UNIT-4

Software architectures
• software architectures, are formally a description of the
elements from which a system is built and the manner in
which they communicate.
1. A number of common architectures exist that go by the
names pipe-and filter or layered architecture.
2. these define the interconnections between components.
3. Pipe-and-Filter defines a model where data is moved
through a set of one or more objects that perform a
transformation.
4. Layered simply means that the system is comprised of a set
of layers that provide a specific set of logical functionality
and that connectivity is commonly restricted to the layers
contiguous to one another.
 Types of Architectures
1. Reactive architectures
2. Deliberative architectures
3. Blackboard architectures
4. Belief-desire-intention (BDI) architecture
5. Hybrid architectures
6. Mobile architectures
 REACTIVE ARCHITECTURES
1. A reactive architecture is the simplest architecture for agents.
2. In this architecture, agent behaviors are simply a mapping between
stimulus and response.
3. The agent has no decision-making skills, only reactions to the environment
in which it exists.
4. the agent simply reads the environment and then maps the state of the
environment to one or more actions. Given the environment, more than
one action may be appropriate, and therefore the agent must choose.
5. The advantage of reactive architectures is that they are extremely fast.
6. This kind of architecture can be implemented easily in hardware, or fast in
software lookup.
7. The disadvantage of reactive architectures is that they apply only to simple
environments.
8. Sequences of actions require the presence of state, which is not encoded
into the mapping function.
 DELIBERATIVE ARCHITECTURES
1. A deliberative architecture, as the name implies, is one that includes some
deliberation over the action to perform given the current set of inputs.
2. Instead of mapping the sensors directly to the actuators, the deliberative
architecture considers the sensors, state, prior results of given actions,
and other information in order to select the best action to perform.
3. The mechanism for action selection as is undefined. This is because it
could be a variety of mechanisms including a production system, neural
network, or any other intelligent algorithm.
4. The advantage of the deliberative architecture is that it can be used to
solve much more complex problems than the reactive architecture.
5. It can perform planning, and perform sequences of actions to achieve a
goal.
6. The disadvantage is that it is slower than the reactive architecture due to
the deliberation for the action to select.
 . BLACKBOARD ARCHITECTURES
• 1. The blackboard architecture is a very common architecture that is also very
interesting.
• 2. The first blackboard architecture was HEARSAY-II, which was a speech
understanding system. This architecture operates around a global work area call
the blackboard.
• 3. The blackboard is a common work area for a number of agents that work
cooperatively to solve a given problem.
• 4. The blackboard therefore contains information about the environment, but also
intermediate work results by the cooperative agents (see Figure 11.10).
• 5. In this example, two separate agents are used to sample the environment
through the available sensors (the sensor agent) and also through the available
actuators (action agent).
• 6. The blackboard contains the current state of the environment that is constantly
updated by the sensor agent, and when an action can be performed (as specified
in the blackboard), the action agent translates this action into control of the
actuators.
• 7. The control of the agent system is provided by one or more reasoning agents.
8. These agents work together to achieve the goals, which would also be contained in
the blackboard.
9. In this example, the first reasoning agent could implement the goal definition
behaviors, where the second reasoning agent could implement the planning
portion (to translate goals into sequences of actions).
10. Since the blackboard is a common work area, coordination must be provided such
that agents don’t step over one another.
11. For this reason, agents are scheduled based on their need. For example, agents
can monitor the blackboard, and as information is added, they can request the
ability to operate.
13. The scheduler can then identify which agents desire to operate on the blackboard,
and then invoke them accordingly.
14. The blackboard architecture, with its globally available work area, is easily
implemented with a multithreading system.
15. Each agent becomes one or more system threads. From this perspective, the
blackboard architecture is very common for agent and non-agent systems.
 BELIEF-DESIRE-INTENTION (BDI)
ARCHITECTURE
1. BDI, which stands for Belief-Desire-Intention, is an architecture that
follows the theory of human reasoning as defined by Michael Bratman.
2. 2. Belief represents the view of the world by the agent (what it believes
to be the state of the environment in which it exists). Desires are the
goals that define the motivation of the agent (what it wants to achieve).
3. 3. The agent may have numerous desires, which must be consistent.
Finally, Intentions specify that the agent uses the Beliefs and Desires in
order to choose one or more actions in order to meet the desires (see
Figure 11.11).
4. As we described above, the BDI architecture defines the basic
architecture of any deliberative agent. It stores a representation of the
state of the environment (beliefs), maintains a set of goals (desires), and
finally, an intentional element that maps desires to beliefs (to provide
one or more actions that modify the state of the environment based on
the agent’s needs).
 5. HYBRID ARCHITECTURES
1. As is the case in traditional software architecture, most
architectures are hybrids.
2. For example, the architecture of a network stack is
made up of a pipe-and-filter architecture and a layered
architecture.
3. This same stack also shares some elements of a
blackboard architecture, as there are global elements
that are visible and used by each component of the
architecture.
4. The same is true for agent architectures. Based on the
needs of the agent system, different architectural
elements can be chosen to meet those needs.
 6. MOBILE ARCHITECTURES
1. This architectural pattern introduces the ability for agents to migrate
themselves between hosts. The agent architecture includes the mobility
element, which allows an agent to migrate from one host to another.
3. An agent can migrate to any host that implements the mobile framework.
4. The mobile agent framework provides a protocol that permits
communication between hosts for agent migration.
5. This framework also requires some kind of authentication and security, to
avoid a mobile agent framework from becoming a conduit for viruses.
Also implicit in the mobile agent framework is a means for discovery.
6. For example, which hosts are available for migration, and what services do
they provide? Communication is also implicit, as agents can communicate
with one another on a host, or across hosts in preparation for migration.
7. The mobile agent architecture is advantageous as it supports the
development of intelligent distributed systems. But a distributed system
that is dynamic, and whose configuration and loading is defined by the
agents themselves.
ARCHITECTURE DESCRIPTIONS
 ARCHITECTURE DESCRIPTIONS
1. Subsumption Architecture (Reactive Architecture)
2. Behavior Networks (Reactive Architecture)
3. ATLANTIS (Deliberative Architecture)
4. Homer (Deliberative Arch)
5. BB1 (Blackboard)
6. Open Agent Architecture (Blackboard)
7. Procedural Reasoning System (BDI)
8. Aglets (Mobile)
9. Messengers (Mobile)
10. Soar (Hybrid)