JACK Intelligent Agents – Summary of an Agent Infrastructure

Intelligent Agents are being used for modelling simple rational behaviours in a wide range of distributed applications. In particular, multi-agent architectures based on the Belief-DesireIntention model have been used successfully in situations where modelling of human reasoning and team behaviour are needed, such as simulating tactical decision-making in defence operations and command and control structures. Other applications include intelligent web applications, manufacturing control, telephone call centres, and air traffic management. The JACK Intelligent Agents framework by Agent Oriented Software brings the concept of intelligent agents into the mainstream of commercial software engineering and Java. JACK Intelligent AgentsTM is a third generation agent framework, designed as a set of lightweight components with high performance and strong data typing. We present the design approach and major technical characteristics of JACK Intelligent Agents, with a focus on some of the more recent developments – modular structuring elements called Capabilities and the team-based reasoning model called SimpleTeam. Two example applications, in decision support and defence simulation are described. Also, we discuss the benefits of the component-based approach, both for the software engineer developing sophisticated distributed applications, and for the researcher exploring agent models and architectures.