Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Software Agents and Soft Computing Towards Enhancing Machine Intelligence pp 59–78Cite as

Software agent technologies

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1198))

Abstract

It is by now a cliché that there is no one, universally accepted, definition of intelligent agent technology, but a number of loosely related techniques. Yet there are certain themes that appear common to agent-based systems, and, correspondingly, certain problems that must be addressed and overcome by all agent system builders. The aim of this paper is to briefly survey the tools and techniques that can be used to address these common issues, and that hence form a substrate for software agent systems. This paper begins with a review of agent communication languages, focusing particularly on the emerging standard known as KQML. Then a thumbnail sketch of various programming languages for building agent-based systems is presented, and there follows a discussion on support for ontologies, which allow agents to communicate using commonly defined terms and concepts. Then other computing infrastructure support for agent-based systems is considered, in particular, the use of client/server architectures and distributed object frameworks. Finally, some general comments and conclusions are presented.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Mayfield M, Labrou Y and Finin T: ‘Evaluation of KQML as an Agent Communication Language', in Wooldridge M, Mueller J P amd Tambe M (Eds): ‘Intelligent Agents II', Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 1037, Heidelberg, Springer Verlag (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Nwana H S: 'software Agents: An Overview', The Knowledge Engineering Review, 11, No 3 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Nwana H S and Ndumu D T: ‘An introduction to agent technology', BT Technol J, 14, No 4, pp 55–67 (October 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Nwana H S, Lee L, and Jennings N R: ‘Co-ordination in software agent systems', BT Technol J, 14, No 4, pp 79–88 (October 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Genesereth M R and Ketchpel S P: ‘Software Agents', Communications of the ACM, 37, No 7, pp 48–53 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Cohen P R and Levesque H J: ‘Communicative Actions for Artificial Agents', in Proceedings of the First International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, San Francisco, Cambridge, AAAI Press, pp 65–72 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Austin J L: ‘How to Do Things with Words', Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press (1962).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Searle J R: ‘Speech Acts', Cambridge, MA, Cambridge University Press (1969).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Neches R: ‘Overview of the DARPA Knowledge Sharing Effort', on http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/knowledge-sharing/papers/kse-overview.html (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Finin T, Fritzson R, McKay D and McEntire R: ‘KQML as an agent communication language', in Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), New York, ACM Press, (November 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Labrou Y and Finin T: ‘A Semantics Approach for KQML — a general purpose communication language for software agents', in Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM), New York, ACM Press, (November 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Finin T: ‘Agent Communication Languages: KQML and the Knowledge Sharing Effort', abstract, http://umbc.edu/∼finin (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Finin T, Weber J, Wiederhold G, Genesereth M, Fritzon R, McKay D, McGuire J, Pelavin R, Shapiro S and Beck C: 'specification of the KQML Agent-Communication Language', Draft (February 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Huhns M M: ‘KQML', Tutorial Notes, Tutorial F, Multi-Agent Systems Tools & Research Methods, International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, San Francisco (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  15. Cohen P R, Cheyer A, Wang M and Baeg S C: ‘An Open Agent Architecture', in Proceedings of AAAI Spring Symposium, California, AAAI Press (March 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  16. Wooldridge M and Jennings N: ‘Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice', The Knowledge Engineering Review, 10, No 2, pp 115–152 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Agha G: (1986), Actors: ‘A Model of Concurrent Computation in Distributed Systems', London, MIT Press (1986).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Shoham Y: ‘Agent-Oriented Programming', Artificial Intelligence, 60, No 1, pp 51–92 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  19. Thomas S R: ‘The PLACA Agent Programming Language', in Wooldridge M and Jennings N R (Eds): ‘Intelligent Agents — Theories, Architectures, and Languages', Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 890, Heidelberg, Springer Verlag (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Oustershout J K: ‘Tcl and the Tk Toolkit', New York, Addison Wesley (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  21. McCabe F G: ‘APRIL Reference Manual', Version 2.1, Department of Computer Science, Imperial College, London (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  22. McCabe F G and Clark K L: ‘APRIL — Agent PRocess Interaction Language', in Wooldridge M and Jennings N R (Eds): ‘Intelligent Agents — Theories, Architectures, and Languages', Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 890, Heidelberg, Springer Verlag (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Wavish P and Graham M: ‘A Situated Action Approach to Implementing Characters in Computer Games', Applied AI Journal, 10, No 1, pp 53–74 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Durfee E H, Lesser V R and Corkill D: ‘Coherent Cooperation among Communicating Problem Solvers', IEEE Transactions on Computers, C-36 No 11, pp 1275–1291 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Jennings N, Corera J M, Laresgoiti L, Mamdani E, Perriollat F, Skarek P amd Varga L: ‘Using ARCHON to Develop Real-World DAI Applications for Electricity Transportation and Particle Accelerator Control', IEEE Expert, Special Issue on Real-World Applications of DAI systems (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Rich, E and Knight, K. ‘Artificial Intelligence (Second Edition)', New York, McGraw Hill (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Guha R V and Lenat D B: ‘Enabling Agents to Work Together', Communications of the ACM, 37, No 7, pp 127–142 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  28. O'Brien P D and Wiegand M E: ‘Agents of Change in Business Process Management', BT Technol J, 14, No 4, pp 133–140 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  29. Genesereth M R and Fikes R E (Eds): ‘Knowledge Interchange Format', Version 3.0 Reference Manual, Computer Science Department, Stanford University, Technical Report Logic-92-1, also available from http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/knowledge-sharing/kif/ (March 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Gruber T R: ‘A Translation Approach to Portable Ontology Specifications', Knowledge Acquisition, 5, No 2, pp 199–220 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  31. Newell A: ‘The Knowledge Level', Artificial Intelligence, 18, pp 87–127 (1982).

    Google Scholar 

  32. MacGregor R: ‘The Evolving Technology of Classification-Based Knowledge Representation Systems', in Sowa J (Ed): ‘Principles of Semantic Networks: Explorations in the Representation of Knowledge', San Mateo, CA, Morgan Kaufmann (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Ontolingua: http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/knowledge-sharing/ontolingua/

    Google Scholar 

  34. Miller G A: ‘WordNet: A Lexical Database for English', Communications of the ACM, 38 No 11, pp 39–41 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  35. Lenat D B: ‘CYC: A Large-Scale Investment in Knowledge Infrastructure', Communications of the ACM, 38, No 11, pp 33–38 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Orfali R, Harkey D and Edwards J: ‘The Essential Distributed Object Survival Guide', New York, John Wiley & Sons (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  37. White J E: ‘Telescript Technology: The Foundation for the Electronic Market-place', White Paper, General Magic Inc, 2465 Latham Street, Mountain View, CA 94040 (1994).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intelligent System Research, Advanced Applications & Technology Department, BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath, IP5 7RE, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK

    H. S. Nwana

  2. Mitsubishi Electric Digital Library Group, 18th Floor, Centre Point, 103 New Oxford Street, WC1A 1EB, London, UK

    M. Wooldridge

Authors
  1. H. S. Nwana
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. Wooldridge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Hyacinth S. Nwana Nader Azarmi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Nwana, H.S., Wooldridge, M. (1997). Software agent technologies. In: Nwana, H.S., Azarmi, N. (eds) Software Agents and Soft Computing Towards Enhancing Machine Intelligence. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1198. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-62560-7_38

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-62560-7_38

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-62560-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68079-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation