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Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice

Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice
Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice
The concept of an agent has become important in both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and mainstream computer science. Our aim in this paper is to point the reader at what we perceive to be the most important theoretical and practical issues associated with the design and construction of intelligent agents. For convenience, we divide these issues into three areas (though as the reader will see, the divisions are at times somewhat arbitrary). Agent theory is concerned with the question of what an agent is, and the use of mathematical formalisms for representing and reasoning about the properties of agents. Agent architectures can be thought of as software engineering models of agents; researchers in this area are primarily concerned with the problem of designing software or hardware systems that will satisfy the properties specified by agent theorists. Finally, agent languages are software systems for programming and experimenting with agents; these languages may embody principles proposed by theorists. The paper is not intended to serve as a tutorial introduction to all the issues mentioned; we hope instead simply to identify the most important issues, and point to work that elaborates on them. The article includes a short review of current and potential applications of agent technology.
115-152
Wooldridge, M. J.
68e00b8d-2a43-4b5c-b0b9-329304892d9e
Jennings, N. R.
ab3d94cc-247c-4545-9d1e-65873d6cdb30
Wooldridge, M. J.
68e00b8d-2a43-4b5c-b0b9-329304892d9e
Jennings, N. R.
ab3d94cc-247c-4545-9d1e-65873d6cdb30

Wooldridge, M. J. and Jennings, N. R. (1995) Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 10 (2), 115-152.

Record type: Article

Abstract

The concept of an agent has become important in both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and mainstream computer science. Our aim in this paper is to point the reader at what we perceive to be the most important theoretical and practical issues associated with the design and construction of intelligent agents. For convenience, we divide these issues into three areas (though as the reader will see, the divisions are at times somewhat arbitrary). Agent theory is concerned with the question of what an agent is, and the use of mathematical formalisms for representing and reasoning about the properties of agents. Agent architectures can be thought of as software engineering models of agents; researchers in this area are primarily concerned with the problem of designing software or hardware systems that will satisfy the properties specified by agent theorists. Finally, agent languages are software systems for programming and experimenting with agents; these languages may embody principles proposed by theorists. The paper is not intended to serve as a tutorial introduction to all the issues mentioned; we hope instead simply to identify the most important issues, and point to work that elaborates on them. The article includes a short review of current and potential applications of agent technology.

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More information

Published date: 1995
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 252102
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/252102
PURE UUID: b186e158-f24a-4bd1-b064-6fa2b8b50e59

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Date deposited: 15 Dec 1999
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 05:16

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Contributors

Author: M. J. Wooldridge
Author: N. R. Jennings

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