Intelligent Software Agents Lab

The Robotics InstituteCarnegie Mellon University5000 Forbes AvenuePittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 (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

www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/mocca.html

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 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

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 descriptionsExample:

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 InteroperationTranslation Services Interoperator Services

Capability to Agent MappingMiddle Agents

Name to Location MappingAgent Name Service

SecurityCertificate Authority Cryptographic Service

Performance ServicesMAS Monitoring Reputation Services

Multi-Agent Management ServicesLogging Activity Visualization Launching

ACL InfrastructurePublic Ontology Protocol Servers

Communications InfrastructureDiscovery Message Transfer

MAS Infrastructure

InteroperationInteroperation Modules

Capability to Agent MappingMiddle Agent Components

Name to Location MappingANS Component

SecuritySecurity Module Private/Public Keys

Performance ServicesPerformance Service Modules

Management ServicesLogging and Visualization Components

ACL InfrastructureParser, Private Ontology, Protocol Engine

Communication ModulesDiscovery Message Transfer Modules

Individual Agent Infrastructure

Operating EnvironmentMachines, 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 1 User 2 User u

InfoSource 1

InfoSource 1

Interface Agent 1Interface Agent 1 Interface Agent 2Interface Agent 2 Interface Agent iInterface Agent i

Task Agent 1Task Agent 1 Task Agent 2Task Agent 2 Task Agent tTask Agent t

Middle Agent 2Middle Agent 2Information

Agent n

Information Agent n

InfoSource 2

InfoSource 2

InfoSource m

InfoSource m

Goal and TaskSpecifications Results

SolutionsTasks

Info & ServiceRequests

Information IntegrationConflict 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

• 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

RETSINA Matchmakers

The Matchmaking Process

MatchmakerRequester

Provider 1 Provider n

2. Request for service

3. Unsorted full description of (P1,P2, …, Pk) 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

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~softagents/retsina.html

Reusable Environment for Task-Structured Intelligent Networked Agents

OVERVIEW

• Ubiquity

• Fitness

• Constructability

• Policy

Prof. Katia SycaraPrinciple Investigator

The Robotics InstituteCarnegie Mellon University5000 Forbes AvenuePittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 (U.S.A.)

Tel: +1 (412) 268-8825Fax: +1 (412) 268-5569

katia+@cs.cmu.eduhttp://www.cs.cmu.edu/~katia

Joseph GiampapaProject Manager

The Robotics InstituteCarnegie Mellon University5000 Forbes AvenuePittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 (U.S.A.)

Tel: +1 (412) 268-5245Fax: +1 (412) 268-5569

garof+@cs.cmu.eduhttp://www.cs.cmu.edu/~garof

Contact Information: