AI and AT
Module I Chapter 3 Lesson 11
Intelligent Agents
Agenda
Agents and Environments
The Nature of Environments
The Structure of Agents
Task Environments
Essentially the “problems” to
which rational agents are the
“solutions”
Come in a variety of flavors
The flavor directly affects the
appropriate design for the agent
program
Specifying the Task
Environment
PEAS
◦ Performance
◦ Environment
◦ Actuators
◦ Sensors
Firststep in designing an agent
must always be to specify the
task environment as fully as
possible
Automated Taxi Driver
Example
PEAS description of the task
environment for an automated
taxi
Agent: Spam Filter
Performance Environment Actuators Sensors
Measure
? ? ? ?
Spam Filter
Performance Environment Actuators Sensors
Measure
Minimizing A user’s email Mark as spam, Incoming
false account delete, etc. messages,
positives, other
false information
negatives about user’s
account
Properties of Task
Environment
Fully Observable environments
The sensors detect all aspects
that are relevant to the choice of
action; relevance, in turn,
depends on the performance
measure
Convenient because the agent
need not maintain any internal
state to keep track of the world
Partially Observable Environment
An environment might be
partially observable because of
noisy and inaccurate sensors or
because parts of the state are
missing from the sensor data
Unobservable
Environment
Ifthe agent has no sensors at all
then the environment is
unobservable
Single Agent Environment
Example: An agent solving a
crossword puzzle
Multi-agent Environment
An agent playing chess is in a
two-agent environment
Taxi driver agent?
Competitive
Multi-agent Environment
Example: Chess
The opponent entity B is trying to
maximize its performance
measure, which by the rules of
chess, minimizes agent A’s
performance measure
Cooperative
Multi-agent Environment
Example: Taxi-driving
environment
Avoiding collisions maximizes the
performance measure of all
agents
How about parking?
Partially competitive multi-agent
environment
Deterministic Environment
Next state of the environment is
completely determined by the
current state and agent’s action
Otherwise, it is stochastic
environment
Uncertain Environment
An environment is uncertain if it
is not fully observable or not
deterministic
Nondeterministic
Environment
One in which actions are
characterized by their possible
outcomes, but no probabilities
are attached to them
Episodic Task Environment
The agent’s experience is divided
into atomic episodes
In each episode the agent
receives a percept and then
performs a single action
The next episode does not
depend on the actions taken in
previous episodes
Sequential Task
Environment
The current decision could affect
all future decisions
Static Environment
Environment is not changing
while an agent is deliberating
Easy to deal with because the
agent need not keep looking at
the world while it is deciding on
an action, nor need it worry about
the passage of time
Example: Crossword puzzle
Dynamic Environment
Environment can change while
an agent is deliberating
Example: Taxi driving
Semidynamic
Environment
Environment does not change
with the passage of time but the
agent’s performance score does
Example: Chess, when played
with a clock
Discrete Environment
Environment has a finite number
of distinct states
Example: Chess
Continuous Environment
Percepts and actions are
continuous
Example: Taxi-driving
Known Environment
The agent knows the rules of the
environment
Unknown Environment
The agent does not know the
rules of the environment
Agent will have to learn how it
works in order to make good
decisions
Note that the distinction between
known and unknown
environments is not the same as
the one between fully and
partially observable
environments
Itis quite possible for a known
environment to be partially
observable
Example: Solitaire card games
◦ Rules known but we are unable to
see the cards that have not yet been
turned over
An unknown environment can be
fully observable
Example: A new video game
◦ The screen may show the entire
game state but we may not know
what the buttons do until we try
The Structure of Agents
We have four basic kinds of
agent programs that embody the
principles underlying almost all
intelligent systems:
◦ Simple reflex agents
◦ Model-based reflex agents
◦ Goal-based agents
◦ Utility-based agents
Simple Reflex Agents
Simplest kind
These agents elect actions on the
basis of the current percept,
ignoring the rest of the percept
history
Example: Vacuum Agent
Infiniteloops are often
unavoidable for simple reflex
agents operating in partially
observable environments
Escape from infinite loops is
possible if the agent can
randomize its actions
Model-based Reflex
Agents
The most effective way to handle
partial observability is for the agent
to keep track of the part of the
world it can’t see now
Agent should maintain some sort of
internal state that depends on
the percept history and thereby
reflects at least some of the
unobserved aspects of the current
state
Goal-based Agents
The agent uses goal information
to select between possible
actions in the current state
Utility-based Agents
The agent uses a utility function
to evaluate the desirability of
states that could result from each
possible action
A General Learning Agent
Allagents can improve their
performance through learning
