Agent Oriented Programming

Abstract

An agentmay be described as anything physical, synthetic or coded that is perceived of being capable of interacting upon an environment. A human agent would be seen to have sensors (eyes, ears, and other organs) to create percepts of the environment and effectors (hands, legs, mouth, and other body parts) to act upon the environment. A robotic agent may substitute cameras or other sensors to perceive the current situation, while various mechanised attachments could be used to effect some action within that environment. When defining an agent, researchers describe the properties it should exhibit. The first property is autonomy,which means operating without the direct intervention of humans. Second is social ability which describes the ability to interact with other agents, agent applications and/or even humans. Third is reactivity, which includes a means of perceiving the environment and responding to any changes that occur within it at a given point in time. Finally, pro-activeness means exhibiting goal-directed behavior [407]. There are many architectures domains of influences and technologies that embody agent systems. When implemented as a system, agents are capable of achieving highly sophisticated goals autonomously and if written correctly,will continue to find a solution until the goal is complete. This chapter investigates how agents architectures evolved, the level of control, construction and mobility. Discussion continues to explore communications, how data is passed or concepts merged and the technologies used.