Intelligent software agents can be used in a wide variety of applications. Agents are particularly useful in distributed applications involving peer-to-peer processes. Acronymics, Inc. has developed a number of distributed, multi-agent system for a variety of applications. These include:

 Email
 Auctions
 Distributed Control and Monitoring
 E-commerce
 Custom Agent Applications

The following sections describe these AgentBuilder agent applications in more detail.

P-Mail - A Private EMail System
P-Mail is an email and instant messaging system that uses software agents to implement the mail client. The system is designed to ensure that messages remain private. Privacy is assured because messages never reside on any server device. P-Mail is a peer-to-peer messaging service. The message moves from the sending machine agent to the receiving machine agent and is never stored on any intermediate machine. P-Mail is a good example of a peer-to-peer processing application that has significant advantages over the client-server approach. This is also a good example of agents created using the AgentBuilder toolkit

Intelligent Agents for Buying and Selling Electric Power in a Dynamic Auction
Acronymics, Inc. personnel and Alternative Energy Systems Consultants (AESC) under contract to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have developed a prototype electronic auction for use in buying and selling electric power. This system uses a network of intelligent software agents and each agent represents a stakeholder in the marketplace. A stakeholder wants to buy or sell electricity. This research has shown how communicating, cooperating agents can implement an auction mechanism that does not require a central authority or auctioneer. Markets form and dissolve based on the needs of the various stakeholders. This system was developed using the AgentBuilder Pro product. A demonstration version of the system is available for download.

Smart*DER: Intelligent Agents For Distributed Control and Monitoring of Energy Resources
Under contract to the California Energy Commission (CEC), Alternative Energy Systems Consultants (AESC) and Acronymics, Inc. personnel have developed intelligent agents that communicate and collaborate to schedule operation of distributed energy resources in the California energy market.

The use of Distributed Energy Resources (DER), such as distributed generation to help defer the need for construction of large generating stations, has long been recognized as a means of improving the serious imbalance that exists in the competitive California energy markets. Use of DER technology requires control and scheduling of large numbers of distributed assets yet the centralized control paradigm employed in the electric power industry is ill suited to this task. In a highly successful project for the CEC, AESC and its principal subcontractor, Acronymics, Inc. personnel while employed by Reticular Systems, Inc., succeeded in demonstrating the viability of using intelligent software agents for coordinating and scheduling operation of multiple DER assets. During the project, testing confirmed that use of intelligent software agents could enable sites with excess generating capacity to collaborate via the Internet and aggregate this capacity for participation in the California's deregulated energy markets. In other words, testing showed that Smart*DER agent technology could bring generating capacity to the California marketplace that may not otherwise have been able to participate.

AESC successfully demonstrated this software for the Commission and is now moving forward with a follow-on project for installation and testing at sites located in California. An overview of this project was presented at the 1999 CADER/DPCA conference and project results were presented to the Commission on March 13, 2001. These presentations are available at AESC's website.

Shopping Agents
Shopping agents are an ideal application for AgentBuilder agents. These agents can be used to locate merchandise, compare prices, place orders, etc. An AgentBuilder Application Note provides a detailed description of how to construct a shopping agent. You can watch the execution of these agents running as a Java applet.

Custom Agent Application
Acronymics, Inc. personnel have developed a number of custom agent applications. Our clients use these for searching the internet, finding resumes, retrieving and analyzing documents, shopping, etc.

For more information on any of these agents and agent applications, please contact informationAgent@agentbuilder.com with Subject line: "Agent Applications."

For questions/comments about this website, please contact informationAgent@agentbuilder.com
Last modified: November 15, 2011
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