Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
5Con lu on
In this paper, we introduced a concept which enables and simplifies the devel-
opment process of agent applications with user interfaces. Based on a survey
similar approaches, we can say that there are a lot of ad-hoc but only a few
generic solutions. These solutions were usually restricted by the applied technol-
ogy. To counter such limitations and to bridge the gap between user interfaces
and agent systems we introduced an extra layer: The Human Agent Interface
(HAI). As a mediator, it performs all operations which are necessary to hide the
details and specific properties of the agent layer from the user interface layer. To
achieve the integration of this extra layer we introduced a concept which is based
on MVC and integrates agents in applications. This approach allows developers
to continue using application frameworks, which provide tools and functions that
simplify repetitive and time consuming tasks to speed up the implementation
of user interfaces. The agent-based MVC approach refines the controller com-
ponent by splitting it up into the HAI and the agent system (for web interfaces
there are three parts required: The servlet, which forwards request to HAI, the
HAI itself and the agent system). The HAI is responsible for the conversion of
user-requests into agent messages, inserting the required data and sending the
message to a suitable agent in the multi-agent system. The actual program logic
is performed by the agent system. User interface and MAS are kept separate. For
this reason they can be implemented (mostly) independently from each other.
Further, a short insight into UI development with the Human Agent Interface
has been given. The implemented HAI not only consists of the components
described in the concept. We rather implemented a framework, which allows for
monitoring, configuration and extensibility of the Human Agent Interface.
6
Future Work
A lot of research has been done in the domain of interface agents, to im-
prove the interaction between humans and computers. But there are only a
few approaches to equip agent applications with user interfaces. The Human
Agent Interface is such a solution. However, it relates to the use of application
frameworks, which are designed for object-oriented applications. To combine
the advantages of agent-orientated software engineering with the advantages of
application frameworks without an extra layer, we aspire a framework, which is
geared towards agent systems.
References
1. Agent Oriented Software Pty. Ltd.: JACK Intelligent Agents - WebBot Manual.
Agent Oriented Software Pty. Ltd (June 2005),
http://www.aosgrp.com/documentation/jack/WebBot_Manual.pdf
(July 9, 2011)
2. Ahrndt, S.: HAI - A Human Agent Interface for JIAC. Diploma thesis, Technische
Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany (May 2011)
