Study Guide

Intelligent Agents, Mobile Agents, and Multi-Agent Systems

STUDY GUIDE

Note: The links to weekly lecture notes will not be in place usually until a week later.

Week 1 (beginning January 12, 1998)

Overview of the course, overview of intelligent agents, multi-agent systems.

Readings

Overview of Artificial Intelligence (postscript).
Chapters 1 and 2 from Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach , Russell and Norvig.
History and Promise of AI (by D. Waltz)
Report on 21st Century Intelligent Systems (by B. Grosz and R. Davis)
The Role of Intelligent Systems in the National Information Infrastructure (by D. Weld)
Nwana, H. Software Agents: An Overview., Knowledge Engineering Review. vol. 11., no. 3., pp. 1-40. 1996.
Wooldridge, M. and Jennings, N. Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice Knowledge Engineering Review. vol. 10., no. 2., pp. 115-152. 1995.
Franklin and Graesser. Is it an agent or just a program, In: Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1996.
Pettrie, C. Agent-based engineering, the web, and intelligence IEEE Expert, 1996.
Harrison, C.G., Chess, D.M., and Kershenbaum, A. Mobile agents: are they a good idea? Research Report, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York.
Lanier, J.Agents of Alienation.
Huhns, M. and Singh, M. Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: Themes, Approaches, and Challenges. In: Readings in Intelligent Agents. Huhns, M. and Singh, M. (Ed.), Palo Alto: Morgan Kaufmann. 1998.

Week 2 (beginning January 19, 1998)

Personal Information Assistants

Readings

History and Promise of AI (by D. Waltz)
Report on 21st Century Intelligent Systems (by B. Grosz and R. Davis)
The Role of Intelligent Systems in the National Information Infrastructure (by D. Weld)
Huhns, M. and Singh, M. Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: Themes, Approaches, and Challenges. In: Readings in Intelligent Agents. Huhns, M. and Singh, M. (Ed.), Palo Alto: Morgan Kaufmann. 1998.
Negroponte, N. Agents: From Direct Manipulation to Delegation. In: Software Agents. Bradshaw (ed.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.
Shneiderman, B. Direct Manipulation versus Agents: Paths to Predictable, Controllable, and Comprehensible Interfaces. In:Software Agents. Bradshaw (ed.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.
Maes, P. Agents that reduce work and information overload. In: Software Agents. Bradshaw (ed.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.
Etzioni, O., and Weld, D. A Softbot-Based Interface to the Internet. Communications of the ACM. 37(7):72-76. 1994.

Week 3 (beginning January 26, 1998)

Agent-based approaches to Interoperability

Readings

History and Promise of AI (by D. Waltz)
Report on 21st Century Intelligent Systems (by B. Grosz and R. Davis)
The Role of Intelligent Systems in the National Information Infrastructure (by D. Weld)
Huhns, M. and Singh, M. Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: Themes, Approaches, and Challenges. In: Readings in Intelligent Agents. Huhns, M. and Singh, M. (Ed.), Palo Alto: Morgan Kaufmann. 1998.
Genesereth, M. An Agent-Based Framework for Interoperability. In: Software Agents. Bradshaw (ed.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.
Knoblock, K. and Ambite, J-L. Agents for Information Gathering. In:Software Agents. Bradshaw (ed.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.
Wiederhold, G. and Genesereth, M. "The Conceptual Basis for Mediation Services" IEEE Expert, Intelligent Systems and their Applications, Vol.12 No.5, Sep-Oct 1997.

Week 4 (beginning February 2, 1998)

Mobile Agents

Readings

Huhns, M. and Singh, M. Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: Themes, Approaches, and Challenges. In: Readings in Intelligent Agents. Huhns, M. and Singh, M. (Ed.), Palo Alto: Morgan Kaufmann. 1998.
White, J. E. Mobile Agents. In: Software Agents. Bradshaw (ed.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.
Harrison, C., Chess, D., and Kershenbaum, A. Mobile Agents: Are they a good idea?, Research report, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, March 1995.

Chess, D., Grosof, B., Harrison, C., Levine, D., Parris, C., and Tsudik, G. Itenerant Agents for Mobile Computing. IEEE Personal Communications 2(5):34-49. 1995.

Objectspace, Inc. Voyager Whitepaper

Objectspace, Inc. Voyager User Guide

Crystaliz, Inc., General Magic, Inc., GMD Focus, IBM. Mobile Agent Facility Specification.

