AutoPilot: experiences implementing a distributed data-driven agent architecture

Self-directed mobile software agents are a comparatively recent architectural design model. Mobile software agents, coupled with two other design metaphors, Place (or Service Provider) and Trader (or Yellow Pages Directory), can be used to construct processing architectures which are scalable, flexible, and extensible. Certain workflow problems (text processing and dissemination, claims processing) in which the potential processing paths through a routing domain are initially indeterminate seem especially well suited to an Agent-Place-Trader design architecture. This paper motivates the architecture with a description of challenges inherent in the functional requirements of a text processing and dissemination system. The paper continues with a description of our prototypes design, implementation, and object oriented tools used. An analysis of the benefits and limitations of using various agent systems in conjunction with the C++ and Java programming languages is presented. The authors draw conclusions regarding architectures for dynamic distributed processing in general and workflow problems in particular.