Agents: An Overview
Agents are the decision-making components in complex adaptive systems. Agents have sets of rules or behavior patterns that allow them to take in information, process the inputs, and then effect changes in the outside environment. The information processing within agents typically includes some form of adaptation in complex adaptive systems. The other main source is structural change in the system itself in the form of the relationships between agents.
As shown in figure 3.1, anything that makes choices in a business can be viewed as an agent. Executives, managers, nd other decision-makers can be modeled as agents. Organizations can be modeled as agents. Computer systems can be modeled as agents. Naturally, agents form the core of ABMS.
In ABMS, an agent is an individual with a set of attributes and behavioral characteristics as shown in figure 3.2. The attributes define what a given agent is. The behavioral characteristics define what a given agent does. Typically, there is variation among many of the agents in the model.
