An Architecture for Information Agents

Advanced Planning Technology: Technological Achievements of the ARPA/Rome Laboratory Planning Initiative

Volume

Book One

Contents

Information agents include a significant class of applications which mediate information stxuctures of domain objects to instance representations in a storage manager. Over the past several yeats, we have been experimenting with an information agent architecture in the context of the ARPI. Our information agent architecture uses the Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language (KQML) to implement access the knowledge services of such an information agent. The information agent itself, which we call the Loom Interface Module (LIM), uses knowledge structures represent domain objects and contains an explicit mapping of knowledge structures to representations in an external storage manager, a relational database management system. We have develuped several performance melxics and features for information agents constructed using this architecture. We described several key component algorithm~ and performance measurements We have developed the performance metrics, analysis and examples as a part of ARPI TIEs, introduction into the Common Prototyping Environment and, most impoxtantly, under collaboration with the SIMS project at USC ISI and with the CoBASE project at UCLA.