Week 5 (beginning February 9, 1998)

Inter-Agent Communication

Readings

Huhns, M. and Singh, M. Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: Themes, Approaches, and Challenges. In: Readings in Intelligent Agents. Huhns, M. and Singh, M. (Ed.), Palo Alto: Morgan Kaufmann. 1998.
The DARPA Knowledge Sharing Effort
Finin, T., Labrou, Y., and Mayfield, J. KQML As an Agent Communication Language. In: Software Agents. Bradshaw (ed.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997.
Labrou, Y. and Finin, T. A Proposal for a new KQML Specification, TR CS-97-03, February 1997, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250.
Genesereth, M. and Fikes, R. Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF) Reference Manual. 1997.
Searle, J.R. Speech Acts. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 1969.

Week 6 (beginning February 16, 1998)

Inter-Agent Negotiation, Coordination

Readings

Huhns, M. and Singh, M. Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: Themes, Approaches, and Challenges. In: Readings in Intelligent Agents. Huhns, M. and Singh, M. (Ed.), Palo Alto: Morgan Kaufmann. 1998.
Smith, R. The Contract Net Protocol: High-level Communication and Control in a Distributed Problem Solver. IEEE Transactions on Computers C-29(12):1104-1113. 1980.
Raiffa, H. The Art and Science of Negotiation. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. 1982.
Sandholm, T. An Implementation of the Contract Net Protocol Based on Marginal Cost Calculations. In: Proc. 11th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-93), Washington, DC.
Sandholm, T. and Lesser, V. 1995. Advantages of a Leveled Commitment Contracting Protocol. Extended version. University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Computer Science Technical Report TR 95-72.
Sandholm, T. 1997. Necessary and Sufficient Contract Types for Optimal Task Allocation. Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-97), Nagoya, Japan.
Cheng Gu and Toru Ishida, A Quantitative Analysis of the Contract Net Protocol, International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS-95), p. 449, 1995.
Kazuhiro Kuwabara, Toru Ishida and Nobuyasu Osato, AgenTalk: Coordination Protocol Description for Multiagent Systems, International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS-95), p. 455, 1995.
Honavar, V. and Uhr, L. (1990). Coordination and Control Structures and Processes: Possibilities for Connectionist Networks. Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 2: 277-302.
Sandholm, T. 1998. Contract Types for Satisficing Task Allocation: I Theoretical Results. AAAI 1998 Spring Symposium: Satisficing Models, Stanford University, California, March 23-25.
Andersson, M. and Sandholm, T. 1998. Contract Types for Satisficing Task Allocation: II Experimental Results. AAAI 1998 Spring Symposium: Satisficing Models, Stanford University, California, March 23-25.
Rosenschein, J. and Zlotkin, G. Rules of Encounter. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 1994.

Week 7 (beginning February 23, 1998)

Inter-Agent Negotiation (continued), Rational Agents

Readings

Huhns, M. and Singh, M. Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: Themes, Approaches, and Challenges. In: Readings in Intelligent Agents. Huhns, M. and Singh, M. (Ed.), Palo Alto: Morgan Kaufmann. 1998.
Smith, R. The Contract Net Protocol: High-level Communication and Control in a Distributed Problem Solver. IEEE Transactions on Computers C-29(12):1104-1113. 1980.
Raiffa, H. The Art and Science of Negotiation. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. 1982.
Sandholm, T. An Implementation of the Contract Net Protocol Based on Marginal Cost Calculations. In: Proc. 11th National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-93), Washington, DC.
Sandholm, T. and Lesser, V. 1995. Advantages of a Leveled Commitment Contracting Protocol. Extended version. University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Computer Science Technical Report TR 95-72.
Sandholm, T. 1997. Necessary and Sufficient Contract Types for Optimal Task Allocation. Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-97), Nagoya, Japan.
Cheng Gu and Toru Ishida, A Quantitative Analysis of the Contract Net Protocol, International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS-95), p. 449, 1995.
Kazuhiro Kuwabara, Toru Ishida and Nobuyasu Osato, AgenTalk: Coordination Protocol Description for Multiagent Systems, International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS-95), p. 455, 1995.
Honavar, V. and Uhr, L. (1990). Coordination and Control Structures and Processes: Possibilities for Connectionist Networks. Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 2: 277-302.
Sandholm, T. 1998. Contract Types for Satisficing Task Allocation: I Theoretical Results. AAAI 1998 Spring Symposium: Satisficing Models, Stanford University, California, March 23-25.
Andersson, M. and Sandholm, T. 1998. Contract Types for Satisficing Task Allocation: II Experimental Results. AAAI 1998 Spring Symposium: Satisficing Models, Stanford University, California, March 23-25.
Rosenschein, J. and Zlotkin, G. Rules of Encounter. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 1994.
Keeney, R. and Raiffa, H. Decisions with Multiple Objectives: Preferences and Value Tradeoffs, New York: Wiley. 1973.
French, S. Decision Theory: An Introduction to the Mathematics of Rationality, London: Wiley, 1988.