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The Right Agent (Architecture) to Do the Right Thing

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Intelligent Agents V: Agents Theories, Architectures, and Languages (ATAL 1998)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1555))

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Abstract

Academic and industrial system designers who consider using agent technology to solve an application problem are faced with a wide variety of agent paradigms: There are deliberative agents, reactive agents, interacting agents, hybrid agents, layered agents, believable agents, mobile agents, software agents, softbots — the list could well be prolonged. Also, within each paradigm, the user can select between different architectures and systems, making the actual choice a complex and difficult endeavor.

The objective of this paper is to assist readers in deciding which agent architecture to choose for a specific application. We approach this objective in three steps. First, we identify application areas for agent technology starting from the examples presented in the first part of this paper. Then, based on the characteristics of different classes of applications identified in the first step, we propose a classification of agents according to different classes of applications. Based on this classification, the third step is to provide rules of thumb to help a software engineer or system designer decide which agent architecture (or which class thereof) is likely to be appropriate for a certain class of applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, USA

    Jörg P. Müller

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  1. Jörg P. Müller
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  1. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., International House, Ealing, London, W5 5DB, UK

    Jörg P. Müller

  2. Mitchell Madison Group, Level 49, 120 Collins St., Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia

    Anand S. Rao

  3. Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695-8206, USA

    Munindar P. Singh

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Müller, J.P. (1999). The Right Agent (Architecture) to Do the Right Thing. In: Müller, J.P., Rao, A.S., Singh, M.P. (eds) Intelligent Agents V: Agents Theories, Architectures, and Languages. ATAL 1998. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1555. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49057-4_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49057-4_14

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