Automata have existed for centuries, it is only recently that anything resembling autonomous agents has begun to appear. The agents now being deployed differ in important ways from earlier concepts, for today the momentum has shifted from hardware to software, from the atoms that comprise a mechanical robot to the bits that make up a digital agent. These software agents function continuously and autonomously in a particular environment that is often inhabited by other agents and processes.

The essays in this book, by leading researchers and developers of agent-based systems, address both the state-of-the-art of agent technology and its likely evolution in the near future.