Constructing Intelligent Agents Using Java: Professional Developer's Guide [With CDROM]

by Joseph P. Bigus

A state-of-the-art guide on how to build intelligent Web-based applications using Java Joseph and Jennifer Bigus update and significantly expand their book on building intelligent Web-based applications using Java. Geared to network programmers or Web developers who have previously programmed agents in Smalltalk or C++, this practical book explains in detail how to construct agents capable of learning and competing, including both design principles...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 047139601X
• ISBN13: 9780471396017
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Much improved over the 1st edition

This is one of those rare books that was a mess in its first incarnation that has been cleaned up, had new material added, and turns out to be quite helpful in its second edition. It is assumed that the reader already knows Java, as this is not a primer in that language. The first half of the book is a very informal introduction to AI concepts relevant to the construction of intelligent agents. The second half of the book is where the author presents his own design and implementation of a Java framework for constructing intelligent agents along with several applications. The author does a good job of showing algorithms in numbered steps, presenting mathematics clearly when applicable - such as in the section on neural networks, and having numerous clear illustrations. There are exercises at the conclusion of each chapter that are unsolved because most of them are programming assignments. Although this book does a good job of describing what an intelligent agent is and then implementing simple examples, you might want to get a more academic text such as "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach" for all of the individual algorithm details. These two book should complement each other well as this book is better at painting the big picture of intelligent agents and "AI a Modern Approach" is more thorough. I did find that there were some problems with the Java code, but it was pretty easy to spot them and fix them rather quickly. I recommend this as a useful reference on intelligent agents as they are implemented in Java.

Good Intro to AI but missing source file

I like the highbrow reviews, but, I can tell *none* of these people actually used any of the code. There are a few bugs in the CIAgent class and there is a missing file for the infofilter class. As a beginner in AI and java (not software development), this book was very helpful is getting the right concepts early. Does anybody have a copy of URLReaderAgentCustomizer.java?

Great book

Having reviewed tons of articles, I found this book a good introduction to Intelligent Agents. The authors give introduction to different AI techniques within Rule Based systems and Learning systems. Furthermore, they introduce how to write autonomous intelligent agents. If you are considering to use IBM ABLE, this is a very good start.

Good book to get into agents

I enjoyed reading this book -- particularly the humorous comments throughout that lightened up things. The example applications in almost every chapter were a good test bed to play around with and explore the concepts. I would not have understood things nearly as well without them. As the authors state, they don't teach you everything you need to know about the AI pieces, but with some digging on my own, I THINK I understand the basics enough to make progress. The UML package diagrams are worthless, and I wish the space had been used for something else -- maybe more background info or a summary of the agents in the chapter. But that is a minor complaint. I really liked the book and I'm anxious to apply some of the AI and agent techniques in my upcoming projects.

Good introduction to intelligent agents

I enjoyed reading the book. It is a fair introduction to intelligent agents. The main concern I have is the (too) brief discussion of the underlying concepts. I would be surprised if anyone with no idea of these techniques can actually pick up much beyond the superficial. Since this is an introduction, this is less of a fault. But, this should not be a "text", as claimed by the authors; it can at best be served as a supplement to an existing text in AI or machine learning (e.g., Bishop 1995; Winston 1991; Russell and Novig, 1995; Mitchell, 1997, etc.)Regarding the code provided: they are cleanly written except not well designed. (e.g., field variables are package visible and are used as obj.field throughout the code -- bad OO practice). If what one needs is to "pull" code into existing applications, think twice.