Current Applications Of Software Agents Essay

If you submit make a purchase at Amazon, you would gain noticed that as soon as you complete your purchase procedures, Amazon presents you with a itemization of books that customers who purchased the same item as you did also bought along with this item. During your next visit, you lead rise up a list of books that be similar to the iodins you purchased previously that you capacity be interested in buying. Another popular site eBay displays a list of similar products that other customers who did the same essay looked at. The above dickens sites are ex angstromles of two ways of implementing packet genes.A package agent is a data processor program that is capable of intelligently and autonomously executing a given task ground on the instructions reserved by the user. It fundamentally operates on behalf of its owner. The goal of a software agent is to maximize the owners interests which it does by maximizing a particular utility function. just about software agents gutter learn from experience and adapt themselves based on the feedback obtained from the environment thus making it an autonomous process with no human beings intervention. A multi-agent system involves multiple software agents.software product agents are ideally suited for a wide variety of uses, in particular, process and workflow automation, electronic commerce, distributed problem solving and Internet screenings (Acronymics, Inc. 2004). Some application ex axerophtholles embarrass agent-based write out chain heed, personal or user agents, e-business systems, e-market, e-banking, and e-investments, etc. mathematical product focus in the retail industry is one area of application of the software agent. Merchandise management involves selection of desirable trade in, disposal of slow-selling ones and orderliness and distributing them suitably.The competition is fierce with the eCommerce making it even more(prenominal) difficult ascribable to diverse customer preferen ces low merchant loyalty. The only way to tractor trailer this problem is by understanding the changes in customer demands quickly and responding appropriately through and through merchandise management. However, due to the sheer number of merchandise and brands, managing merchandise effectively becomes an impossible task. This is where software agents are processful by actualizeing the merchandise managers jobs autonomously, continuously and efficiently.These software agents help in evaluating and selecting merchandise and predicting seasons and expression purchase schedules autonomously. An effective merchandise management helps reduce the inventory train while increasing sales and profits. (Jae Heon, P. , Sang Chan P. 2003) Rob Meijer describes the following moneymaking(prenominal) applications in his obligate 1. Watcher agents These autonomously look for the specified nurture and run personalized versions based on the end-users preferences, an example is personalized v ersions of impertinentlys showpapers.To set out a personalized paper, a user must first provide with relevant personal information, preferences, and special interests. The agent then provides personalized sensitives based on these details. With each visit, the agent improves and provides personalized newspaper without very much human intervention. Fishwrap (MIT) and Newshound are examples of Watcher agents. (Meijer, R. 2005) 2. Learning agents Based on the air of their user, they crapper learn to tailor their performance. Examples of the same are Firefly, Similarities locomotive, WegHunter, Open Sesame, and InterAp.Similarities Engine was a Web-based music recommending system that worked similar to Amazons recommedations of new books the technology has now been purchased by Microsoft. (Meijer, R. 2005) 3. Shopping agents These agents are capable of canvas and finding the best price for an item. BargainFinder is an example of Shopping agents that searches the inventory of vendors on the internet to find the lowest prices on the desired product luck you save both time and money. (Meijer, R. 2005) 4.Information convalescence agents These agents search for information intelligently and are capable of summarizing the information as well. Netsumm is an example that can provide an abstract of the most important sentences of a web page. (Meijer, R. 2005) The profound Software Agents Lab (The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University) has created an information retrieval agent for Aircraft Maintenance. Considering the inquiring of relevant information along with time constraints, the mechanics are provided with wearable computers based on RETSINA infrastructure.When a discrepancy is encountered, all he unavoidably to do is fill out a form on his computer and the agents would seek relevant information. The advantages of wearable computers with agents include automatic location and retrieval of information relevant to repairs, utilization of histor ical repair data, increased ability of access to information from manuals, and reduction in average time for repair. The boilers suit result is timely, quality maintenance. (The intelligent Software Agents Lab, 2001-2009)Another example on their site is WebMate which is a personal digital assistant that provides URL recommendations based on a continuously updated user profile offers ever more relevant web documents based on the Trigger Pairs Model draw near to keyword refinement responds to user feedback by selecting features from documents the user finds relevant and incorporating these features into the context of new queries compiles a daily personal newspaper with links to documents of interest to the user. (The Intelligent Software Agents Lab, 2001-2009)5. Helper agents These are generally used for net income management and standard maintenance functions. LANAlert is an example of Helper agent. (Meijer, R. 2005) Agents can also help automate the bargaining process i. e. based on the user preferences, products and work along with related conditions (like warranty and delivery time) can be made flexible to meet the clients expectations. (Gerding, E. H. 2004) Google AdWords is an example of such an agent. On typing search keywords, it provides recommendations to users as sponsored links.First of all, there are confine ads that can be displayed on a search result page. The ads are displayed only on certain keywords selected by the advertiser. Also, since limited ads are there and also the order of displaying the ads (from top to bottom) makes a difference, advertisers substantiate to compete for these spaces. This is make by choosing the best keywords based on the information provided by Google regarding search counts and setting an upper limit on the amount that you would pay if you have a visitor. The advertiser with the highest bid wins in this case.Gary Anthes provides the examples of the following companies who have been lucky in utilizing software agents for complex processes Procter & Gample Co. (P&G) used software agents to convert their supply chain management into a supply network connecting to 5 billion consumers in 140 countries saving $300 one million million annually. (Anthes, G. 2003) Southwest Airlines Co. honed political machinego routing using software agents. For Air Liquide America LP, software agents helped reduce both production and distribution be. (Anthes, G. 2003) Software agents helped Merck & Co.find more efficient ways to distribute anti-HIV drugs in Zimbabwe. (Anthes, G. 2003) Simulation of emptor preferences using software agents helped Ford Motor Co. come up with car options that optimized the trade-offs between production costs and customer demands. (Anthes, G. 2003) Software agents helped Edison Chouest Offshore LLC to optimize service and supply vessels deployment in the Gulf of Mexico. (Anthes, G. 2003) Supply Chain counselling through software agents not only help sa ve costs but also help in inventory management through reduced inventory, and improved customer service.(Anthes, G. 2003) Gary Anthes also explains how software agents have helped P&G. Basically, each circumstances of the supply system from transports to drivers to stores was represented by a software agent. Using rules, they defined the behavior of each component that represented its actual behavior such as Dispatch truck when full. P&G then used the simulations to perform what-if scenarios and checked out inventory levels, transportation costs and in-store stock-outs. Many change rules were considered such as on ordering and shipping frequencies, demand presage etc.(Anthes, G. 2003) Through the use of these agent-based models, P&G realize that while sending trucks with less than full loads increases transportation costs, absolute frequency of in-store stock-outs often resulting in lost sales is reduced. Similarly P&G relooked into many of its rigid rules and rela xed them to improve the overall performance of the supply chain. They also had to be more flexible in manufacturing instead of one product at a time, they had to be able to produce all product every day, reducing stock-outs.Flexibility in distributing products within 24 hours instead of the customary 48 to 72 hours was another change that software agents helped P&G realize and change. (Anthes, G. 2003) References Jae Heon, P. , Sang Chan P. 2003. Agent-based merchandise management in business-to-business electronic commerce. In Decision Support Systems (Volume 35 , reduce 3 , June 2003). Elsevier Science Publishers B. V. Amsterdam. http//portal. acm. org/citation. cfm? id=794070 This article explains how an agent-based merchandise management system can help retail companies better manage their merchandise.Gerding, E. H. 2004. Autonomous Agents in negotiate Games An Evolutionary Investigation of Fundamentals, Strategies, and Business Applications. PhD thesis, Technische Univer siteit Eindhoven. http//eprints. ecs. soton. ac. uk/15640/ This article explains how autonomous software agents could be used in the bargaining process and some of its applications. WebMate. The Intelligent Software Agents Lab. The Robotics Institute. Carnegie Mellon University. http//www. cs. cmu. edu/softagents/webmate. htmlThis article explains WebMate, a personal digital assistant, a real-life application of software agents. Aircraft Maintenance. The Intelligent Software Agents Lab. The Robotics Institute. Carnegie Mellon University. http//www. cs. cmu. edu/softagents/aircraft. html This article explains how the aircraft maintenance issues have been resolved using software agents. Anthes, G. 2003. Agents of Change. In Computerworld. http//www. computerworld. com/action/article. do? controller=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Software+Development&articleId=77855&taxonomyId=63&pageNumber=1This article provides examples of successful implementation of software agents by s everal(prenominal) companies and how it has helped them improve their processes as well as their thinking. Meijer, R. 2005. Intelligent Software Agents place for business. In The IPTS Report (Issue 5). http//ipts. jrc. ec. europa. eu/home/report/english/articles/vol05/art-it1. htm This article provides types of commercial applications of software agents along with implemented examples. Acronymics, Inc. 2004. Why, When, and Where to Use Software Agents. http//www. agentbuilder. com/ certificate/whyAgents. html This article provides an overview on software agents.