Abstract
The growth of the World Wide Web has invested personal computer users with direct access to a wealth of information sources and services — for example, one can now check stock market share prices, book flight tickets or even do grocery shopping over the Internet. However, while the Internet enables direct access to various information sources and services, effectively integrating these services to provide a total solution to a complex task, such as arranging a transatlantic trip itinerary, remains a challenging task that requires significant human intervention. This paper discusses some of the challenges involved in providing computer-based integrated personalised travel services through a medium such as the Internet. Further, a software agent solution to this problem is presented, and an agent-based travel assistant demonstrator described, which was developed using the ZEUS collaborative agent building tool-kit.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Soltysiak S and Crabtree B: 'Automatic learning of user profiles — towards the personalisation of agent service', BT Technol J, 16, No3, pp 110—117 (July 1998).
Collis J C, Ndumu D T, Nwana H S and Lee L C: 'The ZEUS agent building tool-kit', BT Technol J, 16, No3, pp 60—68 (July 1998).
Kushmerick N: 'Wrapper induction for information extraction', PhD Thesis Technical Report No UW-CSE-97-11-04, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington (1997).
'Catalogs for the Digital Marketplace', Research Report No 97-03, CommerceNet, available at http://www.commerce.net/research/ research.html (1997).
Nwana H S: 'Software agents: an overview', The Knowledge Engineering Review, 11, No3, pp 205—244 (1996).
Nwana H S and Ndumu D T: 'An introduction to agent technology', BT Technol J, 14, No4, pp 55—67 (1996).
Jennings N R and Wooldridge M: 'Software agents', IEE Review, pp 17—20 (January 1996).
Judge D, Sheperdson J, Odgers B and Cui Z: 'Agent-enhanced workflow', BT Technol J, 16, No3, pp 79—85 (July 1998).
O'Brien P D and Wiegand M E: 'Agents of change in business process management', BT Technol J, 14, No4, pp 133—140 (1996).
Davison R, Hardwicke J and Cox M: 'Applying the agent paradigm to network management', BT Technol J, 16, No3, pp 86—93 (July 1998).
Rao A S and Georgeff M P: 'BDI agents: from theory to practice', Proc 1st International Conference on Multi Agent Systems, San Francisco, California, pp 312—319 (1995).
Gallimore R J, Jennings N R, Lamba H S, Mason C L and Orenstein B J: '3D-scientific data interpretation using cooperating agents', in Nwana H S and Ndumu D T (Eds): 'Intelligent agents and multi-agent technology', Proc 3rd Int Conf Practical Appl, pp 47—56 (March 1998).
O'Brien P D and Nicol R C: 'FIPA — towards a standard for software agents', BT Technol J, 16,3, pp 51—59 (July 1998).
Finin T and Labrou Y: 'KQML as an agent communication language', in Bradshaw J M (Ed): 'Software agents', MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 291—316 (1997).
Searle J R: 'Speech acts', Cambridge University Press, Cambridge MA (1996).
Genesereth M R and Fikes R E (Eds): 'Knowledge interchange format, Version 3.0', Reference Manual, Computer Science Department, Stanford University, available at http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/ knowledge-sharing/papers/README.html#kif
Lenat D B: 'CYC: a large-scale investment in knowledge infrastructure', Communications of the ACM, 38, No11, pp 33—38 (1995).
Gruber T: 'A translation approach to portable ontology specifications', Knowledge Acquisition, 5, No2, pp 199—220 (1993).
Genesereth M R and Ketchpel S P: 'Software agents', Communications of the ACM, 37, No7, pp 48—53 (1994).
Nwana H S, Lee L and Jennings N R: 'Co-ordination in software agent systems', BT Technol J, 14, No4, pp 79—88 (1996).
Davis R and Smith R G: 'Negotiation as a metaphor for distributed problem solving', Artificial Intelligence 20, pp 63—109 (1983).
Linden G, Hanks S and Lesh N: 'Interactive assessment of user preference models: the automated travel assistant', Proc 6th Int Conf User Modelling, pp 67—87 (1997).
Völksen G, Dieterich H and Steiner D: 'Intelligent agents for personal travel assistance', Proc ITS Congress' 97, Berlin (1997).
About this article
Cite this article
Ndumu, D.T., Collis, J.C. & Nwana, H. Towards Desktop Personal Travel Agents. BT Technology Journal 16, 69–78 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009625830887
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009625830887