring and control of industrial

processes on-line fault diagnosis and malfunction

handling

Intelligent Agents: Proposed Capabilities

reasoning and learning sensors interfacing with humans inter-agent communication

DARPA’s Intelligent Integration of Information Program

provide easy access to information in a form needed by end users and high level applications

intelligently reviewing, filtering, extracting, integrating, and abstracting information from the growing volume of data

this data is dynamically changing, inconsistent, incomplete, difficult to search

DARPA’s Intelligent Integration of Information Program (I*3)

data sources include knowledge bases, databases of all kinds, Web documents, text documents, graphics, videos, images

layer of information integration to buffer the user from this data

describes the content, format, location, and semantic meaning of the data

DARPA’s Intelligent Integration of Information Program

visit the site: http://dc.isx.com/I3/

I*3 Applications

air campaign planning tool– reduces planning time from 48 hours to 10

minutes advanced logistics program

– for moving resources in an efficient manner battlefield awareness engineering design

Other Agent Projects

Stanford’s ABE (Agent-Based Engineering Group)– how agent-based software can be applied to

engineering– design documentation, CAD applications

Lockheed Cosmos System Madefast

– collaborative design

JAVA Agent Template

fully functional template, written in JAVA used for constructing software agents which

have a peer-to-peer network of other agents distributed over the Internet

JAT agents have a static existence, living on one host, but they can immigrate

agents use KQML (Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language)

JAVA Agent Template

can be executed as standalone applications as applets using appletviewers will not work with Netscape Navigator

Other Agent Projects

Andersen Consulting, IBM, Lockheed http://bf.cstar.ac.com/bf/ http://www.agents-inc.com/ http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/

glinden/TravelSoftBot/ ATAInstructions.html

Other Agent Projects

intelligent browsers tracks user browser patterns and suggest shortcuts IBM Web Browsing Intelligence

– checks favorite pages and updates as needed LiveAgent

– lets users record their mouseclicks and keystrokes as they navigate the Web

– the recording becomes an agent

Other Agent Projects

Firefly– intelligent music recommendation service

ShopBot

Distributed Intelligent Agents

interface agents are single agents with simple knowledge and problem solving capabilities who perform information filtering and retrieval

softbots perform a wide range of user-delegated information finding tasks

mulitagent systems offer another alternative to access, filter, and integrate information

extends the concept of agent

Distributed Intelligent Agents

an agent’s user could be human or another agent

agents must be able to communicate with each other

open society of reusable agents who self-organize and cooperate in response to task requirements

Distributed Intelligent Agents: Architecture

planning module uses goals and produces a plan that satisfies the goals– uses a hierarchical planning method

communication and coordination modules accepts and interprets messages from other agents– e-mail is often used for communication– event notification services

Distributed Intelligent Agents: Architecture

scheduling module schedules each of the plan steps– a variety of scheduling heuristics can be used

execution monitoring process handles agent reactivity considerations– when an actions fails, an exception-handling

process takes over– ex: another agent doesn’t respond

Distributed Intelligent Agents: Architecture

belief and facts data structures contain facts and knowledge – ex: user profile

ex: an information agent is monitoring the Security APL Quote Server to watch the prices o IBM stock– it will periodically compare the price to a given

threshold at which it believes the user wants to sell

Distributed Intelligent Agents: Applications

organizational decision-making– e-mail filtering– calendar management– filtering news

more complex tasks– distributed, collaborative meeting schedules– finding information on the Internet– distributing relevant announcements about software,

grants, etc.

Distributed Intelligent Agents: Applications

financial portfolio management– multiple sources of information– multiple sources of expertise– user profile, status of user portfolio

Portfolio Management Agent

F u n d a m e n ta lA n a lys is

A g e n t

Technica l AnalysisA g e n t

B re a k in g N e w sA g e n t

A n a lys t T ra ck in gA g e n t

P o rtfo lio M a n ag erA g e n t

Earnings AnalystAgent

TickerTracker

MarketTracker

EconomicIndicatorTracker

SEC FilingsTracker

Distributed Intelligent Agents: Applications

one more application: energy management in Spain

Iberdrola, electric utility transport network contains 25,000 data

points 296 lines, 294 transformers, 939 breakers

Distributed Intelligent Agents: Applications

seven hetereogeneous agents on five different machines for an alarm-analysis expert system with service restoration

heterogeneous nature of the electrical network lent itself to distributed agent architecture

management of the network becomes much more complex during emergencies

Distributed Intelligent Agents: Applications

agent 1: breakers and relays supervisor agent 2: alarms analysis agent agent 3: blackout area identifier agent 4: service restoration agent 5: user interface agents 6 and 7: control system interface

More on Agents

http://aif.wu-wien.ac.at/usr/geyers/archive/iagents/vo/u1/unit/unit.html

http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/agents/ http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/agents/

projects/ http://trafficopter.www.media.mit.edu/

projects/trafficopter/ http://www.csee.umbc.edu/agents/

Managerial Issues

cost justification security privacy industrial intelligence and ethics agent learning agent accuracy and liability