Building intelligent collaborative interface agents with the ICAGENT development framework

This paper describes the implementation of intelligent collaborative interface agents using the intelligent collaborative agent (ICagent) development framework. In particular, the paper presents the implementation of a collaborative interface agent that acts as a tutor in the context of an educational software application. The agent deliberates socially with users following the SharedPlans model of collaborative activity. Social deliberation requires interface agents to make their desires and intentions clear to the application users, being in constant communication with them, to understand the context of their activity and to reconcile their own and users’ desires in the overall context of action. Reconciliation of users’ desires allows agents to recognize the situations where users need help. The paper briefly presents the ICagent development framework, describes the implementation of the interface agent, and discusses an example of the behavior of the agent during a collaboration session.