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Today´s lecture

14:15 Agent Technologies by Ismar Slomic

15:15 Practical Architecture Work at Telenor by Jan Øyvind Aagedal

16:15 Group exercise is cancelled, send email if help needed

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(Multi) Agent Software Technologies

Ismar SlomicSINTEF ICT

21. April 08

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The Adequacy Hypothesis

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Agent-oriented approaches can significantly enhance

our ability to model, design and build complex

(distributed) software systems

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What is an Agent?

“encapsulated computer system, situated in some environment, and capable of flexible autonomous action in that environment

in order to meet its design objectives” (Wooldridge)

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Example: BigDog – might be implemented by agent(s)

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What is an Agent?

“encapsulated computer system, situated in some environment, and capable of flexible autonomous

action in that environment in order to meet its design objectives” (Wooldridge)

• control over internal state and over own behaviour

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From Objects to Agents

autonomous

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What is an Agent?

“encapsulated computer system, situated in some environment, and capable of flexible autonomous

action in that environment in order to meet its design objectives” (Wooldridge)

• control over internal state and over own behavior• experiences environment through sensors and acts

through effectors

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From Objects to Agents

autonomousinteracting

Object Request BrokerObject Request Broker

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What is an Agent?

“encapsulated computer system, situated in some environment, and capable of flexible autonomous

action in that environment in order to meet its design objectives” (Wooldridge)

• control over internal state and over own behavior• experiences environment through sensors and acts

through effectors• reactive: respond in timely fashion to environmental

change

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From Objects to Agents

autonomousinteracting

reactive

Object Request BrokerObject Request Broker

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What is an Agent?

“encapsulated computer system, situated in some environment, and capable of flexible autonomous

action in that environment in order to meet its design objectives” (Wooldridge)

• control over internal state and over own behavior• experiences environment through sensors and acts

through effectors• reactive: respond in timely fashion to environmental

change• proactive: act in anticipation of future goals

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From Objects to Agents

autonomousinteracting

reactivepro-active

Object Request BrokerObject Request Broker

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What is an Agent?Weak Notion Stronger Notion Other

of Agency of Agency Properties

Autonomy Knowledge/Beliefs Rational

Social Ability Intentions Truthful

Reactivity Desires/Goals Benevolent

Pro-Activeness Obligations Mobile

Capabilities Emotional

Weak Notion Stronger Notion Other of Agency of Agency Properties

Autonomy Knowledge/Beliefs Rational

Social Ability Intentions Truthful

Reactivity Desires/Goals Benevolent

Pro-Activeness Obligations Mobile

Capabilities Emotional

Because the concept of goals is frequently adopted in a business context as well as in service-oriented architectures, it is clear that we need to deal with the strong notion of agency.

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Platform independent model for multi-agents (PIM4MAS)

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Agent aspect

Agent has access to a set of Resources from its surrounding environment. It can perform particular Roles and Behaviors

Agent may have certain Capabilities that represent the set of Behaviors the Agent can possess

Agent could be member in an Organization that represents the social structure agents can take part in

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Organization aspect

Organization is a special kind of Cooperation Therefore the Organization can perform Roles and have Capabilities which can

be performed by its members, be it agents or suborganizations Multiple inheritance of the Organization, from the Agent and the Cooperation,

also allows it to have its own internal Protocol that specifies how the Organization coordinates its members

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Behavioural aspect

Behavior refers to a set of Flows that could be either of the type InformationFlow or ControlFlow

Behaviour contains a set of Steps (i.e. StructuredSteps and Tasks) that are linked to each other via a Flow.

Plans could either be composed by more complex control structures (i.e. Scope) or by simple atomic activities (i.e. Task)

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Role aspect

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Interaction aspect

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PIM to PSM

JACK Metamodel

JADE metamodel

JADE metamodel

PIM4MAS

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References

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http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog (BigDog)

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/str/descriptions/orb.html (ORB)

http://www.agent-software.com/ (JACK)