Towards pervasive intelligence : reflections on the evolution of the Agent Factory framework

Agent Factory is a cohesive framework for the development and
deployment of multi-agent systems. Since its inception in the mid 1990s,
Agent Factory has gone through a metamorphosis process, whereby several
new extensions, revisions, and enhancements have been made. This chapter
provides a discussion of the incremental developments in Agent Factory and
provides motivations as to why such changes were necessary. Agent Factory
distinguishes itself from other intentional agent platforms in several ways. It
provides a practical and efficient approach to the development of intentional
agent-oriented applications. This is combined with a methodology, integrated
development environment support, and a suite of tools that aid the agent
fabrication process. A detailed comparison to related work is provided. We
include a tutorial on how to use the framework.