An Agent Web at NUS

 Agents - What are they?

 
    Because of the widespread and diverse use of the term, 'Agent' means many things to many different people.
 
    Our view is that instead of asking "What is an Agent?", it is more appropriate to ask:

When is it useful to call something an 'Agent'?

    Taking this view, a system of message passing agents is a sometimes useful way to describe a software system that includes
    interacting components. We use agents to encapsulate services that can be provided by people and software components.

 


Agents as a Model for Engineering Services

    Agents can encapsulate the capabilities of both users and their tools. Inter-agent communication, then, can include both
    informal communication and formal exchange between programs. Here we focus on how agents can be used to
    encapsulate engineering services that can delivered via the Internet, and how these different service agents can cooperate
    and collaborate over the Web towards overall system goals..
 


An On-going Project

    The on-going Project "Agent-Based Product Design and Planning for Distributed Concurrent Engineering over the Internet"
    (ABPDP) is aimed at making efficient use of manufacturing resources and increased flexibility and reducing the need for
    redesign later in the product development cycle by developing a distributed concurrent engineering system, in which
    heterogeneous individual entities geographically distributed can work cooperatively. An agent-based architecture has been
    designed, and an agent community demo has been developed, in which five agents, namely Design Agent, Facilitator,
    Capability Agent, Manufacturability Evaluation Agent and Process Planning Agent, work cooperatively for the
    simultaneous product design and redesign, and generation of process plans.
 


Intelligent Agent and Distributed Object Technologies

 
    KQML
               The Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language is a language for agent communication. The KQML
               home page includes documentation, mailing list archives, and status information.
    KIF
               The Knowledge Interchange Format is a content language that is commonly used with KQML.
    CYC Ontology
               The CYC Ontology provides a sufficient common grounding for applications of Natural language understanding and
               generation, Semantic database integration, consistency-checking, and mining; Semantic information retrieval;
               and Knowledge sharing by groups working independently
    KAPI FTP Site (Lockheed)
               KAPI is a public domain API that allows agents to send KQML messages via three transport mechanisms:
               electronic mail, TCP, or HTTP.
    CORBA
               The Common Object Request Broker Architecture is a standard object architecture which supports
               distributed objects. CORBA is developed by the Object Management Group (OMG) and supported by
               many vendors.
 


An Agent Demo

    The Agent Demo shows you how an agent community works cooperatively over the Web for the realization of concurrent
    product design and planning. It runs only on software compatible with JDK1.1, such as appletviewer(JDK1.1) or Internet
    Explorer4.7. You should not use released browsers until they support JDK1.1.
 


Agent Related Web sites

    The @gency (Distributed Artificial Intelligence and Multi-Agent Systems Archive)
                A collection site of agent technologies and agent related projects around the world.
    UMBC Agent Web (Software Intelligent Agents)
                Information and resources about intelligent information agents, intentional agents, software agents, softbots,
                knowbots, infobots, etc.
    Sandia Intelligent Agents for Manufacturing (SIAM)
                A CORBA-based distributed object software system was developed for Sandia's Agile Manufacturing Testbed
                (SAMT). This agent architecture supports the goals of agile manufacturing.
    Agent Based Engineering Group at Stanford University
                The application of agent-based technology to the engineering design process -- design decision support, concurrent
                engineering and collaborative design.
    Cybercut at U. C. Berkeley
                An experimental fabrication testbed for an Internet accessible, computerized machining service.Both a 3D
                web-based CAD package and a design consultant that collaborates with a professional CAD package will have
                direct links into a remote fabrication service.
    Intelligent Software Agents at Carnegie Mellon University
                The development of a collection of multiple agents that team up on demand---depending on the user, task, and
                situation---to access, filter and integrate information in support of user tasks.
    Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MAS Webliography)
                A collection of potentially useful sources of information about Multi-Agent Systems.
 


    For further reading on the subject, see the references below.
    Papers on the Subject:

        Genesereth, M. and Ketchpel, S., "Software Agents", Communications of the ACM, July 1994

        Hyacinth S. Nwana, "Software agents: an overview", The Knowledge Engineering Review, Vol. 11:3, 1996, 205-244


    Send comments or suggestions to Dr. Y.F. Zhang or Mr. J. Sun
Last Modified: Wednesday, Oct. 28th, 1998 15:54:09 GMT-8