It is our intention to employ the distributed logic programming language DLP [DLP] as a high-level vehicle for programming the behavior of agents. We strive on the one hand for a close integration of the DESIRE framework and DLP and on the other hand to extend DLP with the primitives needed to access the Web and to create adequate graphical and multimedia user interfaces.
Currently, we are actively employing Orbix/CORBA to develop an workbench for groupware task analysis and a distributed architecture for visualisation (DIVA).
To allow for managing the information retrieval and management tasks involved in dealing with the Web, helper applications must be developed which employ the native HTTP protocol of the Web, and which perform automatic Web navigation. Such tools are often called robots or spiders. An information retrieval tool [Bra,Fish,Search] has been developed at the TUE. Two implementations of this tool exist: one which is integrated in a WWW browser, and one which is a CGI-script for use on servers. The latter implementation now exists in a multi-threaded version, using multiple search-agents operating in parallel. Current Web developments make it possible to integrate such agents into browsers in a flexible way by means of applets or plug-ins. For server-based applications servlets or server plug-ins can be used to avoid the overhead generated by the CGI protocol and by invoking individual instantiations of CGI-scripts.
A method for improving the use of the internal structure of documents has been defined and implemented by means of object-oriented databases. An intelligent retrieval helper application needs to be aware of the internal structure of documents, and needs to be able to store the information it finds using a similar structure. Also, it needs to have direct access to the links between documents; this information is embedded within the text of the documents. A Web-server based on the object-oriented database Ode has been developed for this purpose [OODB]
As concerns its functionality, the final version of Pamela should include
In addition, at the level of design, we exploit DESIRE (developed by AI/VU, see refs [1,2,16,22] of the proposal). In effect, the integration these technologies (DESIRE and DLP) contributes to the originality of our approach.
From an architectural point of view our approach is basically a client-server architecture, with agents as user-dedicated clients. For the communication and Internet capabilities we exploit existing technology (TCP/IP, HTTP, CORBA).
Needless to say that we wish to maintain a close integration between the efforts involved in the research concerning the aspects mentioned. In particular, we intend to develop a prototype agent application Pamela (Personal Assistent for Managing Electronic Archives) as a point of reference and as a means of coordinating the research done by the parties involved. In addition, the Pamela application will serve as means to demonstrate the power of our approach to the scientific community and the rest of the world.