Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Building intelligent collaborative interface agents with the ICAGENT development framework

  • Published:
Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper describes the implementation of intelligent collaborative interface agents using the intelligent collaborative agent (ICagent) development framework. In particular, the paper presents the implementation of a collaborative interface agent that acts as a tutor in the context of an educational software application. The agent deliberates socially with users following the SharedPlans model of collaborative activity. Social deliberation requires interface agents to make their desires and intentions clear to the application users, being in constant communication with them, to understand the context of their activity and to reconcile their own and users’ desires in the overall context of action. Reconciliation of users’ desires allows agents to recognize the situations where users need help. The paper briefly presents the ICagent development framework, describes the implementation of the interface agent, and discusses an example of the behavior of the agent during a collaboration session.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ahlberg, C., & Shneiderman, B. (1994). Visual information seeking: Tight coupling of dynamic query filters with starfield displays. In Human factors in computing systems: proceedings of the CHI ′94 conference. ACM, press, New York.

  2. Andre, E., & Rist, T. (2000). Presenting through performing: On the use of multiple lifelike characters in knowledge-based presentation systems. In Proceedings 2000 international conference on intelligent user interfaces (IUI′00) New Orleans, Louisiana, (pp. 1–8).

  3. Bratman M.E., Israel D.J. and Pollack M.E. (1988). Plans and resource-bounded practical reasoning. Computational Intelligence 4(3): 349–355

    Google Scholar 

  4. Castelfranchi, C., & Falcone, R. (1998). Principles of trust for MAS: Cognitive anatomy, social importance, and quantification. In Proceedings of the third international conference on multi agent systems, IEEE.

  5. Cohen P. and Levesque H. (1991). Teamwork. Nous 25: 487–512

    Google Scholar 

  6. Davies, J., Gertner, A., Lesh, N., Rich, C., Rickel, J., & Sidner, C. (2001). Incorporating tutorial strategies into an intelligent assistant. In Proceedings of intelligent user interfaces.

  7. de Rosis, F., De Carolis, B., & Pizzutilo S. (1999). Software documentation with animated agents. In 5th ERCIM Workshop on ‘user interfaces for all’. Dagstuhl.

  8. Delisle, S., & Moulin, B. (2002). User interfaces and help systems: From helplessness to intelligent assistance. In Artificial intelligence review. (pp. 117–157). Kluwer Academic Publishers.

  9. Dimitracopoulou, A., Komis, V., Apostolopoulos P., & Politis, P. (1999). Design Principles of a new modeling environment supporting various types of reasoning and interdisciplinary approaches. In Proceedings of 9th international conference of artificial intelligence in education: Open learning environments – new computational technologies to support learning, exploration and collaboration, (pp. 109–112). IOS Press Ohmsha.

  10. Garland, A., Lesh, N., & Rich, C. (2003) Responding to and recovering from mistakes during collaboration. In Proceedings of IJCAI-03 workshop on mixed-initiative intelligent systems.

  11. Goodman, B., Soller, A., Linton, F., & Gaimari, R. (1997). Encouraging student reflection and articulation using a learning companion. In Proceedings of the 8th world conference on artificial intelligence in education, (pp. 151–158). Kobe, Japan.

  12. Grosz B. (1996). Collaborative systems. 1994 AAAI Presidential Address 2(17): 67–85

    Google Scholar 

  13. Grosz B.J. and Kraus S. (1996). Collaborative plans for complex group action. Artificial Intelligence 86: 269–357

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Horvitz, E. (1999). Principles of mixed-initiative user interfaces. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI 1999, (pp. 159–166) ACM Press, NY.

  15. Kourakos-Mavromichalis, V., & Vouros, G. (2001). Balancing between reactivity and deliberation in the ICAGENT framework. In Balancing reactivity and social deliberation in multi-agent systems, LNCS (pp. 53–75). Springer-Verlag.

  16. Lesh, N., Rich, C., & Sidner, C. (1999). Using plan recognition in human–computer collaboration. In Proceedings of the seventh international conference on user modeling (pp. 23–32).

  17. Lieberman, H. (1997). Autonomous interface agents. Proceedings of CHI. (pp. 67–74). ACM press.

  18. . Maes, P. (1994). Modeling adaptive autonomous agents. In C. Langton, (Ed.), Artificial Life Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 & 2, (pp. 135–162), MIT Press

  19. Negroponte, N. (1970). The architecture machine; Towards a more human environment. MIT Press.

  20. Ortiz C. and Grosz B. (2002). Interpreting information requests in context: A collaborative web interface for distance learning. Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 5: 429–465

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Ragnemalm, E. (1996). Collaborative Dialogue with a learning companion as source of information on student reasoning. In Proceedings of ITS, Montreal, (pp. 12–14), Springer-Verlag.

  22. Rich C. and Sidner C. (1998). COLLAGEN: A collaboration manager for software interface agents. User modeling and user-adapted interaction, Special Issue on Computational Models for Mixed Initiative Interaction 8(3–4): 315–350

    Google Scholar 

  23. Rich, C., Sidner, C., & Lesh, N. (2001). COLLAGEN: Applying collaborative discourse theory to human–computer interaction. In AI Magazine, Special Issue on Intelligent User Interfaces.

  24. Rickel, J., Lesh, N., Rich, C., Sidner, C., & Gertner, A. (2001). Using a model of collaborative dialogue to teach procedural tasks. In Proceedings of AIED-2001, workshop on Tutorial Dialog Systems.

  25. Rickel, J., Lesh, N., Sidner, C., & Gertner, A. (2001). Building a bridge between intelligent tutoring and collaborative dialogue systems. In Proceedings of Tenth International Conference on AI in Education.

  26. Selker T. (1994). Coach: A teaching agent that learns. Communications of the ACM 37(7): 92–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Shneiderman, B., & Maes, P. (1997). Direct manipulation vs. interface agents, excerpts from the debates at IUI 97 and CHI 97. Interactions, ACM, IV.6, (November + December), 42–61.

  28. Shneiderman, B. (1997). Direct manipulation for comprehensible, predictable and controllable user interfaces. In Proceedings of intelligent user interfaces (ACM).

  29. Sonenberg, E., Tidhar, G., Werner, E., Kinny, D., Ljungberg, M., & Rao, A. (1994). Planned team activity. In Articial Social Systems, Lecture Notes in Articial Intelligence (LNAI-830) (pp. 227–256), Springer-Verlag.

  30. Wooldridge M. and Jennings N. (1999). The cooperative problem solving process. Journal of Logic and Computation 9(4): 563–592

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, University of the Aegean, Karlovassi, Samos, Greece

    Vangelis Kourakos Mavromichalis & George Vouros

Authors
  1. Vangelis Kourakos Mavromichalis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. George Vouros
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to George Vouros.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mavromichalis, V.K., Vouros, G. Building intelligent collaborative interface agents with the ICAGENT development framework. Auton Agent Multi-Agent Syst 13, 155–195 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-006-6212-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-006-6212-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation