Current Tools for Assisting Intelligent Agents in Real-time Decision Making

Decision making is something with which we are all familiar. Each day we find ourselves in situations where we have more than one alternative to choose from. Most of our everyday decisions require little or no reflection. Yet, other decisions are more complex and may require thorough analysis. The field of decision analysis studies the application of decision theory to actual decision problems. Decision theory is the mathematical foundation for decision making, which combines probability theory and utility theory in order to describe what constitutes a rational decision. Today there are numerous tools for decision analysis that run on ordinary PCs. These make it easier for human decision makers to structure a decision problem, and help visualize the effects of possible outcomes. However, not only humans are decision makers. Intelligent agents are also faced with decision problems. This thesis investigates if any of the computerized tools for decision analysis can be used by intelligent agents. Special attention is given to real-time domains, where data that decisions depend on vary rapidly. These domains require quick responses from the tools. Otherwise the result of a decision analysis will be based on data that is no longer accurate. The objective of the thesis is to provide results indicating if any of the available tools for decision analysis are fast enough for use in real-time domains. This thesis corresponds to the effort of 20 full-time working weeks.

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