B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

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Figure 13.2. — User interface agent
User Interface Agents — User interface agents usually provide assistance
to a user dealing with a particular application (see Figure 13.2). The
metaphor is that of a personal assistant who is collaborating with a user
in the same work environment.
Information Agents — An information agent is an agent that can answer
the queries of users by gathering, filtering, processing and manipulating
information from at least one data and information source.
Collaborative Agents — Agents that communicate, i.e., share information
and collaborate on a common task are called collaborative agents (see
Figure 13.3).
Mobile Agents — Agents that act on a user's behalf and are able to
migrate over a network in a controlled fashion are known as mobile
agents. The agent decides its own path of migration, time of execution
and acts if it has to terminate its execution. It returns results and
messages in an asynchronous fashion.
Reactive Agents — Agents that respond to activities in the current state
of their environment are labeled as reactive agents.
Deliberative Agents — Agents that plan and reason to achieve coordination
with other agents are addressed as deliberative agents. These
agents possess an internal representational and reasoning model.
Matchmaking Agents — Matchmaking agents act as intelligent mediators
between buyers and sellers.