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The Trend Towards Agent Technology

• independence, which means the software can work flexibly, adjusting to circumstances without detailed instructions from a user.
• mobility, which means the software can execute tasks on other computers where it transfers (migrates) over a network.

Agent independence is a quality whereby an agent works by judging the situations in which it is placed. The agent, instead of the user, monitors specific events and executes tasks in accordance with those events. If necessary, an agent works with other programs to perform processing, and can also send or receive mail. Since each agent is highly independent and the applications that an agent works with can be determined at run-time, agents enable dynamic system alteration and expansion. For example, if an agent that provides some feature is not running, other agents can be combined to provide the feature.

Agent mobility

Agent mobility is a quality whereby an agent can transfer (migrate) to another computer on a network and execute on that computer while retaining the contents of the processing and data. When you create your own agent and have it migrate to a server, the agent allows you to efficiently execute optional facilities. When an agent executes on a server, client/server communications are dispensed with, so the system can be operational even on a network that is slow to process or on a portable terminal unable to communicate all the time.

Fields that efficiently use agent features

Agent features are particularly suitable for the following fields and activities.

• Automating regular work
• Configuring systems in environments where the system configuration and functions often change
• Systems in which multiple programs work together to provide functions
• Applications on different types of machines in a WAN (wide area network)
• Applications customized for individuals

• System network management
• E-mail and workflow management
• Automatic collecting of information, filtering information, and retrieving information
• Electronic libraries and electronic business transactions

The trend towards agent technology is described here using the main agent systems. As these agent systems are not exclusive, systems might overlap.

Multi-agent system

In a multi-agent system, agents work together to resolve problems. Multi- agent systems have been studied chiefly in relation to decentralized artificial intelligence systems. For communication among agents, many corporations and universities throughout the world use KQML (Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language), which was developed in the United States, in the DARPA Knowledge Sharing Effort project (KSE). Reseachers are also investigating intelligent agents that can make inferences and learn.

Mobile agent system

Mobile agent systems have attracted attention due to their high mobility, which allow applications to achieve stable performance in a WAN. The most popular mobile agent is Telescript from General Magic. Telescript, which was originally developed for electronic business transactions via ordinary telephone lines, provides a development environment in which Java can be used to code mobile agents. (The Java language was developed by Sun Microsystems Ltd., and is well-known as the language for expanding WWW capabilities.)

Interface agent

An interface agent enables a user to operate a computer easily and efficiently. One of the interface agent functions is to perform everyday work for a user, such as classifying mail, circulating documents, or retrieving information. This agent can learn from previous user operations and then guide or advise the user on how to operate the computer. The interface agent also presents a person-like interface to take the psychological pressures out of using the computer. It displays a person-like interface using multi-mode input and output operations with sound and visuals. The user can enter jobs interactively by carrying on dialogues with the computer system.

Agents have been used in groupware mainly for the following tasks.

Assisting individuals in their work

Embedded agents are widely used to perform repetitious jobs such as classifying mail.

Developing monitoring applications

Agents have been used to develop applications that can monitor the status of entities such as databases, and process according to that status.

Reference

Comm. ACM, Special Issue on Intelligent Agents, Vol. 37, No. 7, 1994.