Intelligent Agents in Artificial Intelligence

An intelligent agent (IA) is an entity that makes a decision, that enables artificial intelligence
to be put into action. It can also be described as a software entity that conducts operations in
the place of users or programs after sensing the environment. It uses actuators to initiate
action in that environment.

What is an Intelligent Agent (IA)?

This agent has some level of autonomy that allows it to perform specific, predictable, and
repetitive tasks for users or applications.

It’s also termed as ‘intelligent’ because of its ability to learn during the process of performing
tasks.

Agents can be classified into different types based on their characteristics, such as whether
they are reactive or proactive, whether they have a fixed or dynamic environment, and
whether they are single or multi-agent systems.

 Reactive agents are those that respond to immediate stimuli from their environment
and take actions based on those stimuli. Proactive agents, on the other hand, take
initiative and plan ahead to achieve their goals. The environment in which an agent
operates can also be fixed or dynamic. Fixed environments have a static set of rules
that do not change, while dynamic environments are constantly changing and require
agents to adapt to new situations.
 Multi-agent systems involve multiple agents working together to achieve a common
goal. These agents may have to coordinate their actions and communicate with each
other to achieve their objectives. Agents are used in a variety of applications,
including robotics, gaming, and intelligent systems. They can be implemented using
different programming languages and techniques, including machine learning and
natural language processing.

Artificial intelligence is defined as the study of rational agents. A rational agent could be
anything that makes decisions, such as a person, firm, machine, or software. It carries out an
action with the best outcome after considering past and current percepts(agent’s perceptual
inputs at a given instance). An AI system is composed of an agent and its environment. The
agents act in their environment. The environment may contain other agents.

Characteristics of intelligent agents

Intelligent agents have the following distinguishing characteristics:

 They have some level of autonomy that allows them to perform certain tasks on their
own.
 They have a learning ability that enables them to learn even as tasks are carried out.
 They can interact with other entities such as agents, humans, and systems.
 New rules can be accommodated by intelligent agents incrementally.
 They exhibit goal-oriented habits.
 They are knowledge-based. They use knowledge regarding communications,
processes, and entities.

The structure of intelligent agents

The IA structure consists of three main parts: architecture, agent function, and agent program.

1. Architecture: This refers to machinery or devices that consists of actuators and

sensors. The intelligent agent executes on this machinery. Examples include a
personal computer, a car, or a camera.
2. Agent function: This is a function in which actions are mapped from a certain
percept sequence. Percept sequence refers to a history of what the intelligent agent has
perceived.
3. Agent program: This is an implementation or execution of the agent function. The
agent function is produced through the agent program’s execution on the physical
architecture.

PEAS Representation
PEAS is a type of model on which an AI agent works upon. When we define an AI
agent or rational agent, then we can group its properties under PEAS representation
model. It is made up of four words:
P: Performance measure
E: Environment
A: Actuators
S: Sensors
Here performance measure is the objective for the success of an agent's behavior.
PEAS for self-driving cars:
Let's suppose a self-driving car then PEAS representation will be:
Performance: Safety, time, legal drive, comfort
Environment: Roads, other vehicles, road signs, pedestrian
Actuators: Steering, accelerator, brake, signal, horn
Sensors: Camera, GPS, speedometer, odometer, accelerometer, sonar.

Examples of agents in artificial intelligence. Here are a few:

1. Intelligent personal assistants: These are agents that are designed to help users with
various tasks, such as scheduling appointments, sending messages, and setting reminders.
Examples of intelligent personal assistants include Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
2. Autonomous robots: These are agents that are designed to operate autonomously in the
physical world. They can perform tasks such as cleaning, sorting, and delivering goods.
Examples of autonomous robots include the Roomba vacuum cleaner and the Amazon
delivery robot.
 3. Gaming agents: These are agents that are designed to play games, either against human
opponents or other agents. Examples of gaming agents include chess-playing agents and
poker-playing agents.
4. Fraud detection agents: These are agents that are designed to detect fraudulent behavior
in financial transactions. They can analyze patterns of behavior to identify suspicious
activity and alert authorities. Examples of fraud detection agents include those used by
banks and credit card companies.
5. Traffic management agents: These are agents that are designed to manage traffic flow
in cities. They can monitor traffic patterns, adjust traffic lights, and reroute vehicles to
minimize congestion. Examples of traffic management agents include those used in
smart cities around the world.
6. A software agent has Keystrokes, file contents, received network packages that act as
sensors and displays on the screen, files, and sent network packets acting as actuators. A
Human-agent has eyes, ears, and other organs which act as sensors, and hands, legs,
mouth, and other body parts act as actuators.
7. A Robotic agent has Cameras and infrared range finders which act as sensors and
various motors act as actuators.

