Developing Intelligent Agents for Distributed Systems: Exploring Architectures, Techniques, and Applications [Paperback]

Michael Knapik (Author), Jay B. Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997

This is a guide for software developers wanting to harness the power of agent software in client/server environments. An intelligent agent is a piece of software which searches for information, monitors conditions and performs particular actions. Often referred to as smart software, the agent continually "learns" about its environment and begins to repond accordingly. The book explains the programming of agents for improving user interfaces, increasing the performance of LANs and WANs, managing mail and even for assisting in the development of new software. In addition, the authors provide background on the technologies that make agents possible, such as AI, fuzzy logic and object technology. Common standards, such as COBRA and OLE, are discussed in the context of agents, along with the dark side of the technology, including "bots" and "rogue" agents which behave like viruses.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Now you can build smarter distributed systems in any domain using intelligent agents. This practical and comprehensive guide explains what intelligent agents (IAs) are, how systems of agents can collaborate to solve difficult problems, the kinds of commercially-available technologies that can be used to build them, and how they can make today's and tomorrow's information systems easier to manage and use. The authors examine virtually all aspects of intelligent agent technology, in a logical progression of topics, as follows: Section 1 defines IAs from several perspectives. Section 2 discusses natural and artificial intelligence, and speculates about building computers that mimic the nature of mind and brain. Section 3 discuess IA-enablers including: Object-orientation, artificial intelligence and expert systems (including the latest on Cyc), and soft computing technologies such as fuzzy logic, neural nets and evolutionary computation. Section 4 reviews key industry-standard infrastructures: COBRA, OpenDoc, OLE/Active X and DCE. Section 5 surveys several IA architectures, pointing out significant concepts and features. Section 6 discusses design issues, including: networking (client/server, peer-to-peer, agent mobility, Internet/WWW), OS requirements, security considerations, requirements analysis, domain modeling and much more. Section 7 discusses several languages and environments that are especially appropriate for agent development in distributed environments, including: Java, Smalltalk, Telescript, examples included. Section 8 presents numerous application domains where IAs are poised to make a big difference, including: financial, computer-aided design, medical, network management, information retrieval/management, electronic commerce and much more. Section 9 rounds out the coverage by taking you into the future. The authors speculate about IAs hastening shifts in human-computer and human-human relationships pointing out both positive and negative consequences that may occur. A summary of current research efforts is also included, with appropriate WWW URLs. Appendixes include references/bibliography, acronyms and an index.

Product Details

• Paperback: 389 pages
• Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070350116
• ISBN-13: 978-0070350113
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,569,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book cover all aspects of intelligent agents, June 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Developing Intelligent Agents for Distributed Systems: Exploring Architectures, Techniques, and Applications (Paperback)

Being the broad-scope work that it is, this book has hit the bulls-eye in terms of coverage. While there have been other books on IAs recently, this one covers all aspects of IAs.

Doing so, it has more positives than negatives; but of course this depends on whether you want an overview of the field, or an Intelligent Agent (IA) in "C" programming reference manual. It is more of the former than the latter.

It does cover a lot of ground and gives one a detailed taste for what artificial intelligence(AI), and IA's (Intelligent Agents) created from AI technologies are, and more importantly, what they *could* be. That is, if all the suggestions in this book were followed, we might soon have really 'intelligent' software emerging from various quarters (like the Internet or Intranets).

It concentrates on explaining the essentials of the cognitive and computer sciences that are relevant to IA design and creation, especially the considerations that seem to have contributed to 'intelligence' in the natural world (like our brains). I liked all the various definitions of intelligence!

It goes into the details of various architectural approaches to designing systems of interacting, or collaborating components. I found the material on the necessity of common agent languages (that is, languages in which the agents speak to each other) to be particularly enlightening.

Also especially useful was all the information about autonomy, agent mobility, standards that agents can make use of (like IIOP), and what languages and environments might be particularly suited to IA implementation. There were a couple of subjects that seem, in retrospect, out of place (like OpenDoc). But given that the coverage is about certain architectural and implementation concepts of those subjects that were important to IAs, and that it was only a few pages, this was a minor issue with me.

The book explains, at a surface level, the common soft-computing technologies like ANNs, genetic computing and fuzzy logi! c, as well as more traditional approaches like expert systems. It gives examples of real software that you can buy and use to incorporate these techniques into agents. For example, the book provides a good synopsis of Cyc, which can be used by agents to incorporate 'common sense' reasoning capabilities.

I did not expect it, so I was not surprised that this was not a programming manual. There are a couple of other books on IAs that concentrate on particular kinds of relatively simple agents in particular languages. Yet, to be honest, in lieu of lots of specific code and examples of actual agents, it provides a lot of pointers to other researchers' works in companies and academic settings.

