Formalizing Properties of Agents

Abstract

There is a wide gulf between the formal logic used by logicians to describe agents and the informal vocabulary used by people who actually build robotic or software agents. In an effort to help bridge the gap, this report applies techniques borrowed from the field of formal software methods to develop a common vocabulary. Terms useful for discussing agents are given formal definitions. A framework for describing agents, tasks and environments is developed using the Z specification language. The terms successful, capable, reactive, reflexive, perceptive, predictive, interpretive, rational and sound are then defined in terms of this framework. In addition, a hierarchy for characterizing tasks is given. The aim of this report is to develop a precise vocabulary for discussing and comparing agents.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA270616

Entities

People

  • Richard Goodwin

Organizations

  • Carnegie Mellon University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Aircrafts
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Control Panels
  • Intelligent Agents
  • Language
  • Notation
  • Probability
  • Probability Distributions
  • Software Agents
  • Specifications
  • Time Intervals
  • Vocabulary

Readers

  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Software Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Machine Translation
  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - Autonomous System Control