Intelligent-Agent Architecture

This chapter describes the intelligent-agent architecture. The treatment presumes a world in which there is only one agent, and which, therefore, does not change except through the actions of that one agent. This assumption dramatically simplifies the presentation of many key architectural issues. A tropism is the tendency of an animal, or plant to act in response to an external stimulus. A class of agents, called tropistic agents, whose activity at any moment is determined entirely by their environments at that moment is examined. It is assumed that the agent's world can be in any one of a set S of states. Just as with sensory capabilities, different agents can have different effectory capabilities. One agent may be able to paint blocks but not move them, whereas another agent may be able to move blocks but not change their colors. To characterize these effectory capabilities, one assumes the existence of a set A of actions, all of which can be performed by the agent described.