DYNAMIC AGENTS

Abstract

We claim that a dynamic agent infrastructure can provide a shift from static distributed computing to dynamic distributed computing, and we have developed an infrastructure to realize such a shift. We shall compare this infrastructure with other distributed computing infrastructures such as CORBA and DCOM, and demonstrate its value in highly dynamic system integration, service provisioning and distributed applications such as data mining on the Web. The infrastructure is Java-based, light-weight, and extensible. It differs from other agent platforms and client/server infrastructures in its support of dynamic behavior modification of agents. A dynamic agent is not designed to have a fixed set of predefined functions, but instead, to carry application-specific actions, which can be loaded and modified on the fly. This allows a dynamic agent to adjust its capability to accommodate changes in the environment and requirements, and play different roles across multiple applications. The above features are supported by the light-weight, built-in management facilities of dynamic agents, which can be commonly used by the "carried" application programs to communicate, manage resources and modify their problem-solving capabilities. Therefore, the proposed infrastructure allows application-specific multi-agent systems to be developed easily on top of it, provides "nuts and bolts" for run-time system integration, and supports dynamic service construction, modification and movement. A prototype has been developed at HP Labs and made available to several external research groups.