Heterogeneous Agent Systems

Rating:
Summary: Great book, lots of useful detail, just slightly outdated
Review: This book provides an excellent overview of how to architect and create intelligent software agents that operate over the web. Case studies are covered in some depth and include STORE, a personalized department store application, CFIT, an application to prevent Controlled Flight into Terrain, and CHAIN, a supply chain example application.

The examples in the book are not strictly academic toys. I invented a financial agent system in 1999 that was subsequently purchased by America On-Line. The structure of agent interactions of that commercially implemented system is exactly as shown in figure 1.1 of the book.

The only thing that has changed since that system was built, and since this book was published, is the rise of Web Services. The book details an implementation architecture called IMPACT for deploying agents. I think we would find that Web Services would be the appropriate implementation technology today.