Characteristics of an Agent

Categories of intelligent agents

Types of Agents

Agents can be grouped into five classes based on their degree of perceived intelligence and
capability :

 Simple Reflex Agents

 Model-Based Reflex Agents
 Goal-Based Agents
 Utility-Based Agents
 Learning Agent
 Multi-agent systems
 Hierarchical agents

Simple Reflex Agents

Simple reflex agents ignore the rest of the percept history and act only on the basis of
the current percept. Percept history is the history of all that an agent has perceived to date.
The agent function is based on the condition-action rule. A condition-action rule is a rule
that maps a state i.e., a condition to an action. If the condition is true, then the action is taken,
else not. This agent function only succeeds when the environment is fully observable. For
simple reflex agents operating in partially observable environments, infinite loops are often
unavoidable. It may be possible to escape from infinite loops if the agent can randomize its
actions.

Problems with Simple reflex agents are :

 Very limited intelligence.

 No knowledge of non-perceptual parts of the state.
 Usually too big to generate and store.
 If there occurs any change in the environment, then the collection of rules needs to be
updated.

Simple Reflex Agents

Model-Based Reflex Agents

It works by finding a rule whose condition matches the current situation. A model-based
agent can handle partially observable environments by the use of a model about the world.
The agent has to keep track of the internal state which is adjusted by each percept and that
depends on the percept history. The current state is stored inside the agent which maintains
some kind of structure describing the part of the world which cannot be seen.

Updating the state requires information about:

 How the world evolves independently from the agent?

 How do the agent’s actions affect the world?
Model-Based Reflex Agents

Goal-Based Agents

These kinds of agents take decisions based on how far they are currently from
their goal(description of desirable situations). Their every action is intended to reduce their
distance from the goal. This allows the agent a way to choose among multiple possibilities,
selecting the one which reaches a goal state. The knowledge that supports its decisions is
represented explicitly and can be modified, which makes these agents more flexible. They
usually require search and planning. The goal-based agent’s behavior can easily be changed.

Goal-Based Agents

Utility-Based Agents

The agents which are developed having their end uses as building blocks are called utility-
based agents. When there are multiple possible alternatives, then to decide which one is best,
utility-based agents are used. They choose actions based on a preference (utility) for each
state. Sometimes achieving the desired goal is not enough. We may look for a quicker, safer,
cheaper trip to reach a destination.
Utility-Based Agents

Learning Agent

A learning agent in AI is the type of agent that can learn from its past experiences or it has
learning capabilities. It starts to act with basic knowledge and then is able to act and adapt
automatically through learning. A learning agent has mainly four conceptual components,
which are:

1. Learning element: It is responsible for making improvements by learning from the

environment.
2. Critic: The learning element takes feedback from critics which describes how well
the agent is doing with respect to a fixed performance standard.
3. Performance element: It is responsible for selecting external action.
4. Problem Generator: This component is responsible for suggesting actions that will
lead to new and informative experiences.

Learning Agent

Multi-Agent Systems
These agents interact with other agents to achieve a common goal. They may have to
coordinate their actions and communicate with each other to achieve their objective.

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting agents that are
designed to work together to achieve a common goal. These agents may be autonomous or
semi-autonomous and are capable of perceiving their environment, making decisions, and
taking action to achieve the common objective.

MAS can be used in a variety of applications, including transportation systems, robotics, and
social networks. They can help improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase flexibility in
complex systems. MAS can be classified into different types based on their characteristics,
such as whether the agents have the same or different goals, whether the agents are
cooperative or competitive, and whether the agents are homogeneous or heterogeneous.

 In a homogeneous MAS, all the agents have the same capabilities, goals, and
behaviors.
 In contrast, in a heterogeneous MAS, the agents have different capabilities, goals, and
behaviors.
 Cooperative MAS involves agents working together to achieve a common goal, while
competitive MAS involves agents working against each other to achieve their own
goals. In some cases, MAS can also involve both cooperative and competitive
behavior, where agents must balance their own interests with the interests of the
group.

