Agent Concepts and Issues: Lin Padgham Artificial Intelligence Group Dept. of Computer Science Rmit

Agent concepts and issues
Lin Padgham Artificial Intelligence Group Dept. of Computer Science RMIT

Thanks to AOS and E. Sonenberg for some borrowed slides
Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop
Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)
September 1998
Many choices
Smart
agents with complex knowledge Systems of many small simple agents Agents in the physical world (robots) Small mobile agents ...
September 1998
Agent approaches
Behaviour
based situated, reactive (Brooks, Maes )

Plan-based deliberative,
reasoning (Bratman, Georgeff&Rao, )
September 1998
Behaviour based architecture
behaviour layer n
percepts
behaviour layer 3 behaviour layer 2 behaviour layer 1
actions
September 1998
Behaviour based philosophy

no
internal world model no symbolic reasoning goals a function of observer intelligence is emergent
agent behaviours
environment
September 1998
Example behaviours
go to point avoid obstacle
September 1998
Merging - corridor example
September 1998
Merging - go-around example
September 1998
Merging - wont always work
weighting suppression activation

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop Software Engineering Australia (Vic.) September 1998
Oscillating behaviours
run
to ball vs mark opponent
run to ball
mark opponent
September 1998
Behaviour based summary

impressive
robotics systems e.g. walking insect-like robots well to a certain complexity
work
many
layers and behaviours lead to difficulty in understanding and dealing with interactions. methodology to help with managing interactions
Software Engineering Australia (Vic.) September 1998
no
Pragmatic plan-based systems

came
out of symbolic reasoning and planning recognise need for reactivity accept adequate vs optimal solution recognise that world is dynamic earliest examples IRMA and PRS use pre-defined plans rather than generating plans
September 1998
BDI basic concepts

beliefs - local knowledge base, can be updated desires/goals - what the agent is trying to accomplish actions - elementary things the agent can do to communicate, or change the environment plans - predetermined sequences of actions (or calls to other plans) that can accomplish specified tasks intentions - currently adopted plans - multiple concurrently events - things that happen, can be internal or external
BDI architecture
beliefs / events world model
goals / desires
plans
intentions
September 1998
Plan selection and execution

invocation
condition/trigger - when should plan be
considered context condition - under what conditions is plan appropriate body - actions, sub-goals, sub-plans maintenance condition - abort if broken fail procedure - may be atomic action or more complex
September 1998
Ongoing reasoning
when
an event occurs, the agent looks for a relevant plan for each relevant plan, examines applicability selects an applicable plan & starts executing ongoing questions what goal to pursue or event to react to - now ! how to pursue it when to suspend / abandon / change level of commitment, more/less sensitive to change
High level programming constructs

Achieve
semantics of try and retry until achieved or possibilities exhausted Test check if known, if not find out Wait-for monitor periodically while doing other things
September 1998
Illustrative example
Airport

runway air traffic controller multiple aircraft taking off landing
September 1998
Example beliefs
Aircraft
controller arrivals((plane-id, time)(plane-id, time)) runways(R1,R2,R3) ... Aircraft schedule((place, time)(place time)) altitude(height) next-arrival(place, time) ...
Example events
aircraft
enters control zone possibly a radar sensor event aircraft contacts controller a radio message event runway assigned possibly an internally generated event following processing of a message.
September 1998
Example goals and sub-goals

land
the plane determine runway fly landing pattern execute approach runway
assign
September 1998
Example plan
Invocation: plane enters radar area establish communication allocate runway
Context: plane not scheduled
Maintenance: no emergency
monitor approach and land direct to park
Fail: send message "holding pattern"
September 1998
Hybrid systems
Layered architecture reactive layer deliberative layer Further layers plan generation social awareness emotion/personality
percepts
actions
September 1998
Vacuum cleaner example

vacuum
cleaner problem (Firby, 1993) problem: autonomous agent (robot) vacuuming a room without over-engineering the task solution requires a range of reactive and deliberative behaviour reactive: avoid obstacles - furniture, children deliberative: map the room, plan the task, interact with humans
September 1998
Vacuum cleaner - part 1

simple

vacuum task (vacuum as agent) objects in room are simple (e.g., convex) stationary during cleaning, may move between cleanings people occasionally move through the room
reactive architecture appropriate / sufficient for navigation minimal state, simple sensing e.g. rug, dirt simple strategies can cover the room without a map (e.g., random walk, slow spiral outwards, etc.)

synthetic
vacuum task complex objects (clean around, under) moving and stationary objects treated differently different vacuuming strategies at different times in different situations need to represent object classes and associated strategies solution naturally expressed in terms of goals and plans still need reactive capabilities for obstacle avoidance

intelligent
vacuum task negotiate with user Do under the sofa first. Do here later. Stay away from the baby. be able to operate correctly in varied situations
need higher level understanding of goals and plans useful to retain reactive properties for obstacle avoidance
Multi-agent systems - (DAI)

no
global control mechanism each agent has limited knowledge/capability asynchronous computation Interaction co-ordination co-operation competition negotiation
Co-operation vs co-ordination
co-ordination
(traffic) individual goals mutual benefit avoid potential conflict co-operation (soccer game) shared goals shared plans commitment
Teamwork
multi-agent
plans
roles authority relationships - can one assume the other will take on tasks when requested? global information or partial information? individual or joint goals? conflicting priorities?
September 1998
Coordination protocols, e.g.

