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Software Agents: An Overview
Software Agents: An Overview
Hyacinth S. Nwana
Intelligent Systems Research
Advanced Applications & Technology Department
BT Laboratories, Martlesham Heath
Ipswich, Suffolk, IP5 7RE, U.K.
e-mail: hyacinth@info.bt.co.uk
Tel: (+44 1 473) 605457
fax: (+44 1 473) 642459
Knowledge Engineering Review, Vol. 11, No 3, pp.1-40,
Sept 1996. © Cambridge University Press, 1996
Abstract
Agent software is a rapidly developing area of research. However, the
overuse of the word ëagentí has tended to mask the fact that, in
reality, there is a truly heterogeneous body of research being carried
out under this banner. This overview paper presents a typology of
agents. Next, it places agents in context, defines them and then goes
on, inter alia, to overview critically the rationales, hypotheses,
goals, challenges and state-of-the-art demonstrators of the various
agent types in our typology. Hence, it attempts to make explicit much
of what is usually implicit in the agents literature. It also proceeds
to overview some other general issues which pertain to all the types
of agents in the typology. This paper largely reviews software agents,
and it also contains some strong opinions that are not necessarily
widely accepted by the agent community.