Intelligent Software Agents Lab The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA (U.S.A.)

Transform the Internet to ServiceNet from a network of information providers –user must find information sources –user must integrate information to a network of service providers –agents find requested & unanticipated information for the user –agents perform requested and implied services for the user –agents present finished product to user

OVERVIEW Ubiquity Fitness Constructability Policy

MoCHA Mobile Communication of Heterogeneous Agents Anytime, Anywhere Interfaces Context-sensitive preference management Integrates Devices and Agentified Services

Improve and Diffuse Accessibility Any Time - Any Place Computing –Agents accessible from any device –Information conveyed on most appropriate device –Information conveyed at most appropriate time Unobtrusive Computing –Reduce the overhead of humans having to specify their intentions –Agents proactively assist humans based on their awareness of the user’s goals and context

OVERVIEW Ubiquity Fitness Constructability Policy

Fitness Through Agent Security and Formal Analysis Security in Agent Communities Secure Agent Infrastructure Security Applications wireless collaboration and communications military logistics planning financial portfolio management non-combatant evacuation operation

OVERVIEW Ubiquity Fitness Constructability Policy

Assumptions Open and Dynamic Environments –agents / services will not always exist –agent locations change system load balancing agent mobility –agent identity changes cannot predict its name cannot predict the vocabulary used to describe it Assume Service Redundancy –multiple/ competing service providers –differentiate on service parameters speed, price, security, reliability, reputation, etc.

Achieve Ideals of Software Engineering Truly reusable software components Accessible to lay-programmers –intuitive and imprecise Scalable, reliable, robust, and fault-tolerant computing Program by high-level service requirement descriptions Example: To find the best flights, –find any airline reservation system –that publishes departure / arrival times of four or more commercial airlines and comparative prices for those legs.

MAS Interoperation Translation Services Interoperator Services Capability to Agent Mapping Middle Agents Name to Location Mapping Agent Name Service Security Certificate Authority Cryptographic Service Performance Services MAS Monitoring Reputation Services Multi-Agent Management Services Logging Activity Visualization Launching ACL Infrastructure Public Ontology Protocol Servers Communications Infrastructure Discovery Message Transfer MAS Infrastructure Interoperation Interoperation Modules Capability to Agent Mapping Middle Agent Components Name to Location Mapping ANS Component Security Security Module Private/Public Keys Performance Services Performance Service Modules Management Services Logging and Visualization Components ACL Infrastructure Parser, Private Ontology, Protocol Engine Communication Modules Discovery Message Transfer Modules Individual Agent Infrastructure Operating Environment Machines, OS, Network, Multicast Transport Layer, TCP/IP, Wireless, Infrared, SSL MAS Infrastructure

Necessary Network Technologies Local Area Network Discovery –SSDP, SLP Wide Area Network Discovery –Agent-to-Agent Discovery Network Security –protection from malicious attacks and spoofing –Encryption, Authentication, Repudiation Agent Location Schemes –White Pages, Yellow Pages, LDAP

RETSINA Functional Architecture User 1User 2User u Info Source 1 Info Source 1 Interface Agent 1 Interface Agent 2 Interface Agent i Task Agent 1 Task Agent 2 Task Agent t Middle Agent 2 Information Agent n Information Agent n Info Source 2 Info Source 2 Info Source m Info Source m Goal and Task Specifications Results SolutionsTasks Info & Service Requests Information Integration Conflict Resolution Replies Advertisements Information Agent 1 Information Agent 1 Queries Answers

Interface Agents Solicit input from user for the agent system Present output to the user Frequently part of task agent Often representative of a device

Task Agents Know what to do and how to do it Responsible for task delegation May enlist the help of other task agents

Middle Agents Infrastructure agents that aid in MAS scalability Many have been identified in Sycara & Wong ‘00 Most common: –Agent Name Service (White Pages) –Matchmaker(Yellow Pages) –Broker –MAS Interoperator

Enable an agent to find another agent: by functionality, capability, availability, time to completion, etc. without knowing who or where the provider agent might be Enables multi-agent systems [MASs]: to dynamically reconfigure themselves to suite a need reduce agent systems administration overhead to scale in the number of agents that are distributed in a computer network RETSINA has two main types of Matchmakers: RETSINA Matchmaker Please try it: LARKS Matchmaker Language for Advertisement and Request for Knowledge Sharing RETSINA Matchmakers

The Matchmaking Process MatchmakerRequester Provider 1Provider n 2. Request for service 3. Unsorted full description of (P 1,P 2, …, P k ) 1. Advertisement of capabilities & service parameters 4. Delegation of service 5. Results of service request

MAS Interoperators Translate between MAS architectures: Advertisements Queries and replies Informational messages Achieve economic MAS scalability

Information Agents Present information sources to MAS Port MAS output to external data stores Represent data and events Four well-known and reusable behaviors: –Single-Shot Query –Active Monitor Query –Passive Monitor Query –Update Query

Four parallel threads : Communicator for conversing with other agents Planner matches “sensory” input and “beliefs” to possible plan actions Scheduler schedules “enabled” plans for execution Execution Monitor executes scheduled plan swaps-out plans for those with higher priorities RETSINA Agent Architecture Reusable Environment for Task-Structured Intelligent Networked Agents

OVERVIEW Ubiquity Fitness Constructability Policy

Prof. Katia Sycara Principle Investigator The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA (U.S.A.) Tel: +1 (412) Fax: +1 (412) Joseph Giampapa Project Manager The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA (U.S.A.) Tel: +1 (412) Fax: +1 (412) Contact Information: