Modeling Information Agents: Advertisement, Organizational Roles, and Dynamic Behavior

Abstract

One of the most important uses of agent models is for problem-solving coordination. Coordination has been defined as managing the interdependencies between activities, or pragmatically as choosing, ordering, and locating actions in time in an attempt to maximize a possibly changing set of decision criteria. Coordination activities include not only localized agent interactions over specific problems, but also longerterm agent organizations that can support current and future problem-solving activity. Models that support coordination can be divided into three classes: models of other agents' current intended actions, schedules, and/or plans; models of other agents' objectives (desires, goals); and models of other agents' capabilities. This paper will focus on the longer-term models of capabilities that agents need in order to organize effectively to solve problems. Such models deal with an agent's capabilities and long-term commitments to certain classes of actions. Besides discussing th...