In this slide what is an agent and types of artificial agents & concept of rationality in addition to classes of A.I

1. Introduction to Intelligent
Agents

2. Why study agents?
 Virtual Reality based games
 Analysis of business processes within and between
enterprises
 Searching internet for a specific query can be long
and tedious process, why not allow an agent to
handle it? Information filtering and gathering
 e-Commerce and electronic markets, where buyer
and seller agents buy and sell on behalf of users
 Optimization of industrial manufacturing and
production processes like shop floor scheduling or
supply chain management

3. What is an agent?
An agent is anything that can be viewed
as perceiving its environment through
sensors and acting upon that
environment through actuators.
AGENT
ENVIRONMENT
Action
Output
Sensor
Input

4. Examples of Agents
 Is a human an agent?
 Yes
 Is a robot an agent?
 Yes
 Is a software service an agent?
 Yes
 Software Daemons
 Thermostat

5. Types of agents
 Collaborative agent: Agent that forms
part of a multiagent system, where
agents can either seek a common goal
through collaboration
 Interface agents: Agents which assist
an end user in the use of one or more
applications. (Generally has learning
capabilities)

6. Types of agents
 Information agents: Agents which
manage information from various sources
e.g. filtering, ordering etc.
 Software agent: An autonomous
process capable of reacting to, and
initiating changes in, its environment,
possibly in collaboration with users and
other agents.

7. Definitions
 Environment: Different for different
kinds of agents
 Percepts: Input to the agent e.g.
information from our senses.
 Actuators: The means by which the
agent acts on the environment.

8. Properties of Agents
 Autonomy: Agents should work
independently without the intervention of any
other object that can be a human or another
agent. In this manner they have complete
control over their actions.
 Social Ability: Agents must have
mechanisms to communicate with other
objects (humans or agents) if they need to.
This property is of vital importance when we
talk about collaborative agents.

9. Properties of Agents
 Reactivity: Agents react to their environment. They
take input from their environments and take action
accordingly. If an agent lacks this property then it will
not be able to take timely actions and as a result of
which the main idea behind agency becomes
useless.
 Pro-Activeness: In some cases agents are so
programmed that they can take initiative by
themselves in order to achieve their objectives or to
move forward in that direction

10. Rationality
 The performance measure that defines
the criterion of success
 The agent’s knowledge of the
environment
 The actions that an agent can perform
 The agent’s percept sequence to date

11. Intelligent Agents
 Intelligent agents continuously perform
three functions: perception of dynamic
conditions in the environment; action to
affect conditions in the environment;
and reasoning to interpret perceptions,
solve problems, draw inferences, and
determine actions

12. Intelligent Agent Classes
 Logic Based Agents
 These agents do their decision making
through logical deduction
 Reactive Agents
 These agents do their decision making
through direct mapping from situation to
action.

13. Intelligent Agent Classes
 Layered Agents
 Agents of this class architecture do their
decision making via various layers, each of
which is more-or-less explicitly reasoning
about the environment at different levels of
abstraction.
 Horizontal Layering
 Vertical Layering

14. Horizontal Layering
 The software layers are each directly connected to the sensory
input and action output. In effect, each layer itself acts like an
agent, producing suggestions as to what action to perform.
Layer n
…
Layer 2
Layer 1
Action Output
Perceptual
Input

15. Vertical Layering
 One pass control
 Two pass control
Layer n
…
Layer 2
Layer 1
Perceptual
Input
Action
Output
Layer n
…
Layer 2
Layer 1
Perceptual
Input
Action
Output
One Pass Control Two Pass Control