contract
net manager / contractor multi-pass bidding system partial global planning agents exchange partial information on goals use info on others goals to reason about own activities use contract-net to assign tasks to underutilised agents conversation plans use predetermined knowledge of others capabilities and known authority relationships to drive negotiation
Communication mechanisms
blackboards
contract
net protocol manager / contractor multi-pass bidding system interaction protocols e.g. request, confirm, ... shared plans possibly using roles joint intentions, joint goals, joint commitments
Open environments
agents
need to find each other interoperability - agent communication languages middle agents matchmakers brokers agent difference
September 1998
Agent Communication Languages (ACLs)

general
requirements high level - concise, easy to parse, readable separate communication acts from domain information fit with modern networking technology - support point-to-point, broadcast, multicast be independent of transport mechanisms (http, TCP/IP...) support for facilitators
KQML
a
proposed standard for inter-agent communication, still under development

(tell : sender stock-server : content (PRICE IBM 14) : receiver joe : in-reply-to ibm-stock : language LPROLOG : ontology NYSE-TICKS)
(ask-one
: sender joe : content (PRICE IBM ?price) : receiver stock-server : reply-with ibm-stock : language LPROLOG : ontology NYSE-TICKS)
September 1998
CORBA
Non-ACL
Communication Infrastructure:
popular for integration in intranets, Web current standard limited to OO RPC-style communication
event service usable in a few cases, message service in future

Summary of issues
complexity
of agent agent architecture, behaviour based, plan based, hybrid many agents or few agent interactions competing, co-ordinating, co-operating, negotiating open environments agent diversity, middle agents, ACL's
Case study
schedule the use of runways on an airport

arrivals departures multiple runways
Aircraft Aircraft Aircraft
...
Air Traffic Controller
Runwa y
Runway
...
September 1998
Agents
aircraft agents request runway slot from airport monitor progress of real aircraft compute holding / delay actions air traffic controller agents arbitrator of runway use airport procedures weather knowledge runway agents manage usage schedule slot in new aircraft
September 1998
bidding solution
aircraft aircraft aircraft
request
allocation
atc
request bid request
allocation
bid
bid
request
runway
runway
runway
September 1998
aircraft agents (bidding)

flight plan position ATL / ATT ETA position updates
aircraft
runway allocation
runway request
September 1998
airtraffic controller agent (bidding)

runway allocation runway status airport procedures weather
runway request
atc
rescheduling request bid allocation
September 1998
runway agents (bidding)

allocation request bid schedule readiness rescheduling
runway
September 1998
Example bidding interactions

(aircraft) ABA345 request (atc) Turichirappalli (runway) East-West 1 (runway) East-West 2
request
request
bid
bid allocation allocation
rescheduling (QF638)
September 1998
daisy chain solution

aircraft aircraft aircraft
request allocation
atc
request allocation rescheduling best allocation
runway
best so far
runway
best so far
runway
September 1998
aircraft agents (daisy chain)

flight plan position ATL / ATT ETA position updates
aircraft
runway allocation
runway request
September 1998
airtraffic controller agent (daisy chain)

runway allocation runway status airport procedures weather
runway request
atc
request best allocation rescheduling
September 1998
runway agents (daisy chain)

allocation
rescheduling schedule readiness request and best so far
runway
request and best so far
September 1998
Example daisy chain interactions

(aircraft) ABA345 request (atc) Turichirappalli (runway) East-West 1 (runway) East-West 2
request
best so far
best allocation allocation
rescheduling (QF638)
September 1998
Case Study 2 - wrapup
the example focused more on the interactions among agents than their internal architecture intelligence could be embedded in the agents, e.g. how the air traffic controller adapts to changed weather different domains may require different conceptual and software tools either when designing or when building the systems the diversity of domains justifies the existing variety of agent architectures and frameworks

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Agent concepts and issues

Lin Padgham Artificial Intelligence Group Dept. of Computer Science RMIT

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

based situated, reactive (Brooks, Maes )

reasoning (Bratman, Georgeff&Rao, )

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Behaviour based architecture

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Behaviour based philosophy

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Merging - corridor example

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Merging - go-around example

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Merging - wont always work

weighting suppression activation

to ball vs mark opponent

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Behaviour based summary

robotics systems e.g. walking insect-like robots well to a certain complexity

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Pragmatic plan-based systems

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

BDI basic concepts

beliefs / events world model

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Plan selection and execution

condition/trigger - when should plan be

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

High level programming constructs

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

runway air traffic controller multiple aircraft taking off landing

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Example goals and sub-goals

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Context: plane not scheduled

monitor approach and land direct to park

Fail: send message "holding pattern"

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Agent-based Software Engineering Workshop

Software Engineering Australia (Vic.)

Vacuum cleaner example