Structure of an AI Agent

To understand the structure of Intelligent Agents, we should be familiar with Architecture and Agent programs. Architecture is the machinery that the agent executes on. It is a device with sensors and actuators, for example, a robotic car, a camera, and a PC. An agent program is an implementation of an agent function. An agent function is a map from the percept sequence(history of all that an agent has perceived to date) to an action. 
 

Agent = Architecture + Agent Program

There are many examples of agents in artificial intelligence. Here are a few:

• Intelligent personal assistants: These are agents that are designed to help users with various tasks, such as scheduling appointments, sending messages, and setting reminders. Examples of intelligent personal assistants include Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
• Autonomous robots: These are agents that are designed to operate autonomously in the physical world. They can perform tasks such as cleaning, sorting, and delivering goods. Examples of autonomous robots include the Roomba vacuum cleaner and the Amazon delivery robot.
• Gaming agents: These are agents that are designed to play games, either against human opponents or other agents. Examples of gaming agents include chess-playing agents and poker-playing agents.
• Fraud detection agents: These are agents that are designed to detect fraudulent behavior in financial transactions. They can analyze patterns of behavior to identify suspicious activity and alert authorities. Examples of fraud detection agents include those used by banks and credit card companies.
• Traffic management agents: These are agents that are designed to manage traffic flow in cities. They can monitor traffic patterns, adjust traffic lights, and reroute vehicles to minimize congestion. Examples of traffic management agents include those used in smart cities around the world.
• A software agent has Keystrokes, file contents, received network packages that act as sensors and displays on the screen, files, and sent network packets acting as actuators.
• A Human-agent has eyes, ears, and other organs which act as sensors, and hands, legs, mouth, and other body parts act as actuators.
• A Robotic agent has Cameras and infrared range finders which act as sensors and various motors act as actuators. 
   

In artificial intelligence, an agent is a computer program or system that is designed to perceive its environment, make decisions and take actions to achieve a specific goal or set of goals. The agent operates autonomously, meaning it is not directly controlled by a human operator.

Agents can be classified into different types based on their characteristics, such as whether they are reactive or proactive, whether they have a fixed or dynamic environment, and whether they are single or multi-agent systems.

• Reactive agents are those that respond to immediate stimuli from their environment and take actions based on those stimuli. Proactive agents, on the other hand, take initiative and plan ahead to achieve their goals. The environment in which an agent operates can also be fixed or dynamic. Fixed environments have a static set of rules that do not change, while dynamic environments are constantly changing and require agents to adapt to new situations.
• Multi-agent systems involve multiple agents working together to achieve a common goal. These agents may have to coordinate their actions and communicate with each other to achieve their objectives. Agents are used in a variety of applications, including robotics, gaming, and intelligent systems. They can be implemented using different programming languages and techniques, including machine learning and natural language processing.

Artificial intelligence is defined as the study of rational agents. A rational agent could be anything that makes decisions, such as a person, firm, machine, or software. It carries out an action with the best outcome after considering past and current percepts(agent’s perceptual inputs at a given instance). An AI system is composed of an agent and its environment. The agents act in their environment. The environment may contain other agents. 

An agent is anything that can be viewed as:

• Perceiving its environment through sensors and
• Acting upon that environment through actuators

Note: Every agent can perceive its own actions (but not always the effects).