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Abstract: The study of computational agents capable of rational behaviour has received a great deal of attention in recent years. Theoretical formalizations of such agents and their implementations have proceeded in parallel with little or no connection between them. This paper explores a particular type of rational agent, a Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) agent. The primary aim of this paper is to integrate (a) the theoretical foundations of BDI agents from both a quantitative decision-theoretic perspective and a symbolic reasoning perspective; (b) the implementations of BDI agents from an ideal theoretical perspective and a more practical perspective; and (c) the building of large-scale applications based on BDI agents. In particular, an air-traffic management application will be described from both a theoretical and an implementation perspective.
Abstract: Intentions, an integral part of the mental state of an agent, play an important role in determining the behavior of rational agents as they seek to attain their goals. In this paper, a formalization of intentions based on a branching-time possible-worlds model is presented. It is shown how the formalism realizes many of the important elements of Bratman's theory of intention. In particular, the notion of intention developed here has equal status with the notions of belief and desire, and cannot be reduced to these concepts. This allows different types of rational agents to be modeled by imposing certain conditions on the persistence of an agent's beliefs, goals, and intentions. Finally, the formalism is compared with Bratman's theory of intention and Cohen and Levesque's formalization of intentions.