Embedded Agents for Mobile Services

Abstract

A significant rise in the use of mobile computing technologies has been witnessed in recent years. Various interpretations of the mobile computing paradigm, for example, ubiquitous and pervasive computing (Weiser, 1991) and more recently, ambient intelligence (Aarts & Marzano, 2003)?have been the subject of much research. The vision of mobile computing is often held as one of “smart” devices operating seamlessly and dynamically, forming ad-hoc networks with other related devices, and presenting the user with a truly ubiquitous intelligent environment. This vision offers many similarities with the concept of distributed artificial intelligence where autonomous entities, known as agents, interact with one another forming ad-hoc alliances, and working both reactively and proactively to achieve individual and common objectives. This article will focus on the current state of the art in the deployment of multi-agent systems on mobile devices and smart phones. A number of platforms will be described, along with some practical issues concerning the deployment of agents in mobile applications.