Artificial Intelligence

Lecture No. 4
Muhammad Saleem Bhatti
Head Of Computer Science Department
Gordon College Rawalpindi
 Summary of Previous Lecture
• Weak and Strong AI
• Acting humanly
• Think like humans
• think rationally
• Acting rationally
• Turing Test
 Today’s Lecture
• What is an Intelligent agent?
• Agents & Environments
• Performance measure
• Environment
• Actuators
• Sensors
• Features of intelligent agents
Ability to Exist to be Autonomous, Reactive, Goal-Oriented, etc.
- are the basic abilities of an Intelligent Agent
 What is an Intelligent agent?

• “Agent” can be considered as a theoretical

concept from AI.
• Many different definitions exist in the
literature…..
 Agent Definition (1)
• An agent is an entity which is:
– Situated in some environment.
– Autonomous, in the sense that it can act without direct intervention
from humans or other software processes, and controls over its own
actions and internal state.
– Flexible which means:
• Responsive (reactive): agents should perceive their environment
and respond to changes that occur in it;
• Proactive: agents should not simply act in response to their
environment, they should be able to exhibit opportunistic, goal-
directed behavior and take the initiative when appropriate;
• Social: agents should be able to interact with humans or other
artificial agents

“A Roadmap of agent research and development”,

N. Jennings, K. Sycara, M. Wooldridge (1998)
 Agent Definition (2)

American Heritage Dictionary:

agent -
” … one that acts or has the power or
authority to act… or represent
another”
 Agent Definition (3)

• "An agent is anything that can be viewed

as perceiving its environment through
sensors and acting upon that
environment through effectors."

Russell & Norvig

 Agent Definition (5)

• “Intelligent agents continuously perform

three functions: perception of dynamic
conditions in the environment; action to
affect conditions in the environment; and
reasoning to interpret perceptions, solve
problems, draw inferences, and
determine actions.”
Barbara Hayes-Roth
 Agents & Environments
 The agent takes sensory input from its
environment, and produces as output actions
that affect it.

sensor action
input Agent output

Environment
 Internal and External Environment of an Agent

External Environment: Balance

user, other humans, other agents,
applications, information sources,
their relationships,
platforms, servers, networks, etc.

Internal Environment:
architecture, goals, abilities, sensors,
effectors, profile, knowledge,
beliefs, etc.
 Overall Intelligent Agent
[Terziyan, 1993]

1) is goal-oriented, because it should have at least one goal -

to keep continuously balance between its internal and external
environments ;
2) is creative because of the ability to change external environment;
3) is adaptive because of the ability to change internal environment;
4) is mobile because of the ability to move to another place;
5) is social because of the ability to communicate to create a
community;
6) is self-configurable because of the ability to protect “mental
health” by sensing only a “suitable” part of the environment.
Agent Definition
[Wikipedia: (The free Encyclopedia),
http://www.wikipedia.org ]

 In computer science, an intelligent agent (IA) is a

software agent that exhibits some form of artificial
intelligence that assists the user and will act on their
behalf, in performing non-repetitive computer-
related tasks.
 While the working of software agents used for
operator assistance or data mining is often based on
fixed pre-programmed rules, "intelligent" here
implies the ability to adapt and learn.
 Three groups of agents
[Etzioni and Daniel S. Weld, 1995]

• Backseat driver: helps the user during some task

(e.g., Microsoft Office Assistant);
• Taxi driver: knows where to go when you tell the
destination;
• Caretaker : know where to go, when and why.
 Agent’s function maps

• The agent function maps from percept histories to actions:

 Agents example
• Human agent:
– eyes, ears, and other organs for sensors;
– hands, legs, mouth, and other body parts for actuators
• Robotic agent:
– cameras and infrared range finders for sensors
– various motors for actuators
 PEAS
• Use PEAS to describe task environment
– Performance measure
– Environment
– Actuators
– Sensors
• Example: Taxi driver
– Performance measure: safe, fast, comfortable
(maximize profits)
– Environment: roads, other traffic, pedestrians,
customers
– Actuators: steering, accelerator, brake, signal, horn
– Sensors: cameras, sonar, speedometer, GPS,
odometer, accelerometer, engine sensors
 PEAS
• Agent: Part-picking robot
• Performance measure: Percentage of parts in
correct bins
• Environment: Conveyor belt with parts, bins
• Actuators: Jointed arm and hand
• Sensors: Camera, joint angle sensors
 PEAS
• Agent: Medical diagnosis system
• Performance measure: Healthy patient,
minimize costs, lawsuits
• Environment: Patient, hospital, staff
• Actuators: Screen display (questions, tests,
diagnoses, treatments, referrals)
•
• Sensors: Keyboard (entry of symptoms, findings,
patient's answers)
 PEAS
• Agent: Interactive English tutor
• Performance measure: Maximize student's
score on test
• Environment: Set of students
• Actuators: Screen display (exercises,
suggestions, corrections)
• Sensors: Keyboard
 Agents and Their Actions
a rational agent does “the right thing”
the action that leads to the best outcome under the
given circumstances
 anagent function maps percept sequences to
actions
abstract mathematical description
 anagent program is a concrete implementation of
the respective function
it runs on a specific agent architecture (“platform”)
 Rational agents
An agent should strive to "do the right thing", based on what
it can perceive and the actions it can perform. The right
action is the one that will cause the agent to be most
successful
•
• Performance measure: An objective criterion for success of
an agent's behavior
•
• E.g., performance measure of a vacuum-cleaner agent
could be amount of dirt cleaned up, amount of time taken,
amount of electricity consumed, amount of noise
generated, etc.
•
 Rational agents
Rational Agent: For each possible percept
sequence, a rational agent should select an
action that is expected to maximize its
performance measure, given the evidence
provided by the percept sequence and whatever
built-in knowledge the agent has.
•
 Rational agents
Rationality is distinct from omniscience (all-knowing
with infinite knowledge)
•
• Agents can perform actions in order to modify
future percepts so as to obtain useful information
(information gathering, exploration)
•
• An agent is autonomous if its behavior is
determined by its own experience (with ability to
learn and adapt)
•
 Description of Agent‘s character

 An agent is responsible for satisfying specific goals. There can

be different types of goals such as achieving a specific status,
maximising a given function (e.g., utility), etc.
beliefs
knowledge
Goal1
Goal1
Goal2
Goal2

 The state of an agent includes state of its internal

environment + state of knowledge and beliefs about its
external environment.
 Connections
• An agent is situated in an environment, that consists of
the objects and other agents it is possible to interact with.

environment
environment

• An agent has an identity that distinguishes it from the

other agents of its environment.
 Summery of Today’s Lecture
• What is an Intelligent agent?
• Agents & Environments
• Performance measure
• Environment
• Actuators
• Sensors
• Features of intelligent agents