Distributed Artificial Intelligence and Agents

Distributed artificial intelligence (DAI) involves study of the distribution of intelligent processes among independent entities. The introduction of the contract-net is a milestone in the history of DAI. In between, artificial intelligence experienced successes and failures, was praised and despised, but developed numerous original hardware and software techniques which are widely used in everyday computing. In artificial intelligence, the concept of the agent grew from the early work on blackboards, contract-net, and actors. Separately, in applied fields such as manufacturing, object-oriented systems were being developed with increasing intelligence being incorporated into the objects. The chapter reviews some of the research on the blackboard architecture, the contract net, actors, and introduces agents. The heritage of cognitive agents is clearly artificial intelligence. Interface agents facilitate the interaction between a user and a computer system. They are intended to improve interaction, e.g., accessing information, assisting with work, doing learning, or just providing entertainment.