Concepts
The basic attributes of a software agent are that agents
- are not strictly invoked for a task, but activate themselves,
- may reside in wait status on a host, perceiving context,
- may get to run status on a host upon starting conditions,
- do not require interaction of user,
- may invoke other tasks including communication.
The term "agent" describes a software abstraction, an idea, or a concept, similar to OOP terms such as methods, functions, and objects. The concept of an agent provides a convenient and powerful way to describe a complex software entity that is capable of acting with a certain degree of autonomy in order to accomplish tasks on behalf of its host. But unlike objects, which are defined in terms of methods and attributes, an agent is defined in terms of its behavior.
Various authors have proposed different definitions of agents, these commonly include concepts such as
- persistence (code is not executed on demand but runs continuously and decides for itself when it should perform some activity)
- autonomy (agents have capabilities of task selection, prioritization, goal-directed behaviour, decision-making without human intervention)
- social ability (agents are able to engage other components through some sort of communication and coordination, they may collaborate on a task)
- reactivity (agents perceive the context in which they operate and react to it appropriately).
Read more about this topic: Software Agent
Famous quotes containing the word concepts:
“Germany collapsed as a result of having engaged in a struggle for empire with the concepts of provincial politics.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Science is a dynamic undertaking directed to lowering the degree of the empiricism involved in solving problems; or, if you prefer, science is a process of fabricating a web of interconnected concepts and conceptual schemes arising from experiments and observations and fruitful of further experiments and observations.”
—James Conant (1893–1978)
“During our twenties...we act toward the new adulthood the way sociologists tell us new waves of immigrants acted on becoming Americans: we adopt the host culture’s values in an exaggerated and rigid fashion until we can rethink them and make them our own. Our idea of what adults are and what we’re supposed to be is composed of outdated childhood concepts brought forward.”
—Roger Gould (20th century)