Hierarchical Agents

 Hierarchical agents are agents that are organized into a hierarchy, with high-level
agents overseeing the behavior of lower-level agents. The high-level agents provide
goals and constraints, while the low-level agents carry out specific tasks. This
structure allows for more efficient and organized decision-making in complex
environments.
 Hierarchical agents can be implemented in a variety of applications, including
robotics, manufacturing, and transportation systems. They are particularly useful in
environments where there are many tasks and sub-tasks that need to be coordinated
and prioritized.
 In a hierarchical agent system, the high-level agents are responsible for setting goals
and constraints for the lower-level agents. These goals and constraints are typically
based on the overall objective of the system. For example, in a manufacturing system,
the high-level agents might set production targets for the lower-level agents based on
customer demand.
 Hierarchical agents can be organized into different levels, depending on the
complexity of the system. In a simple system, there may be only two levels: high-
level agents and low-level agents. In a more complex system, there may be multiple
levels, with intermediate-level agents responsible for coordinating the activities of
lower-level agents.
 One advantage of hierarchical agents is that they allow for more efficient use of
resources. By organizing agents into a hierarchy, it is possible to allocate tasks to the
agents that are best suited to carry them out, while avoiding duplication of effort. This
can lead to faster, more efficient decision-making and better overall performance of
the system.

How intelligent agents work

Intelligent agents work through three main components: sensors, actuators, and effectors.
Getting an overview of these components can improve our understanding of how intelligent
agents work.

 Sensors: These are devices that detect any changes in the environment. This
information is sent to other devices. In artificial intelligence, the environment of the
system is observed by intelligent agents through sensors.
 Actuators: These are components through which energy is converted into motion.
They perform the role of controlling and moving a system. Examples include rails,
motors, and gears.
 Effectors: The environment is affected by effectors. Examples include legs, fingers,
wheels, display screen, and arms.

The following diagram shows how these components are positioned in the AI system.

Inputs (percepts) from the environment are received by the intelligent agent through sensors.
This agent uses artificial intelligence to make decisions using the acquired information/
observations. Actions are then triggered through actuators. Future decisions will be
influenced by percept history and past actions.

Applications of intelligent agents

Intelligent agents in artificial intelligence have been applied in many real-life situations.

 Information search, retrieval, and navigation

Intelligent agents enhance the access and navigation of information. This is achieved through
the search of information using search engines. The internet consists of many data objects
that may take users a lot of time to search for a specific data object. Intelligent agents perform
this task on behalf of users within a short time.
  Repetitive office activities

Some companies have automated certain administrative tasks to reduce operating costs. Some
of the functional areas that have been automated include customer support and sales.
Intelligent agents have also been used to enhance office productivity.

 Medical diagnosis

Intelligent agents have also been applied in healthcare services to improve the health of
patients. In this case, the patient is considered as the environment. The computer keyboard is
used as the sensor that receives data on the symptoms of the patient. The intelligent agent
uses this information to decide the best course of action. Medical care is given through
actuators such as tests and treatments.

 Autonomous driving

Intelligent agents enhance the operation of self-driving cars. In autonomous driving, various
sensors are employed to collect information from the environment. These include cameras,
GPS, and radar. In this application, the environment can be pedestrians, other vehicles, roads,
or road signs. Various actuators are used to initiate actions. For example, brakes are used to
bring the car to a stop.

 Robotics: Agents can be used to control robots and automate tasks in manufacturing,
transportation, and other industries.
 Smart homes and buildings: Agents can be used to control heating, lighting, and
other systems in smart homes and buildings, optimizing energy use and improving
comfort.
 Transportation systems: Agents can be used to manage traffic flow, optimize routes
for autonomous vehicles, and improve logistics and supply chain management.
 Finance: Agents can be used for automated trading, fraud detection, and risk
management in the financial industry.
 Games: Agents can be used to create intelligent opponents in games and simulations,
providing a more challenging and realistic experience for players.
 Natural language processing: Agents can be used for language translation, question
answering, and chatbots that can communicate with users in natural language.
 Cybersecurity: Agents can be used for intrusion detection, malware analysis, and
network security.
 Environmental monitoring: Agents can be used to monitor and manage natural
resources, track climate change, and improve environmental sustainability.
 Social media: Agents can be used to analyze social media data, identify trends and
patterns, and provide personalized recommendations to users.