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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.