Intelligent Adaptive Information Agents

  • Authors:

  • Keith S. Decker;Katia Sycara

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716. E-mail: decker@cis.udel.edu;The Robotics Institute, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. E-mail: sycara@cs.cmu.edu

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Intelligent Information Systems - Special issue: adaptive intelligent agents
  • Year:
  • 1997

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Abstract

Adaptation in open, multi-agent information gathering systems isimportant for several reasons. These reasons include the inability toaccurately predict future problem-solving workloads, future changes inexisting information requests, future failures and additions of agents anddata supply resources, and other future task environment characteristicchanges that require system reorganization. We have developed a multi-agentdistributed system infrastructure, RETSINA (REusable Task Structure-based Intelligent Network Agents) that handles adaptation in an open Internetenvironment. Adaptation occurs both at the individual agent level as well asat the overall agent organization level. The RETSINA system has three typesof agents. Interface agents interact with the userreceiving user specifications and delivering results. They acquire, model,and utilize user preferences to guide system coordination in support of theuser‘s tasks. Task agents help users perform tasks byformulating problem solving plans and carrying out these plans throughquerying and exchanging information with other software agents. Information agents provide intelligent access to a heterogeneouscollection of information sources. In this paper, we concentrate on theadaptive architecture of the information agents. We use as the domain ofapplication WARREN, a multi-agent financial portfolio management system thatwe have implemented within the RETSINA framework.