Module: 310CT– Intelligent Agent 2016/2017

310CT Intelligent Agents –Re-assessment Assignment (Individual

report)
Requirements

Your tasks in this assignment are to conduct some research on the latest agent
technologies. Based on the results, you should suggest an architecture and high-level
design to model the following case.

You are required to

1) Study carefully the case study below.

2) Investigate relevant agent technologies

3) Provide a high-level design of the system which will support the functions of the
robots.

Case: Useful stuff collecting and Vacuuming

Two kinds of robots are designed to clean up a room once a day (Figure 1). Robotic stuff
collectors (C1 and C2) are used to collect any useful stuff on the floor and Robotic
vacuum cleaners (V1 and V2) are used to remove rubbish by vacuuming.

Figure 1

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Module: 310CT– Intelligent Agent 2016/2017

The room surrounds by four walls. There is one inner wall as well ((1,7) to (8,7) in Figure
1). It is full of useful stuff (shown as S in Figure 1) and rubbish (shown as R in Figure 1).
The floor is arranged in grid slots. Both useful stuff collecting and vacuuming operations
are processed grid slot by grid slot. The robotic vacuum cleaners can clean the floor only
if there is no useful stuff.

For example, V1 can vacuum the grid slot (1, 5) at the beginning, but it cannot vacuum the
grid slot (5, 2) until the useful stuff in the grid slot has been collected. Also, no two robots
can be located at the same grid slot at the same time. The room is considered to be cleaned
when there is no useful stuff and rubbish on the floor.

There are four power-and-information units (PIU) located at (1,1), (16, 1), (1, 18) and (16,
18). They are identical and used to provide power and information to the robots:

- The robots are rechargeable machines and they will be recharged whenever they are on
any PIU.

- There are several cameras mounted on the walls and the cameras are connected to the
PIUs such that the state of the room can be monitored. So, the robots can monitor the
situation of all the grid slots when they are on any PIU. For example, when a robot is
on a PIU, it can recognise that there is some useful stuff or rubbish on the grid slots
(3,4), (6,5) etc. However, PIU cannot distinguish whether it is useful stuff or rubbish.
Also, once the robot leaves the PIU, it cannot get any further updated information
from the PIUs.

The robots can detect and distinguish whether there is any useful stuff or rubbish or
nothing on the grid slot where they are located and on the grid slots just next to the grid
slot where they are located. On the other hand, the robots record all the actions they have
done and the results (e.g., checking useful stuff, checking rubbish, useful stuff collecting
(robotic stuff collectors), rubbish removal (robotic vacuum cleaners)) after they leave the
PIU. They will share the information with the PIUs after they reach any PIU.

The robots can communicate with one another when the distance between two robots is
less than 2 grid slots. Also, they should be able to resolve conflicts if any.

The robots also should go back to any PIU after the room is cleaned. No two robots can be
located at the same grid slot or PIU simultaneously.

Marking Criteria – Individual Report (up to 2000 words)

In the report, the following information should be included.

1. What are the requirements?

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Module: 310CT– Intelligent Agent 2016/2017
2. What agent technologies are suggested (e.g. platform, languages, libraries)

3. What functions and features should be used and how to use them in order to meet the
requirements.

4. High-level design suggestions. (E.g. knowledge representation, functionality,

communication prototype between robots, robot movement algorithm.)

The followings are the key criteria for assessing your presentation.

1. Requirement Analysis (20%)

a. Identification of needs.

b. Analysis and summarization of requirements.

2. Summary of the technologies (30%)

a. Functions and features of the technologies

b. Accuracy

c. Understanding of the technologies

3. Application of the technologies (40%)

a. Suggestion of the technologies

b. Feasibility of the architecture

c. Other quality considerations of the architecture

d. Completeness and correctness of the suggested design

e. Appropriate usage of the functions, features and libraries

f. Illustration of how the robots move in the above case

4. Quality of the report (10%)

a. Structure and content of the report

b. Layout and readability of the report

Submission Date (13 Sep 2017)

- The report (up to 2000 words) and its Turnitin report.

- The report should be submitted to the Moodle on or before the date of submission.

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 Module: 310CT – Intelligent Agent
Scale Requirement Analysis
Point
7+ - Different needs have been
identified with detailed analysis.
- Complete, correct and clear
description of the requirements.
4+ - Most of the obvious
requirements have been
captured.
- Acceptable fluent and clear
description
Summary of the technologies
- Describe the technologies concisely and - Appropriate components are suggested and
accurately.
- Interpret the concept precisely and
demonstrate good understanding.
- Acceptable concise and accurate
summary.
- Cover majority of the key features of
the technologies.
- Interpret majority of the work corrctly.
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2016/2017
Application of the technologies Quality of the report
- Clear, effective
proper job allocations between components are organisation of report
demonstrated precisely. content that facilitates
- Efficiency and other qualities are guaranteed by comprehension,
the architecture. supported with proper
grammar and spell
- The high level design is completed and correct,
checking.
it is described precisely.
- Good illustration of how the robots move
- Components and job allocations between - Some attempt to present
components are demonstrated, but some the report in a consistent
mistakes are shown. format. Some evidence
- The efficiency and other qualities may not be of grammar and spell
achievable by the architecture. checking.
- Marginal high level design is included or many
mistakes are shown.
- Some of the requirements are not handled.
- Fair illustration of how the robots move
Module: 310CT – Intelligent Agent 2016/2017

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