Autonomous agents for ubiquitous collaborative environments

Abstract

The proliferation of different computing devices such as handhelds and wall-size whiteboards, as well as Internet-based distributed information systems are creating ubiquitous computing environments that provide constant access to information regardless of the user's location. Handheld computers are being transformed from personal electronic agendas into mobile communication devices with intermittent network connectivity. Thus, these devices are becoming a natural medium to tap into an ubiquitous computing infrastructure. Not only do they store much of the user’s personal information (contacts list, meeting schedule, to-do list, etc.), but they are always at hand, in sharp contrast with desktop computers. Handhelds, however, most often operate disconnected from the network thus reducing the opportunities for computer-mediated collaboration with other peers or computational resources. In this paper we present an extension to the COMAL handheld collaborative development framework to support autonomous agents that can act on behalf of the user. We discuss scenarios that take advantage of such platform and the design decisions that were made to implement it. The use of the framework is illustrated with the development of an agent that recommends talks within a conference, based on the context and the user's profile.