ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

2
INTELLIGENT AGENTS

• What is an agent?
• Examples of agent
• Concept of Rationality
• Task Environment of a Rational Agent
• Types of Intelligent Agents
AGENTS
What an agent ?
“An agent is anything that can be viewed as perceiving its
environment through sensors and acting upon that environment
through actuators”
EXAMPLE OF AGENT
A VACUUM CLEANER
• agent’s behavior is described by the agent function that maps any
given percept sequence to an action

• The vacuum agent perceives which square it is in and whether there

is dirt in the square.
EXAMPLE OF AGENT
A VACUUM CLEANER
• It can choose to move left, move right, suck up the dirt, or do
nothing
• Example of agent function: If the current square is dirty, then suck;
otherwise, move to the other square.
THE CONCEPT OF RATIONALITY
What is a rational agent
“A rational agent is one that does the right thing given what it
knows”

Rationality: What is rational at any given time depends on four

things:

1. The performance measure that defines the criterion of success.

2. The agent’s prior knowledge of the environment.
3. The actions that the agent can perform.
4. The agent’s percept sequence to date.
THE CONCEPT OF RATIONALITY
What is a rational agent

“An agent is along the road, one day He sees an old friend across the
street. There is no traffic nearby and He is not otherwise engaged, so,
being rational, He start to cross the street. Meanwhile, at 33,000 feet, a
cargo door falls off a passing airliner and before He make it to the
other side of the street He was flattened”

Was the agent rational to cross the street in the first place?
THE CONCEPT OF RATIONALITY
Task Environment of a Rational agent
• In designing an agent, the first step must always be to specify the
task environment as fully as possible
• Task Environment of an agent include the PEAS

• Performance
• Environment
• Actuator
• Sensors
THE CONCEPT OF RATIONALITY
Automated Taxi Driver PEAS
THE CONCEPT OF RATIONALITY
Agents and their PEAS
THE CONCEPT OF RATIONALITY
Properties of Task Environment

• Fully observable vs. partially observable

A task environment is effectively fully observable if the sensors detect
all aspects that are relevant to the choice of action. If the agent has no
sensors at all then the environment is unobservable

• Single agent vs. multiagent

an agent solving a crossword puzzle by itself is clearly in a single-
agent environment, whereas an agent playing chess is in a two agent
environment
THE CONCEPT OF RATIONALITY
Properties of Task Environment
• Deterministic vs. stochastic.
If the next state of the environment is completely determined by the
current state and the action executed by the agent, then we say the
environment is deterministic; otherwise, it is stochastic

• Episodic vs. sequential

In each episode the agent receives a percept and then performs a single
action. For example, an agent that has to spot defective parts on an
assembly line bases each decision on the current part
THE CONCEPT OF RATIONALITY
Properties of Task Environment
• Static vs. dynamic
If the environment can change while an agent is deliberating, then we
say the environment is dynamic for that agent; otherwise, it is static.
• Discrete vs. continuous:
The discrete/continuous distinction applies to the state of the
environment, to the way time is handled, and to the percepts and
actions of the agent.
• Known vs. unknown
In a known environment, the outcomes for all actions are given.
Obviously, if the environment is unknown, the agent will have to
learn how it works in order to make good decisions
THE CONCEPT OF RATIONALITY
Properties of Task Environment
TYPES OF AGENTS
• The types of agents that embody the principles underlying
almost all intelligent systems are :

1. Simple reflex agents;

2. Model-based reflex agents;
3. Goal-based agents; and
4. Utility-based agents.
5. Learning agent
TYPES OF AGENTS
1. Simple Reflex Agent
• The simplest kind of agent is the simple reflex agent.
• These agents select actions on the basis of the current
percept, ignoring the rest of the percept history
TYPES OF AGENTS
1. Simple Reflex Agent
• Example, the vacuum cleaner is a simple reflex agent,
because its decision is based only on the current location and
on whether that location contains dirt.

Simple Reflex Agent program

TYPES OF AGENTS
2. Model-based Reflex Agent
• Unlike simple reflex, this agent maintain some sort of
internal state that depends on the percept history and thereby
reflects at least some of the unobserved aspects of the
current state.
TYPES OF AGENTS
2. Model-based Reflex Agent
• The agent use the current percept with the old internal state to
generate the updated description of the current state, based on the
agent’s model of how the world works.

Model-based Reflex Agent program

TYPES OF AGENTS
3. Goal-based Agent
• Apart of knowing current state and internal state, goal-based agent
measures it performance based on a specified objectives or goals.
• The agent needs some sort of goal information that describes
situations that are desirable
TYPES OF AGENTS
3. Goal-based Agent
• The agent involves consideration of the future—both “What will
happen if I do such-and-such?” and “Will that make me happy?”
• These type of agents are suitable for searching and planing

Goal-based Reflex Agent program

TYPES OF AGENTS
4. Utility-based Agent
• Goals alone are not enough to generate high-quality behavior in
most environments.
• Utility agents not only achieves it goal but find the best action that
lead to goal which make it happy.
TYPES OF AGENTS
5. Learning Agent
• A learning agent can be divided into four conceptual components
• Learning Element, Critic, Problem Generator and Performance
element
TYPES OF AGENTS
5. Learning Agent
• Learning allows the agent to operate in initially unknown
environments and to become more competent than its initial
knowledge alone might allow
• Learning Element, which is responsible for making improvements
• Performance Element, which is responsible for selecting external
actions

• The learning element uses the feedback from the critic on how the
agent is doing and determines how the performance element should
be modified to do better in the future