HIT3002: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Intelligent Agents

Outline

Agents and environments.

The vacuum-cleaner world

The concept of rational behavior. Environments. Agent structure.

Swinburne University of Technology

Agents and environments

Agents include human, robots, softbots, thermostats, etc. The agent function maps percept sequence to actions

An agent can perceive its own actions, but not always it effects.

f : P* A

Agents and environments

The agent function will internally be represented by the agent program. The agent program runs on the physical architecture to produce f.

Swinburne University of Technology

The vacuum-cleaner world An example

Environment: squares A and B Percepts: [location and content] e.g. [A, Dirty] Actions: left, right, suck, and no-op

The vacuum-cleaner world Agent function

Percept sequence [A,Clean] [A, Dirty] [B, Clean] [B, Dirty] [A, Clean],[A, Clean] [A, Clean],[A, Dirty]

Action
Right Suck Left Suck Right Suck

Swinburne University of Technology

The vacuum-cleaner world An agent program

function REFLEX-VACUUM-AGENT ([location, status]) return an action if status == Dirty then return Suck else if location == A then return Right else if location == B then return Left

What is the right function? Can it be implemented in a small agent program?

The concept of rationality

A rational agent is one that does the right thing.

Every entry in the table is filled out correctly.

What is the right thing?

Approximation: the most successful agent. Measure of success?

Performance measure should be objective

E.g. the amount of dirt cleaned within a certain time. E.g. how clean the floor is.

Performance measure according to what is wanted in the environment instead of how the agents should behave.

Swinburne University of Technology

Rationality

What is rational at a given time depends on four things:

Performance measure, Prior environment knowledge, Actions, Percept sequence to date (sensors).

DEF: A rational agent chooses whichever action that maximizes the expected value of the performance measure given the percept sequence to date and prior environment knowledge.

Rationality

Rationality omniscience
An omniscient agent knows the actual outcome

of its actions.

Rationality perfection
Rationality maximizes expected performance,

while perfection maximizes actual performance.

Swinburne University of Technology

Rationality
The

proposed definition requires:

Information gathering/exploration
To maximize future rewards

Learn from percepts

Extending prior knowledge

Agent autonomy
Compensate for incorrect prior knowledge

Is the vacuum cleaner agent rational?

Depend! For example, its rational under the following assumptions:

Performance measure: 1 point for each clean square over

lifetime of 1000 steps

geography known but dirt distribution, initial position of agent not

known

Clean squares stay clean, sucking cleans squares Left and Right dont take agent outside environment Available actions: Left, Right, Suck, NoOp Agent knows where it is and whether that location contains dirt

Swinburne University of Technology

Environments
To

design a rational agent we must specify its task environment. description of the environment:
Performance Environment Actuators Sensors

PEAS

Environments
E.g.

Fully automated taxi:

Performance
Safety, destination, profits, legality, comfort

PEAS description of the environment:

Environment
Streets/freeways, other traffic, pedestrians, weather,

Actuators
Steering, accelerating, brake, horn, speaker/display,

Sensors
Video, sonar, speedometer, engine sensors, keyboard, GPS,

Swinburne University of Technology

Environment types

Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent??

Backgammom

Intenet shopping

Taxi

Environment types
Fully vs. partially observable: an environment is full observable when the sensors can detect all aspects that are relevant to the choice of action.

Solitaire
Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent??

Backgammom

Intenet shopping

Taxi

Swinburne University of Technology

Environment types
Fully vs. partially observable: an environment is full observable when the sensors can detect all aspects that are relevant to the choice of action.

Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL

Backgammom FULL

Intenet shopping PARTIAL

Taxi PARTIAL

Environment types
Deterministic vs. stochastic: if the next environment state is completely determined by the current state the executed action then the environment is deterministic.

Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL

Backgammom FULL

Intenet shopping PARTIAL

Taxi PARTIAL

Swinburne University of Technology

Environment types
Deterministic vs. stochastic: if the next environment state is completely determined by the current state the executed action then the environment is deterministic.

Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL YES

Backgammom FULL NO

Intenet shopping PARTIAL YES

Taxi PARTIAL NO

Environment types
Episodic vs. sequential: In an episodic environment the agents experience can be divided into atomic steps where the agents perceives and then performs A single action. The choice of action depends only on the episode itself Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL YES Backgammom FULL NO Intenet shopping PARTIAL YES Taxi PARTIAL NO

Swinburne University of Technology

10

Environment types
Episodic vs. sequential: In an episodic environment the agents experience can be divided into atomic steps where the agents perceives and then performs A single action. The choice of action depends only on the episode itself Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL YES NO Backgammom FULL NO NO Intenet shopping PARTIAL YES NO Taxi PARTIAL NO NO

Environment types
Static vs. dynamic: If the environment can change while the agent is choosing an action, the environment is dynamic. Semi-dynamic if the agents performance changes even when the environment remains the same. Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL YES NO Backgammom FULL NO NO Intenet shopping PARTIAL YES NO Taxi PARTIAL NO NO

Swinburne University of Technology

11

Environment types
Static vs. dynamic: If the environment can change while the agent is choosing an action, the environment is dynamic. Semi-dynamic if the agents performance changes even when the environment remains the same. Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL YES NO YES Backgammom FULL NO NO YES Intenet shopping PARTIAL YES NO SEMI Taxi PARTIAL NO NO NO

Environment types
Discrete vs. continuous: This distinction can be applied to the state of the environment, the way time is handled and to the percepts/actions of the agent.

Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL YES NO YES

Backgammom FULL NO NO YES

Intenet shopping PARTIAL YES NO SEMI

Taxi PARTIAL NO NO NO

Swinburne University of Technology

12

Environment types
Discrete vs. continuous: This distinction can be applied to the state of the environment, the way time is handled and to the percepts/actions of the agent.

Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL YES NO YES YES

Backgammom FULL NO NO YES YES

Intenet shopping PARTIAL YES NO SEMI YES

Taxi PARTIAL NO NO NO NO

Environment types
Single vs. multi-agent: Does the environment contain other agents who are also maximizing some performance measure that depends on the current agents actions? Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL YES NO YES YES Backgammom FULL NO NO YES YES Intenet shopping PARTIAL YES NO SEMI YES Taxi PARTIAL NO NO NO NO

Swinburne University of Technology

13

Environment types
Single vs. multi-agent: Does the environment contain other agents who are also maximizing some performance measure that depends on the current agents actions? Solitaire Observable?? Deterministic?? Episodic?? Static?? Discrete?? Single-agent?? FULL YES NO YES YES YES Backgammom FULL NO NO YES YES NO Intenet shopping PARTIAL YES NO SEMI YES NO Taxi PARTIAL NO NO NO NO NO

Environment types
The

simplest environment is

Fully observable, deterministic, episodic, static,

discrete and single-agent.

Most

real situations are:

Partially observable, stochastic, sequential,

dynamic, continuous and multi-agent.

Swinburne University of Technology

14

Agent types

How does the inside of the agent work?

Agent = architecture + program

All agents have the same skeleton:

Input = current percepts Output = action Program= manipulates input to produce output

Note difference with agent function.

Agent types
Function TABLE-DRIVEN_AGENT(percept) returns an action static: percepts, a sequence initially empty table, a table of actions, indexed by percept sequence append percept to the end of percepts action LOOKUP(percepts, table) return action

This approach is doomed to failure

Swinburne University of Technology

15

Agent types

Four basic kind of agent programs will be discussed:

Simple reflex agents Model-based reflex agents Goal-based agents Utility-based agents

All these can be turned into learning agents.

Agent types; simple reflex

Select action on the basis of only the current percept.

E.g. the vacuum-agent

Large reduction in possible percept/action situations(next page). Implemented through condition-action rules
If dirty then suck

Swinburne University of Technology

16

The vacuum-cleaner world

function REFLEX-VACUUM-AGENT ([location, status]) return an action if status == Dirty then return Suck else if location == A then return Right else if location == B then return Left

Reduction from 4T to 4 entries

Agent types; simple reflex

function SIMPLE-REFLEX-AGENT(percept) returns an action static: rules, a set of condition-action rules state INTERPRET-INPUT(percept) rule RULE-MATCH(state, rule) action RULE-ACTION[rule] return action

Will only work if the environment is fully observable otherwise infinite loops may occur.

Swinburne University of Technology

17

Agent types; reflex and state

To tackle partially observable environments.

Maintain internal state

Over time update state using world knowledge

How does the world

change.
How do actions affect

world.

Model of World

Agent types; reflex and state

function REFLEX-AGENT-WITH-STATE(percept) returns an action static: rules, a set of condition-action rules state, a description of the current world state action, the most recent action. state UPDATE-STATE(state, action, percept) rule RULE-MATCH(state, rule) action RULE-ACTION[rule] return action

Swinburne University of Technology

18

Agent types; goal-based

The agent needs a goal to know which situations are desirable.

Things become difficult when long

sequences of actions are required to find the goal.

Typically investigated in search and planning research. Major difference: future is taken into account Is more flexible since knowledge is represented explicitly and can be manipulated.

Agent types; utility-based

Certain goals can be reached in different ways.

Some are better, have a higher

utility.

Utility function maps a (sequence of) state(s) onto a real number. Improves on goals:
Selecting between conflicting

goals
Select appropriately between

several goals based on likelihood of success.

Swinburne University of Technology

19

Agent types; learning

All previous agentprograms describe methods for selecting actions.

Yet it does not explain the

origin of these programs. be used to perform this task. instructing them.

Learning mechanisms can

Teach them instead of Advantage is the

robustness of the program toward initially unknown environments.

Agent types; learning

Learning element: introduce improvements in performance element.

Critic provides feedback on agents

performance based on fixed performance standard.

Performance element: selecting actions based on percepts.

Corresponds to the previous agent

programs

Problem generator: suggests actions that will lead to new and informative experiences.
Exploration vs. exploitation

Swinburne University of Technology

20

Summary: Agents

An agent perceives and acts in an environment, has an architecture, and is implemented by an agent program. Task environment PEAS (Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors) An ideal agent always chooses the action which maximizes its expected performance, given its percept sequence so far. An autonomous learning agent uses its own experience rather than built-in knowledge of the environment by the designer. An agent program maps from percept to action and updates internal state.
Reflex agents respond immediately to percepts. Goal-based agents act in order to achieve their goal(s). Utility-based agents maximize their own utility function.

Representing knowledge is important for successful agent design. The most challenging environments are not fully observable, nondeterministic, dynamic, and continuous

Swinburne University of Technology

21