REDUX' TRIP AGENT

Web browsers are automatically known to Next-Link KAPI agents as "Design-Manager" - your messages back will be addressed to "Design-Manager".

You are planning to travel from Austin to Arlington Texas**. The Redux' "Trip Agent" will not do the planning but will watch what you decide and occasionally assist you. When you perform an action or query through a WWW forms page, you will receive a display of an appropriate KQML message.

This is partially a demonstration of the Redux' agent in that you will learn something about the Redux model of design and functionality.

In practice, this may be more a demonstration of what can be done simply with a forms browser and the cgi-bin program, kqmlgi that converts the forms values to KQML messages and sends them to a Lockheed SHADE KAPI agent. The whole architecture for this demonstation looks like this:

One inherent limitation of using this cgi-bin technology is that only one message from the KAPI agent, in this case Redux', can be returned. Redux' will occasionally send other messages, but they will not be returned. The Redux' functionality is thus limited in two ways:

• You see only one of the messages sent, and
• You must imagine that the messages are sent to various agents rather than all to just you.

Also, kqmlgi will not parse the returned KQML message but will only display it for you. This may be instructive so that you can get a feel for this internal syntax.

A lot of work by various people has gone into this software. Teresa Webster wrote the Next-Link/Redux API. Greg Olsen, wrote kqmlgi and worked with Larry Harada of Lockheed to write KAPI. But this software is BETA and connections between the cgi-bin program and the KAPI agent are sometimes lost.

When this happens, you will receive an empty KQML message. Try reloading the demo until the message is no longer empty. If that doesn't work - it is simply broken.

You may also receive interference from other people using the demo. This could be annoying - or interesting and instructive.

Finally, this a simple forms interface. A more intelligent Java interface is forthcoming. For now, you will need to use your browser BACK button to return from receipt of KQML messages and generally navigate among the demonstration functions.

Enter the demonstration. Please RELOAD the demo when you are finished.

• It communicates via a reusable message protocol, KQML, and can speak to any other agent with this language over the Internet. Any KQML speaking agent can send Next-Link performative messages to this Redux' agent at tcp://bimini.stanford.edu:9458.
• It works to solve a problem with another agent - consisting of you and the cgibin program kqmlgi.
• It saves state. Everytime you send a message to this agent, the response depends upon what you have previously done - or what someone else has previously done! So some of the messages may be unexpected.

**This is a travel planning example taken from ``Constrained Decision Revision,'' Proc. 10th Nat. Conf. on AI, San Jose pp. 393-400, AAAI Press, July, 1992. See page 393.