JACK Intelligent Agents and Applications

JACK Intelligent Agents and Applications

Hitesh Bhambhani

CSE 6362, SPRING 2003

Dr. Lawrence B. Holder

Friday, April 21, 2023 CSE@UTA 2

Contents Introduction to JACK

BDI Agents

JACK Framework

JACK Applications

Conclusions and Discussion


Introduction to JACK Agent Oriented Software, Melbourne, Australia.

JACK Intelligent Agents

Agent oriented development environment built

on top of JAVA

Provide developers with a robust, stable, light-

weight product

Mainly for use as components of larger

environments


Introduction to JACK Features

Agent architecture independent facilities

Support for BDI agents

Agent Communication Language (ACL)

independent

Geared towards use of middleware and message

passing infrastructures

SimpleTeam technology to build agent teams


BDI Agents BELIEFS

Description of the state of the world (state as viewed

by an agent)

DESIRES/GOALS

Functions that specify the states of the world that

are desirable

INTENTIONS/PLANS

A set of actions generated by the agent to change

the state of its current environment


BDI Agents Conceptual Model

Beliefs

PlansPlansACL

Blackboard

Goals Goals

Environment

Beliefs


JACK Framework Extends Java

Keywords to support main concepts e.g.

agent, plan, event

Statements for declaration of attributes

and characteristics of components

Statements for defining static relations

Statements for agent state manipulation


JACK Framework JACK Compiler – JACK Agent Language into

Java

JACK Runtime Environment

Execution of JACK agents

Handles communications

Simple agent naming service


JACK Framework Agent Development Environment

http://www.agent-software.com/shared/products/images/Design.gif

Agent Debugging Environment

View messages between agents

View internal execution states


JACK Framework SimpleTeam Programming

Team oriented programming

•Agent collaboration viewed as abstract viewpoint of a group as a whole

Neutral to nature of team structure

Centralized specification of coordinated activity

Achieved through mechanisms of team, role,

team capabilities and team plans.


JACK Applications-ROOBOTS The Roobots are a team of robots from the

University of Melbourne Entered the small-sized robot league, and

finished in fourth place at RoboCup-2002 in Fukuoka, Japan.

Roobots Design uses JACK Agents based on BDI http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/robocup

/2003/F180/html/2001/robots.html


JACK Applications-Decision Support Intelligence Preparation for Battlefield

Allocation of surveillance and reconnaissance assets Planners needed to consider following to plan:

Number and priority of CCIR (Commander’s Critical

Information Request)

Nature of surveillance needed to satisfy CCIR

Assets available to plan with

Ongoing availability taken in account priorities,

maintenance, etc

Re-plan for developing tactical situation


JACK Applications-Decision Support Collection Plan Management System (CPMS)

Planning module based on JACK agents

Visualization module containing Geographical

Information System

Database

• Terrain data

• CCIRs

• Surveillance assets (Capabilities, availabilities, etc)


JACK Applications-Decision Support(CPMS)


JACK Applications-Decision Support CPMS planning module

Inputs

• List of CCIRs

• Order of Battle (ORBAT)

• Command and control (C2) structure

• Available assets

• Current surveillance plan (optional)

Outputs

• Set of alternative plans for the commander


JACK Applications-Decision Support

CPMS planning module implementation

Multi-agent subsystem

Agent hierarchy same as C2 structure

Top level agent prioritizes alternative tasks

in CCIRs

Ask subordinate agents for plans

Each subordinate agent applies

interdependency constraints to tasks and

generates plan


JACK Applications–Manufacturing Plant JACK-based holonic manufacturing at the Cambridge

Robotic Assembly Cell at Cambridge University, England

A Holon is the combination of a physical process and an

intelligent agent

Demo (http://www.agent-software.com/shared/

demosNdocs/flashDemos/LongHolonicDemo.html)


JACK Applications–Defense Simulation Defense simulations war games - fully scripted

scenario where entity activities pre-programmed lacking in modeling humans

Wish to model human roles and their reasoning in a Complex Command and Control (C3) system

Simulation Agent Infrastructure

JACK agents to model human behavior

SimpleTeam used to model entity and group

roles and behaviors


Conclusions Framework for industrial strength agents

Compatible with various agent architectures and legacy systems

Tool support for design and debugging

However

Not ‘pure’ AI

Current implementations mostly planning apps


Questions and Discussion

Documents

JACK Intelligent Agents and Applications