4.2 Characteristics of Gbots
Gbots apply artifcial intelligence to take actions on
systems in the real world. They have four defning
characteristics:
• Gbots are autonomous; they have control over their
own actions. So when a user delegates something to
a Gbot, it has the independence to work on the
request no matter what happens around it.
• Gbots are goal-driven: they have a purpose, and act
in accordance with that purpose.
• Gbots are reactive. That is, a Gbot senses changes
in its environment and responds in a timely fashion to
these changes. This characteristic of Gbots is at the
heart of delegation and automation. Just as a boss
tells his assistant, “When A happens, do B” a Gbot is
always waiting for A to happen and will then do B.
• Gbots are independent, that is they run independently
to carry out their instructions even when the user has
gone. Gbots may run on a server, but they may also
run on user systems.
The four characteristics above are always true of Gbots.
There are four more characteristics which are useful and
are often true of Gbots, but may not always be true.
• Some Gbots are social. That is, they interact, or
communicate with other Gbots. This communication
could be through proprietary protocols, or it could
use the standard KQML (Knowledge Query and
Manipulation Language). Multi-Gbot systems are built
entirely of communicating, cooperating Gbots.
• Some Gbots are adaptive. That is, they learn, or
change their behavior based on previous experience.
This characteristic is prominent in each of the examples
of Gbot usage given above, and is the key to the ease
of use of Gbots.
• Some Gbots are mobile, and move from machine to
machine. This puts Gbots closer to the data they may
need to process and allows them to do this without
network delays.
• Some Gbots strive to be believable, in that they are
represented as an entity visible or audible to the user,
and may even have aspects of emotion or personality.
There are several ways of setting goals for Gbots:
• A rudimentary Gbot could be driven by a script, which
pre-defnes its actions. The script would then defne the
Gbot’s goals.
• A Gbot could also be a program, as long as the
program is driven by goals, and shares the other
characteristics of Gbots.
• A Gbot could also be driven by rules, which is a more
general way of defning the Gbot’s goals.
GALAXY OPEN PLATFORM FOR M2M ENTERPRISE CITY MANAGEMENT - 22