Intelligent Software Agents Lab

1. Intelligent Software Agents Lab The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 (U.S.A.)

2. 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

3. OVERVIEW • Ubiquity • Fitness • Constructability • Policy

4. MoCHA Mobile Communication of Heterogeneous Agents • Anytime, Anywhere Interfaces • Context-sensitive preference management • Integrates Devices and Agentified Services www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/mocca.html

5. 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

6. OVERVIEW • Ubiquity • Fitness • Constructability • Policy

7. Fitness Through Agent Security and Formal Analysis • Security in Agent Communities • www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/security.html • Secure Agent Infrastructure • www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/security_agent.html • Security Applications • wireless collaboration and communications • military logistics planning • financial portfolio management • non-combatant evacuation operation

8. OVERVIEW • Ubiquity • Fitness • Constructability • Policy

9. 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.

10. 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.

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

12. 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

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

14. 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

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

16. 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

17. RETSINA Matchmakers • 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 • http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/matchmaker.html • Please try it: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/a-match/index.html • LARKS Matchmaker • Language for Advertisement and Request for Knowledge Sharing • http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/larks.html

18. The Matchmaking Process 2. Request for service Requester Matchmaker 3. Unsorted full description of (P1,P2, …, Pk) 1. Advertisement of capabilities & service parameters 4. Delegation of service 5. Results of service request Provider 1 Provider n

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

20. 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

21. RETSINA Agent Architecture Reusable Environment for Task-Structured Intelligent Networked Agents • 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 http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/retsina.html

22. OVERVIEW • Ubiquity • Fitness • Constructability • Policy

23. Contact Information: Prof. Katia Sycara Principle Investigator The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 (U.S.A.) Tel: +1 (412) 268-8825 Fax: +1 (412) 268-5569 katia+@cs.cmu.edu http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~katia Joseph Giampapa Project Manager The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 (U.S.A.) Tel: +1 (412) 268-5245 Fax: +1 (412) 268-5569 garof+@cs.cmu.edu http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~garof