This book is much more than what has appeared on the market thus far. Its breadth is actually pretty amazing considering its length of around 400 pages. I would recommend it to anyone who wanted to either gain a good grounding in intelligent agent design and development issues, or to expand one's purview of how intelligence could be enabled within today's and tomorrow's distributed computer systems.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic overview of Intelligent Agents..., July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Developing Intelligent Agents for Distributed Systems: Exploring Architectures, Techniques, and Applications (Paperback)

For those of you interested in reading a little history, some present implementations and the possibilities the future holds...this book is for you. If you require a more design-oriented book you might look elsewhere. I absolutely loved this book!!

8 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ready to develop your own agent - good overview, May 28, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Developing Intelligent Agents for Distributed Systems: Exploring Architectures, Techniques, and Applications (Paperback)

Intelligente Agenten sind längst nicht mehr nur ein Thema für abgedrehte Software-Entwickler. Microsoft ist in den Markt der Agent Software Produkte eingestiegen und die Regale der Buchhandlungen füllen sich mit Abhandlungen zu diesem Themenkomplex. Inhalt: Michael Kapnik und Jay Johnson beschreiben in Ihrem Buch die Architektur, Technologie und Anwendungen für Intelligente Agenten in ver-teilten Umgebungen. Die Autoren thematisieren nahezu alle Aspekte dieser Technologie. Künstliche Intelligenz in Experten Systemen, Fuzzy Logik, Objektorien-tierung und Architekturen von Agenten bilden den ersten Teil des Buches. Der Vergleich na-türlicher und künstlicher Intelligenz beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, ob Computer die Natur des Gehirns nachbilden können. Die Industriestan-dards CORBA, OpenDoc, OLE/ActiveX und DCE werden als Basis für die Infrastruktur intelli-genter Agenten kurz erleutert. Für Tools und Entwicklungsumgebungen geben die Autoren neben der theoretischen Beschreibung auch einen Marktüberblick über verfügbare Produkte und weiterführende Literatur zu den Tei-laspekten. Im Anschluß werden Design- und Sicher-heitspekte beschrieben. Dies umfaßt die Bereiche Anforderungsanalyse, Plattform, Umgebung und Paradigmen für verteilte Um-gebungen, Client/Server und Mobilität. Daneben werden Methoden zur Fehlerbe-handlung, digitale Signaturen und Konfigurationen durch die Endanwender dar-gestellt. Nachdem die Grundlagen für die Entwicklung der Agenten gelegt sind, beschäftigt sich das Kapitel "Developing Intelligent Agents NOW" mit Sprachen und Entwicklungsumgebungen, wie Java, Smalltalk und Telescript. Die Einsatzgebiete intelligenter Agenten sind vielfältig. Viele Anwender setzen sie bereits in Standard-Office-Produkten oder E-Mail-Anwendungen ein. Daneben unterstützen in-telligente Agenten ihre Anwender im Netzwerk-Management, bei der Suche im WWW, bei der Filterung von Daten, beim Kommunikations-management und vielen anderen Bereichen. Der Ausblick in die Zukunft intelligenter Agen-ten bi! ldet den Abschluß des Buches. Neben weiteren Anwendungsgebieten für Agenten in Datenbanken, im Netzwerkmanagement, in Suchmaschinen und im Privatbereich wird auch auf mögliche Gefahren durch spionierende oder destruktiv agierende Agenten hingewie-sen. Beurteilung: Sätze, wie "Mein Computer fühlt sich alleine, weil ich es bin" zeigen, daß es sich nicht um eine theoretische Abhandlung über die Agen-ten-Technologie handelt. Immer wieder stellen die Autoren einen praktischen Bezug her oder wagen einen Blick in die Zukunft. Es gibt je-doch auch Kapitel, die nicht so leicht zu lesen sind. Dies ergibt sich aus der Komplexität der behandelten Themen. Denn die Entwicklung intelligenter Agenten in verteilten Umgebungen ist nicht trivial. Das Buch liefert das "Handwerkszeug" für die Entwicklung verteilter Systeme mit Hilfe intelli-genter Agenten. Es schneidet alle relevanten Themen an, ohne dabei zu theoretisch zu wer-den. Aufgrund des Umfangs der behandelten Themen sind die einzelnen Technologien nicht erschöpfend dargestellt. Wer detaillierte In-formationen benötigt, kann jedoch auf weiterführende Literatur, auf die in dem Buch hingewiesen wird, zurückgreifen.