Hospital Management System
2
INTELLIGENT AGENTS
In which we discuss what an intelligent agent does, how it is related to its environment, how it is evaluated, and how we might go about building one.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
An agent is anything that can be viewed as perceiving its environment through sensors and acting upon that environment through effectors. A human agent has eyes, ears, and other organs for sensors, and hands, legs, mouth, and other body parts for effectors. A robotic agent substitutes cameras and infrared range finders for the sensors and various motors for the effectors. A software agent has encoded bit strings as its percepts and actions. A generic agent is diagrammed in Figure 2.1. Our aim in this book is to design agents that do a good job of acting on their environment. First, we will be a little more precise about what we mean by a good job. Then we will talk about different designs for successful agents—filling in the question mark in Figure 2.1. We discuss some of the general principles used in the design of agents throughout the book, chief among which is the principle that agents should know things. Finally, we show how to couple an agent to an environment and describe several kinds of environments.
2.2 HOW AGENTS SHOULD ACT
RATIONAL AGENT
A rational agent is one that does the right thing. Obviously, this is better than doing the wrong thing, but what does it mean? As a first approximation, we will say that the right action is the one that will cause the agent to be most successful. That leaves us with the problem of deciding how and when to evaluate the agent’s success.
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, c 1995 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
31
32
Chapter 2.
Intelligent Agents
sensors percepts environment actions ? agent
effectors
Figure 2.1 Agents interact with environments through sensors and effectors.
PERFORMANCE MEASURE
OMNISCIENCE
We use the term performance measure for the how—the
INTELLIGENT AGENTS
In which we discuss what an intelligent agent does, how it is related to its environment, how it is evaluated, and how we might go about building one.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
An agent is anything that can be viewed as perceiving its environment through sensors and acting upon that environment through effectors. A human agent has eyes, ears, and other organs for sensors, and hands, legs, mouth, and other body parts for effectors. A robotic agent substitutes cameras and infrared range finders for the sensors and various motors for the effectors. A software agent has encoded bit strings as its percepts and actions. A generic agent is diagrammed in Figure 2.1. Our aim in this book is to design agents that do a good job of acting on their environment. First, we will be a little more precise about what we mean by a good job. Then we will talk about different designs for successful agents—filling in the question mark in Figure 2.1. We discuss some of the general principles used in the design of agents throughout the book, chief among which is the principle that agents should know things. Finally, we show how to couple an agent to an environment and describe several kinds of environments.
2.2 HOW AGENTS SHOULD ACT
RATIONAL AGENT
A rational agent is one that does the right thing. Obviously, this is better than doing the wrong thing, but what does it mean? As a first approximation, we will say that the right action is the one that will cause the agent to be most successful. That leaves us with the problem of deciding how and when to evaluate the agent’s success.
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, c 1995 Prentice-Hall, Inc.
31
32
Chapter 2.
Intelligent Agents
sensors percepts environment actions ? agent
effectors
Figure 2.1 Agents interact with environments through sensors and effectors.
PERFORMANCE MEASURE
OMNISCIENCE
We use the term performance measure for the how—the